MY FIRST ONE-LEG DRILLS

Scenario

My bike coach wants me to do two hours on the bike, one hour of easy riding, then 40 minutes of one-leg drills and 20 minutes cool down.  I have an A/C check-up at 9:00am and need to leave at noon to pick up my granddaughter at A&M.  It will be a little close, but manageable.  Forecast is for rain in the afternoon.

The Plan

I’ll ride in the neighborhood on my road bike, then hit the trainer for the drills, then back on the road bike for the cool down.  Yes, I could cool down on the trainer, but even for me, that’s a long boring time on a trainer.  A quick shower, a pb&j for lunch, and all things accomplished.

Slight Obstacles, in order of appearance

In setting up the trainer bike, I notice a lack of power data.  Dang!  Need new batteries.  Leave note for the A/C guy and book it for Batteries +.  This is at 8:40am.  Back home with batteries by 9:05, installed by 9:20.  A/C guy finishes early so I set up the trainer and get ready to ride the neighborhood on my road bike.

Time is tight, so I’m thinking maybe fifty minutes instead of sixty.  Well, thirty minutes in and it started to drizzle, then got heavier.  I was only five minutes away from home. 

Got home and changed into my old bike shoes (the ones that got me coast to coast in 2001), since my others were soaked.  It was a pretty quick change and I figured five minutes on the trainer then I’d start my drills.  I soon noticed that my cadence was all over the chart, even though I was quite stable around 75 rpm.  Pook!  Ding-fu!!  No time to delve into the problem, just change bikes.  Duh!  My road bike doesn’t have a rear quick-release that fits the trainer.  Ok, that was a quick fix.  

With the road bike set up on the trainer, I put in a few minutes of warm-up and began my drills.  They went well.  When switching legs it took longer than I wanted.  Oh, and when I pedaled the right leg, nothing registered on the computer.  Coach will have to assume it was more or less the same as the left.

Needless to say, time was short.  The twenty-minute cool down was cut to five.  Showered and out the door at 12:03.  Unfortunately, the emergency Clif Bar I keep in the car console had been consumed and not replaced.  There were a few orange slices to keep me going.

Note to coach: To keep everything separate, I turned off the computer after the warm-up, and the 1:4x was the trainer bike going wacko, and I started drills at the five-minute mark.  So there are two entries for today, one the warm-up and the other the drills.  If I do say so myself, they went well for a first day.  Myrtl and Core X will have to wait for Saturday.