Cycling Indoor Edition Part 1

I had my last ride outdoors with the Valence.  The temperature was about 6C and the wind was southeast at about 20km/h.  I made the mistake of forgetting about the wind and rocketed along with it.  I ended up fighting a mean head wind all the way back.  Despite the rough ride back, I made sure to enjoy every minute of it.

One of my winter strategies was to take up cycling indoors.  I have a recumbent stationary bike that I can ride.  The upside is its free, the downside is I can't ride with my wife and it doesn't do much for my cycling form.  There are spin classes where they supply stationary bikes; I can ride with my wife but again it doesn't do much with cycling form.  I'm also worried that relying on either will mean getting used to my saddle all over again in the spring.

So instead we opted for an indoor cycling class being held by my local bike shop.  This class didn't supply equipment; you need to bring in your real bike and a turbo trainer.  These trainers basically convert your real bike into a stationary one.

We were able to obtain two Jet Black M1 magnetic trainers. A remote attached to your handlebars allows you to control the magnetic resistance.  The trainer holds onto the rear of the bike and presses up against the rear tire for resistance.

The indoor cycling room is a large basement room that is well ventilated with several fans.  We set ourselves up at the front of the class, near one of the larger fans.  I'm not normally a front-of-the-class kind of guy but I wanted to make sure not to miss anything.

Stay tuned for part 2 where we get right into the action!