Spinning when you can't spin.

Just because you don't have a trainer, doesn't mean you can't do a spin session, right? Well, yeah, more or less. The results might not be comparable to 'normal' sessions, but even the HCLR exercises are doable with a bit of a downhill run-in.

:00 E1
:05 2x5s HCLR
:10 2x8s 53x17 RS(80):3
:16 2x10s 39x12 RS(80):3
:22 2x12s 39x12 SS(seated/L,R):4
:30 2x6s 53x16 SS(seated/L,R):3
:36 1x40s 53x17 SS r/up (10:100, 15:130, 15:max)
:42 1x10s HCLR

My training ground was the nice, flat, wide, quiet spot by the river mentioned yesterday, and the session went quite well really - well, except for one bit. The final rampup was bloody hard, and due to fatigue-induced inattention, I didn't go the full 40 seconds - more like 25-30. So, as punishment, I decided to recover for 6 minutes and do it again! For both efforts I didn't worry about getting a cadence and trying to hold it, but just accelerated from a standing start to as fast as I could, and held it as long as possible until I deteriorated to... well, I was going to say 10RPM below max, but really the first one I stopped before the time (and before I 'needed' to) where the second effort I just went as long as possible - 35 seconds that time. Not quite as long as required, and perhaps I'd have managed the extra five seconds if I didn't have to actually ride, or if I had someone yelling at (erm, encouraging!) me.

HCLRs worked well, with 174/170 for the first set - lower than on the trainer, but comparable-ish. It was a good workout for stability, too, because obviously having to actually ride the bike at the same time is harder than just being locked on to the trainer.

The remaining sets gave lower results than on the trainer, but that's probably not very surprising - not much wind resistance on the trainer! I was happy with what I did though - in the 11teens for each of the longer efforts, with a high of 123 on the first 39x12 rolling start, and a top of only 7RPM less from a standing start and an extra 2 seconds. The most interesting result was the 6 second 53x16 standing starts, which saw me get up to 30.1kmh/70RPM starting on the left, and 35.3/81RPM starting on the right - though given that I can't actually trackstand, there's probably enough variability in starting speed/stability and total time (even 1/2-1 second variation in duration can make a noticeable difference) to mitigate the interest in the difference between left and right.

The rampups are interesting. The first attempt, as well as being a bit short, has a perfectly spiky cadence profile, with a top of 121RPM and 48.3km/h. The second effort, by contrast, has a much flatter profile (when viewed by distance - the duration is too short to really see it by time) for cadence which suggests that I maintained the effort, rather than accelerating up to the maximum and then stopping. Curiously the top cadence of 126RPM gave a maximum speed of only 46.2km/h. Unfortunately I did them in opposite directions, and though there appeared to be no breeze at all, even a tiny amount combined with a tiny, unnoticeable difference in grade (say, -0.05 compared to +0.05) or difference in surface could have influenced the result. Still, I was much happier with the second effort, especially in terms of the endurance aspect.

Oh, and once the sun came out, it was a much lovlier day by the river than stuck inside on a trainer!

Brief stats here.