Wednesday 29 October 2008

Return to the Tour de Basement

Last night I was scheduled to do a one hour ride on the trainer. Just as well the schedule called for an indoor workout as we are suffering through the first big winter storm. There is snow on the ground. The wind is blowing outside at 60 km/h and the temperatures are below freezing.

So it was nice to relive the Tour d'Enfer and ride the Galibier again: I used the Tacx "Video Cycling" DVD of La Marmotte, featuring the climbs up the Galibier as well as the Alpe d'Huez. The DVD is only 86 minutes long, so as you watch it you feel that you are riding a motorcycle rather than a bicycle but perhaps that is to give encouragement! Which is good since given what it looks like outside I will be in the basement until May 2009.

Here's an idea of what the Tacx DVDs look like:

7 comments:

Donald said...

That's pretty cool... but does it ever give you motion sickness? I'm sorry you are already stuck in the Tour de Basement. We actually had 2 inches of snow at our condo
3 1/2 hours from home. The high was 27 degrees there yesterday with wind gusts up to 45 mph. Glad I wasn't trying to ride in the mountains. Happy Pedaling!

Lily on the Road said...

Yes, it was a lovely drive into Kanata this morning, no snowplough's on the rural roads...

I'll be at Goodlife the rest of the season getting my biking legs ready for Rideau Lakes Tour!

Will said...

The videos look fun ... but 86 minutes fior La Marmotte ..... add 9+ hours ... for me at least :)

Anonymous said...

Seems like most cyclists are heading indoors to their least favorite of activities. Good idea though to keep you going.

Judi said...

Not ready for snow! TOO EARLY!

Do you have one of those computers that is hooked up to your trainer? I think that would be rad. We watch old TdF videos on the trainer. I love to watch Lance ride (no helmets!).

Sprocketboy said...

Luckily the snow is melting rapidly and it will be warm tomorrow (well, warmer) and on the weekend. The roads yesterday morning were actually quite icy so that was not much fun.

My set-up at home is quite simple: I have my time trial bike on a Kurt Kinetic Road Machine trainer, with a big fan to my right and the DVD player/tv ahead of me. The tt bike has a Cateye HR monitor as well as a Kurt Power Computer to give me a wattage reading. That's it! The Tacx DVDs I use are meant for this kind of arrangement. The other DVDs they sell are for use with their own trainers and give you more of a real-time feeling. The ultimate version is run through the Internet and you can race other cyclists.

Groover said...

I've got the Tour of Lombardy DVD and it helped me through many boring wind trainer sessions, for sure.