One of the local bike shops has a fitness studio where they provide various training. In addition to the weight machines and medicine balls, they have 8 bicycle trainers set up with input into a computer.

A trainer is a device that holds the back wheel off the ground so you can pedal without moving. ~~~Growing up, my sister and I discovered that we could place our bike on the front porch in such a way that the training wheels would keep the bike upright and the rear wheel would rest over a depression so we could spin away without going anywhere. We kept training wheels on one bike way longer than necessary so we could keep that feature. Who knew we were in our own spinning class so many years ahead of the curve.

Back to my story. The trainer at the bike shop will track how fast we are pedaling and how much power we are exerting. In fact, they can use the computer program to adjust the pressure on my back wheel so it can simulate going up a hill. During all of this, our information is displayed on the wall in front of us so we can monitor how we’re doing (and compare to others if we need some motivation).

Vocabulary and technical paragraph (skip if you want). Power = force x distance/time, this is called watts. You can then look at watts/kg to get a number to compare to others. I’m still trying to figure out what it all means. But it is interesting to note that last week I was going about 16 mph, a cadence (or rotations per minute) of around 90, with watts of about 101 and a watts/kg of something like 1.3 while my husband was going 25 mph , a cadence of 85, watts of something like 250 and watts/kg around 1.3. He’s a guy, he’s got great leg muscles, and he’s heavier. I think the point to all of that is  he will do even more on the bike when he loses some weight.

The point to the Elevation 101 class is to measure and increase our power output while climbing hills on our bike. What I’m getting out of it is practice at working my rear off for an hour. My husband says he has learned some techniques from the class, but I still think the greatest benefit has been the focused practice.

Here’s how the class works. We hook up our bikes on the trainers. The teacher has entered a “course” into the computer that has us encountering a series of hills. Last week’s course started with a moderate hill for 4 minutes, then a higher hill for 3 minutes, with a break in between, and continued like that for another 5 hills over the hour.

I admit, this wasn’t my first choice for a class as a beginner. I wanted to take the Cycling 101 class that would work on my position and pedal stroke and then get me out on the road. But they didn’t offer that in June. The only other classes for semi-beginners were Elevation 101 at night or something during the day that I can’t commit to. But the class has worked. My posture has gotten better just from being on that bike for an hour (plus warmup). My pedal stroke has gotten better since I’m going around at 90 rotations per minute for an hour. And I have gotten better at hills which is great since there are so many of them around here.

This Saturday I went out to a local business park (it was a low emotional weekend and I was too skittish to hit the real roads) and I powered over the 5 hills with skill and strength that I didn’t have 3 weeks ago when we started this class. One technique we have learned in class is it’s actually more efficient to get up a hill at a higher cadence. Before this class I usually kept a cadence of about 70 although DH said to aim for 80. In class I figured I’d pull it up to 80, but the teacher keeps asking for 90. Saturday I passed folks struggling up the hill while I kept those pedals going up and down, round and round at 90 rpm.

If you’re still reading, I hope you got something out of all my rambling about my Elevation 101 class. Last week they announced there will be an Elevation 102 class and we’re both signing up. It will be a great workout every week and get us right up to the MS150 ride in October. The one where I’ll probably ride 90 miles over 2 days and DH will ride 100 miles on the first day. We figure we need all the help with hills that we can get.

I took the new bike out on the road for the first time today. After practicing starting and stopping with the clip-in pedals I proceeded to fall just as we were leaving the parking lot. I have a nice wound and bruise on my knee, but I’ll live.

DH kept saying – “that’s #1″, trying hard to change my state to see this as inevitable and just part of riding. There was a part of me that wanted to lie down on the ground (since I was already there) and cry, wondering why I’m making myself do this. But one benefit to being 40 years old is that I have (finally) learned that giving up or crying about it doesn’t make anything better. Instead, I picked my bruised body up, got back on the bike, and off we went.

Thirty minutes and 6 miles later we packed up and came home so I could shower and bandage my knee. It was fun riding together!

Hours later, after I was bandaged up and rested, I looked at the pictures and decided they don’t do justice to my wound. It felt a lot worse than it looked in the photo.

A few years ago dh bought a road bike (the Trek Alpha 1000), trained fairly consistently, and road 200 miles in the local MS 150 (Charlotte, NC, to Myrtle Beach, SC). I was happy to provide moral and financial support, but I had not ridden a bike since I was in junior high, and I wasn’t about to take my poor balance and weak legs into that kind of adventure.

However, I love spending time with my husband so I did take our hybrid mountain/street bike and join him on some of his lighter training rides. When we would go to the local business park, I would ride around the 2 mile loop and he would pass me several times. If we went to a local neighborhood I would ride at my pace and he would ride out and back several times. He usually put on twice as many miles as I did, but we had fun and we were (more or less) together.

The year he did the MS 150, I drove down to Rockingham to meet him at the half-way point Saturday night. He kept pointing out all the women who were riding in the race and encouraging me to do it some time. I’m still not ready for that, but I have finally decided I want to get a more comfortable bike, acquire some more stability, and build up my stamina.

DH convinced me that a lighter road bike would make a tremendous difference in my riding experience. We have looked at bikes in the past but I couldn’t convince myself to spend that amount of money on a hobby that I don’t spend that much time on (I could spend that money on a lot of good books).

Today we visited the local Trek store just to price out a bike. I was feeling brave so all the talk about form, shows, pedals, gears, etc, didn’t intimidate me like it has in the past. Jeff did a great job of asking questions in a way that left me feeling like I could honestly answer if I didn’t like something or didn’t want to try something.

It was raining so we couldn’t do a test ride (and I hadn’t brought any of my gear, it was a spur-of-the-moment trip), so we set an appointment for next week. I might own a new bike before the week is out!