Tour de Garage

Mid winter is here and it is time for every cyclists time of tribulation and suffering. A time when pain and suffering are increased and there is little of no pleasure payoff. Some cyclist seem to avoid this all together and others just get through it. Personally, if I am going to do something I try to make it as fun as possible. That is why I embrace trainer season. Easy to say since I have not been on my trainer yet this year. Frankly an hour long trainer session is second on my list right behind a nice road ride but neither of those is in the cards right now so i might as well write about it.

I am lucky. My garage is almost completely dedicated to cycling. Observe:

There is the 'man cave'. Note that the primary trainer is a spin bike. It is great, I scored it from a local gym that was upgrading. 150 bucks, not bad. The only down side is that the crank arms on it are 170s. I ride 175s on all my bikes so it really does feel like spinning. The best part about the spin bike is that it is stable and strong enough for my 170lbs to stand and sprint or climb on. Also note: although it is hard to see... there is a autographed poster of Magnus Backstead, my favorite PRO rider.

The garage is fully sheet rocked and insulated so I can heat it up in winter. Eventually I'll install that wood stove in the picture and then it'll get rockin' warm in there. That'll be nice for winter Yoga sessions.

Here are the bikes:

Those are mine and the Chickenhawks. They sure look lonely hanging there. Note the white bar tape on the road bike well after labor day, very puddin'. But when you aint riding it why bother changing it.

I've got two fans set up for cooling while on the trainer and I've got a TV with DVD player built in for entertainment. I like to watch hour long shows when I am doing low intensity rides. Last winter I watched all of season 7 of The West Wing while sitting on the trainer. I've got a couple of Chris Carmichael Dvds for interval workouts but I can hardly stand the guy. He is such a chooch I can hardly stand it. So now mostly I make my own playlists and then build interval work outs to go with the music. That actually makes the time go faster.

Two more points of interest from the garage:

This is my high tech weather observation station.

And this is my reminder to have patience and that I am doing just what I am supposed to be doing right now.
Thanks for reading.