well today i attempted my Haida immitation... wearing exactly the same stuff i did for the 55 degree ride... today though - instead of 55 degrees and calm... it was 40 degrees with a 15-20 mph wind. Cool to cold... but... i'm fine... some skin (leading edge in some places) is still cool, but the core is still warm and my feet are fine and my hands are warm... stupid? sure seemed like that when i was waiting for the ride...
and of course - i sounded like a major league know-it-all to one of the 'team' organizers that showed up on the ride... i feel a bit bad - esp since she doesn't know me other than a few emails and a couple rides... but then i've been riding for what... about 20 years on the road... pretty crazy... and if you count the summer road riding at my Dad's in MD even longer...
and seein as i'm actually on the bike every day (now) i feel some what okay that my confidence and 'information' is based on real (even if it sounds cocky) situations/experience...
ah well - it couldn't really get worse - the ride started off going east... with the wind... 1/2 the ride (two big guys) did the longer loop and i turned into the wind and 'towed' (sort of) J home... it was quiet except with the comment about how the draft is better with two people in front... I was ya know cool with that and asked well arn't you getting a good draft from me... answer was 'no'
NO? i was silently flabbergasted... how do you NOT get a good draft from some 6'6" dude? well then i started to pay attention... she's usually a bike length off or so... well... then i stopped worrin about it and just stayed out front pulling home into the wind...
sure not a positive ride all the way around but a good ride... of course it ended with a comment that went to my core of "huh?"
She said that there are people who think rollers are bad. WTF? Hard to ride? yeah... dangerous? sure if you don't take propper precautions. Bad?
i dunno...
Sprinting... what is sprinting? Power? Nope... Leg speed... if you can turn your cranks faster than anyone else... you can overcome massive (horse)power deficiencies with leg speed... combine the two and you are Mario Cipolini or Petachi...
ah whats the use... sooo i did a couple quick google searches... came up with very little but very consitent pro/con to rollers
Rollers are great for handling and balance, but not very good for hard workout sessions. This is a pretty general statement, but one that hold up to discussion. If you your plan has you on the bike, riding steady for periods at a steady pace, then rollers will fit the bill.
If you plan on doing various workouts consisting of hard intervals, sprints and the like, I suggest a trainer. On the trainer you can think more about the effort and less about staying upright. Hope this helps.
that sums it up... of course i have a set of rollers with a fan resistance unit attached and can do both... but even before i had the resitance unit (for my McClain rollers) getting time in on the bike is good...
kinda goes down to the old philosophy about bike specificity... doing standing intervals on the spinning bike or the trainer is wicked different than doing them on the bike... and yes - you CAN do standing intervals on the rollers - you just have to have wicked good bike handling skills....
I can see how the 'spinning' generation of cyclists could benefit from anti-roller propaganda... cause rollers are the anti-thesis of spinning classes... so maybe that's where its coming from... sigh...
oh my HR chest strap fell down when i exhaled today... had to tighten the strap up a bunch... getting skinny is a pain in the ass....
oh and driving the car everynight has gotten old... already tired of the thing... gimme my bike...
damn i didn't realize how pissed/grumpy i am about this roller thing... grrrrrreat
the deacon gewilli is off the pulpit
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