Thursday, January 8, 2009

My Newest Challenge

Everyone who reads this blog (and several people who don't) know about all the training I've been doing because I am perpetually whining about it. Sitting on the trainer for three hours is boring, yada, yada, yada. Luckily, this week is a recovery week, which means today I don't have ANY training to do. None. Nada. No strength training and no riding. It's nice to have a break.

It also means I'll be doing a little less bitching today about how miserable it is to sit on the trainer. Instead, I'm going to tell you about how hard it is to ride rollers.

Yesterday, I tried them out for the first time. Since some people who read my blog are hardcore riders and just about everyone who reads my blog is a better rider than me, many of you will not be impressed by this feat. But let me tell you, for those of you who haven't ridden them, you can't imagine how hard it is.

The thing that really makes the rollers difficult, in my opinion, is the fact that you have to ride straight to stay on them. Now most of us think we ride fairly straight. I certainly thought I did. When I'm out on the road or on the trail it doesn't seem like I'm weaving all over the place. Apparently, though, I am weaving, if only in a slight manner.

I ended up riding the rollers for about 15 minutes and finishing the rest of my ride on the trainer. I was very excited when I could actually ride for a while without leaning on the wall. I'm going to commit to riding them at least once a week so I can get better at it. I'll keep my time to about 15 minutes to begin with until I can spend most of the 15 minutes riding without touching the wall. Then I figure I'll bump it up.

I'm glad to have a new challenge. I think it's an activity that will allow me to measure my progress and making progress always helps me stay motivated.

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