RyanHarne.com

One of the effects of global warming is a full-scale redistribution of heat&cold and dry&wet. Blacksburg is absolutely getting the worst of the global warming-induced cold, notably since we never had an autumn. Several weeks ago, I had a terrible experience riding in the cold - blue toes, blue fingers - so, without much reluctance, I purchased some rollers after having been recommended to get those other the standard, stationary resistance trainers.

They arrived this Wednesday. My first moments on them made me wonder why I would consider such a purchase. I felt as if I had wanted a relaxing weekend holiday but somehow got suckered into a bungee jump for that afternoon. Though rollers would provide a way for me to get some good not-nearly-as-cold exercise, in those first minutes I discovered that I could potentially injure myself by launching right off of them. That night, I only got as far as riding with one hand on the handlebars and one on the wall.

Thursday, I sent out an email to our VT cycling listserv asking for advice on how to adjust to rollers. Within 5 hours, I had received over two dozen emails from other team riders as well as alumni. Thursday night, I tried again. In 20 minutes, I was totally comfortable with them.

The best advice I received:
· begin by rolling in a door-stoop or wherever you can quickly catch yourself in case of a fall on either side,
· start in the small chainring with a medium rear cog, using a moderate cadence,
· look forward and think about riding on the road, and
· let go of the wall and just ride.

Really, that advice doesn’t sound too helpful on its own. But the biggest leap in learning to use rollers - the leap that you have to make in the 10-15 minutes of adjustment - is to absolutely lose your fear of them. I was honestly frightened of them after my first experience, thinking I made a terrible choice. Once you disconnect from the fear of being hurt on them, rollers really are just as natural as riding on the road. They teach you balance, patience, and well-rounded cycling. That description actually sounds like zen. Ok. Rollers are cycling’s zen.

One day, I’ll be this good. Or this good. Instead of this terrible.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 30th, 2007 at 11:53 pm and is filed under . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.