Oh wow. I don’t know if it’s just that I haven’t done anything on the turbo in a while, or whether my FTP setting is perhaps a little too high. But oof, this one was a struggle. I think I’ve said this before about SST – post crash I’m convinced it’s wrong (on the high side). I also think my weight is out, which probably doesn’t help matters.
One minute in today and I was wondering if I’d make it through. Would it be wrong to stop?
Being completely honest: this blog makes me seriously motivated not to give in. I know it doesn’t matter if I did. I’m not competing for anything, I’m no world champion… far from it. Distinctly average man, indeed. But the thought of having to turn up on here and say: “hey, I failed”, it’s almost always enough to kick me on.
And things did get, well, I don’t want to say “easier” as time went on, because this one’s a tough workout for me. But I did find my rhythm after a while, and at 50 minutes it’s over faster than some.
It’s an interesting one really. 600 calories burned in 50 minutes definitely means I’m working. Unfortunately it’s difficult to compare to previous attempts as some of my stats didn’t record (to Strava at least) on previous SST rides.
But by and large it looks about in line with previous efforts. Only a slightly higher (couple of bpm) average heart rate. I’ll take it.
I definitely think riding outdoors is more fun. The draw is there. The thought of doing turbo work is nowhere near as compelling as going out into the open world. But the most efficient use of an hour (or whatever) on the bike is indoors, in ERG mode. No doubt about it.
Do you have a fan? I bought a really good one recently. The cooling lowers my heartrate by 10 -15 bpm. Workouts that were difficult without a fan are rather easy with a fan.
Yes, for sure, a huge fan was one of the first things I purchased. A really neat upgrade to the fan, for me (being a geek), was to buy a smart plug.
So the fan plugs into the smart plug, which itself plugs into a 4 way adapter. Possibly a fire hazard, but there’s so much sweat dripping off me when on the turbo that I could probably easily dowse the flames.
And then I can control the fan from my phone. The fan is a manual 3 speed thing – so big buttons on the fan that have to be manually pressed down. I have mine set on medium.
So when I say either “ok google, start the fan”, or activate it from my phone, it powers on and fans me down. The reason it’s so cool (no pun intended) is because during winter there’s nothing worse than getting on the bike in just my bib shorts with the fan already on, blasting freezing air at me. I can instead, get on with the fan off, wait till I’m ~5 minutes in and warmed up, then start the fan.
For £9 or whatever it is, it’s been a great buy. Also it doubles up as an automated light turner onner for when we go on holiday.