The great "in-of-doors"

So as I set of in my quest to become a bike racer..  I quickly realized that I needed to do something to help me quantify, qualify, entertain, and edutain me while pedaling indoors this winter…

 

I hear you…  I really do…  and I know that I live in Florida and should simply get outside and ride…  but…  I do have a real job and it is dark a lot in winter even in sunny Florida. 

 

I had heard about the Sufferfest (more on that in a separate post) videos and a google search for the videos led me to http://www.trainerroad.com

 

 

I thought…  hey this looks like it might be intersting…  and a pretty cheap way to train using power and heartrate.

 

I checked out the steps:

 

http://www.trainerroad.com/getting-started

 

and got started.

 

I'd like to begin by saying that I'm no DCRainmaker J

And he has done a pretty in depth review…

Here:

http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2011/09/inside-look-at-trainerroad-way-to-make.html

and here:

http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2012/02/weekend-wrap-up-trainerroad-cold-dc.html

 

this is just an overview of how this worked for me.

 

The ingredients…

 

Easy enough to put together

1. Trusty MacBook

 

 

2.  ANT+ Usb Stick (recieves data from other devices)

I actually had one of these laying around from one of my dozen or so dead Garmin devices I've collected over the last 10 years.

 

 3.  Speed cadence sensor

 

 4.  HRM Strap – yep I had this too…

 

 

5.  And of course a trainer:

 

So I installed the software and paired my devices:

 

 

Which took all of 5 minutes….

 

I learned after a workout or two that my favorite configuration while riding was music via iTunes

 

 

Throw in a bike race on YouTube…  with the volume at halfway on each…  so Phil, Paul, or Sean Kelly or whomever was talking over Blink 182…  but that works for me.

 

 

All the while my workout data is displayed atop the video on the bottom of the screen.

 

 

The pain cave

 

 

Baby I'm a blur

 

 

So once you are finished…  your workout is automagically uploaded to trainerroad.com…  and one can geek over their data as much as one wants… and then download (see the buttonJ)

 

 

A nice .tcx file that can then be uploaded to trainingpeaks.com…  just drag and drop baby!

 

 

Where you can geek out some more…

 

 

Well…   that's pretty much it…  I invested about $30 for a speed/cadence sensor…  used some other stuff I had laying around…  signed up for trainerroad.com ($10/month) and I now have a system where I am challenged, measured, documented and entertained…  and since I ride the trainer 5-7x per week during the winter…  I think that it's a pretty good deal.

 

And for just a few dollars more…  I got my cute little training partner set up too

 

 

After doing a couple of rides…  she decided that we should do this:

 

I'll write about that next time.