Alternate Winter activies

A cold has me down this week, interrupting my next 6 week program on my bicycle trainer. In the meantime I've been converting some old family videos from VHS and VHS-C to DVD. I'm using a DVD Xpress (RCA to USB) device to capture the output from a VCR to my computer and store it on an external 300GB hardrive (connected via Firewire). Then I use Adobe Premiere Elements to edit and organize the digitized video and burn it to DVD.

As a side note, here's a photo of my trainer setup (a view over the handlebars) to the TV playing one of my recorded ride DVDs.

Yes he's roller blading in front of me, we were on the Glacial Drumlin trail, and he was moving right along that day.

Putting the technology to work

To stay "bike fit" over the winter it all comes down to spending more time on my trainer, but indoor riding can be so boring, until now. I've posted about some of this before, but here's how it's all came together this winter.

First I needed to make it at least seem like I'm riding outside so; I used my bike mounted DV camera to tape a typical ride. Then I transfered the video (of an approximately 1 hour ride) to DVD. So now I plant my bike (on the trainer) in front of the TV and play the DVD of the ride during the exercise session.

Next I needed a training plan, so I used the site provided by Polar with their HR monitors/computers. The site allows you to schedule exercise type and enter all the data that the Polar computer collects during a ride: HR, cadence, speed, etc, for tracking your goals.

I already had the Cycleops Fluid trainers, now I have the video, the training plan, a training schedule and music on my iPod.

So far this year I've averaged 3 rides a week (Interval, Short and Long rides) for a total of approximately 148 miles. My training zone is between 125-148 with a resting HR of 56, not to bad for an old man.

If the snow melts and I have some free time I'm hoping to ride outside again soon.

Safe riding all.