Chris Helwig
10-25-2006, 02:50 PM
Second ride on the PowerCranks was indoor due to the rainy weather of late. I had dreams of doing a full 30 minutes for my second ride, but after a short time I realized I wasn't much better than the first ride. In hindsight I was at 155 watts on the computrainer, which didn't provide enough resistance and I ended up not having a big enough gear. Combine that with my fall disdain for indoor riding and another 22 minutes was all I could muster.
Ride #3 was today. There was a break in the rain and I ventured outside. After talking to Mr. Wizard (Graydon) he stressed the importance of a low cadence (50-60 rpm) when you start. With this in mind I headed out using bigger gears. My starting definately was improved and by staying in my biggest gear on the cross bike (48x12) I could keep a lower cadence and was doing much better. Past the crit course I decided to try the crit warm up loop. I was fairly easily pedalling continously for over a minute and could restart quickly. With the headwind it gave me more resistance and I managed 3 1/2 minutes continous. Overall ride was 37 minutes, so definately some good progress.
Next ride I am going to try for around 50 minutes on a slightly longer loop.
Ride #3 was today. There was a break in the rain and I ventured outside. After talking to Mr. Wizard (Graydon) he stressed the importance of a low cadence (50-60 rpm) when you start. With this in mind I headed out using bigger gears. My starting definately was improved and by staying in my biggest gear on the cross bike (48x12) I could keep a lower cadence and was doing much better. Past the crit course I decided to try the crit warm up loop. I was fairly easily pedalling continously for over a minute and could restart quickly. With the headwind it gave me more resistance and I managed 3 1/2 minutes continous. Overall ride was 37 minutes, so definately some good progress.
Next ride I am going to try for around 50 minutes on a slightly longer loop.