Caught a Cold

I suppose some good can come from the cold this weekend. I spent 6 hours on the trainer, numbing my senses and brain along with my taint. Kind of a breakthough. I can usually only manage one long trainer session every other day, let alone three in a row.

The key is a good music mix, end of story. Maximize the senses. Have a movie, or game, or race DVD on, of course, and keep it all fresh. Friday was two episodes of Law & Order and a Brit pop mix. Yesterday? The 1999 Tour and lots of Neil Young vs. 80's New Wave, of all things. Today? An old episode of NOVA and the first half of the AFC Championsip. Somebody must've had a sense of humor, down at Chicago Public Broadcasting: the rerun was about the Race for Absolute Zero. Have you ever heard of the Bose-Einstein Condensate? Me neither. But once I did, it made the broken latch on my Pearl Izumi back pack that snapped in last January's cold spell seem pretty minor, actually.

It was kinda funny though, as I visualized the end of races while I zoned out on the bike. I'd imagine myself at third wheel, taking the final turn into the sprint of the Evanston Criterium. Or cranking it out in the big ring up the hill of Spring Prairie, flying past everyone to the line, and I'd look down and catch my heart rate spiking past my base limit.

Even now the adrenaline still gets going. And knowing I'm laying down a quality base this winter is what is really keeping me on the trainer.