Nesting in the Trainer Dungeon
It's been getting slightly cooler and darker around here. As much as I want to avoid it and as much as global warming seems to be intent on preventing it, it's going to get colder. Eventually it will get cold enough that my mileage will drop off significantly. Shortly after that, I won't go anywhere. My bike will be chained to the LeMond Revolution in my trainer dungeon.
Since I can see it coming, some of my projects around the house will involve cleaning up the mess I've created in the garage since last spring. The piles are overflowing into the narrow path I trod to get to my bike out the door every day. Dancing around tricycles, tools, extension cords, ski gear, and all sorts of other expensive-but-now-neglected stuff in cycling cleats keeps me nimble, but eventually that piece of derailleur cable housing is going to roll underfoot and cause me to rethink my organization strategy.
I need some room to build up the various frames I have hanging from the ceiling so I can sell them to suckers... ahem... new cycling enthusiasts in the spring. The parts that I have strewn across the garage can find homes. I might even notice I have several extra of a particular component, purchased because the garage was in such disarray. I'll have a chance to tear down long-neglected bikes, making them shift and brake as if they were new again. I'll finally get ahead of the game, or so I hope.
A big part of the plan is to clean up and improve my cycling dungeon before I actually need it. Maybe clean up the cassettes, old chains, and other parts that were left laying around as I rushed off to some very important race. Sweep up the leaves that blew under the garage door and mop up last winter's sweat residue. Improve the sound insulation so the baby won't be woken up by Paul Sherwen's dulcet tones at 3:30 AM.
Part of the upgrading process is to drag my video stimuli into this century. A big part of enduring the trainer is distraction, and for the last few years I've used DVDs of professional races to keep me going. Last year I noticed after 40 or so viewings of the same series of videos the effect was starting to wear off. I have most of World Cycling Production's catalog, but as they no longer make DVDs I am left to find my inspiration elsewhere.
Folks 'round here tell me there's this thing called the interweb where you can find just about anything you want. I'm not 100% sure, but it might be owned by Amazon or Walmart. So, this year I'm going to dip my toes into the wild world of streaming video and Zwift. My previous excursions didn't go so well, mostly because my computer has been carbon dated back to the first Bush presidency. So, I get to spend a whole lot of money on a computer that will reside in a garage and be pawed at by a sweaty man until it dies a premature death. Sounds pleasant.
I'm not in any hurry to lock myself away in a cold garage again. The skies are more or less blue, the temperatures are good, and there's still plenty of pavement out there. Despite all of my big plans, history has shown that I usually wait until it's too late to get anything started, and then reconfigure the piles of debris for increased volume and height.
Don't worry. I'll take care of it next spring.
Since I can see it coming, some of my projects around the house will involve cleaning up the mess I've created in the garage since last spring. The piles are overflowing into the narrow path I trod to get to my bike out the door every day. Dancing around tricycles, tools, extension cords, ski gear, and all sorts of other expensive-but-now-neglected stuff in cycling cleats keeps me nimble, but eventually that piece of derailleur cable housing is going to roll underfoot and cause me to rethink my organization strategy.
I need some room to build up the various frames I have hanging from the ceiling so I can sell them to suckers... ahem... new cycling enthusiasts in the spring. The parts that I have strewn across the garage can find homes. I might even notice I have several extra of a particular component, purchased because the garage was in such disarray. I'll have a chance to tear down long-neglected bikes, making them shift and brake as if they were new again. I'll finally get ahead of the game, or so I hope.
A big part of the plan is to clean up and improve my cycling dungeon before I actually need it. Maybe clean up the cassettes, old chains, and other parts that were left laying around as I rushed off to some very important race. Sweep up the leaves that blew under the garage door and mop up last winter's sweat residue. Improve the sound insulation so the baby won't be woken up by Paul Sherwen's dulcet tones at 3:30 AM.
Part of the upgrading process is to drag my video stimuli into this century. A big part of enduring the trainer is distraction, and for the last few years I've used DVDs of professional races to keep me going. Last year I noticed after 40 or so viewings of the same series of videos the effect was starting to wear off. I have most of World Cycling Production's catalog, but as they no longer make DVDs I am left to find my inspiration elsewhere.
Folks 'round here tell me there's this thing called the interweb where you can find just about anything you want. I'm not 100% sure, but it might be owned by Amazon or Walmart. So, this year I'm going to dip my toes into the wild world of streaming video and Zwift. My previous excursions didn't go so well, mostly because my computer has been carbon dated back to the first Bush presidency. So, I get to spend a whole lot of money on a computer that will reside in a garage and be pawed at by a sweaty man until it dies a premature death. Sounds pleasant.
I'm not in any hurry to lock myself away in a cold garage again. The skies are more or less blue, the temperatures are good, and there's still plenty of pavement out there. Despite all of my big plans, history has shown that I usually wait until it's too late to get anything started, and then reconfigure the piles of debris for increased volume and height.
Don't worry. I'll take care of it next spring.
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