Once I finish the warmup on my stationary bike trainer, I’m as serious as prison. I prefer to focus on my posture, cadence, and breathing during the tough stuff. While I’m warming up, however, I like to accomplish more than producing watts. The following is a list of things I’ve done on the trainer that having nothing to do with power.
1. Match socks
Maybe it’s the fact that my mom paid me $.10 a pair for matching socks that I have an affinity for doing it, but there’s something so satisfying about matchmaking. If I’m really sweaty, I put them on my hands like mittens and wipe the sweat from my brow and wave to the people who live across the street from me.
2. Prep sports drinks
Nothing makes me feel more like a dog riding in a car with the window down than tasting the powdered puff of flavored air from pouring powdered carbs into a water bottle.
3. Attempt to paint my nails
This did not work out, but I didn’t get any on my bar tape, so success. I bet the people across the street found this amusing, too.
4. Adjust the radio dial
In an attempt to not control too much about my environment, I really like to listen to music from the radio for 75% of my rides. Good ol’ FM radio. I love the Elvis Duran & the Z100 Morning Show (Greg T the Frat Boy!), Delilah (someday I’ll call in!), and Hot 97 (Funkmaster Flex!).
5. Log previous workouts in TrainingPeaks
I’m constantly making an effort to not fall too far behind on this. It’s important for me to add to the automatically-uploaded workouts and communicate how the workouts felt to Coach Cane.
6. Catch up with friends and family on the phone
Once a very confusing and concerning way to start a call, my friends and family now don’t assume the worst when I call them panting. TBD what Delilah will think when I finally call her.
7. Think of other reasons to explain to friends why I’d call them panting:
- just ate a really hot pepper
- was trying to make it to C-Town before it closed
- was rehearsing “Slave 4 U” (the panting part)
- was shopping at altitude
In a sport where we focus on marginal gains, it’s easy to think about marginal time savings. By saving minutes here and there, I can use them to…write about how I save time.