Back to the Dungeon.
I hadn't ridden in a couple days. One for flying home, then one for spending time with the family. I can't say I missed riding, because I was a little burnt after over 3,300 miles during my trip. Jet lag didn't help much either.
Now that I'm back, I decided my trainer dungeon could use a little sprucing up. A few years ago I laid some recycled Pergo over part of the concrete, which only made the room more depressing and mainly served to collect sweat and dirt. The more I tried to clean it, the worse it looked. Time for a change.
I went to the local home improvement store and looked at all of my options. I was looking for cheap and durable, but they were fresh out of that. After bouncing between the various options and making my lovely wife irritable, I decided on vinyl planks that look like wood but hopefully are more waterproof. I figured it would have to look better than the dingy Pergo.
Problem was, the dungeon was full of ski and bike stuff. The rest of the garage was piled high with even more ski and bike stuff. To put the flooring down, I would have to empty the dungeon.
I made the garage pile a lot bigger and more precarious, then laid down the floor. Not really all that hard to put down, and if you squint just right it almost looks like a hardwood floor. It certainly made the little room slightly classier, although now I'm probably going to have to paint the walls because they now look worse than the floor.
I moved the bike and ski gear back in, rearranging things perfectly so they will be an even larger mess in the future. This is going to be an ongoing project, but hopefully once I organize it better I won't buy yet another SRAM Force rear derailleur, since I have five of them already. Front derailleurs, shifters, cranksets... I might want to stay away from eBay for a while.
The last thing to go in was the "new" trainer. After six years and countless hours on the same trainer, it was time for an update. The trainer world has exploded in the last couple years, with computer-controlled "smart trainers" adjusting resistance and making cappuccino while you effortlessly spin your worries away. Of course, I had kept up with the trends, because hey, more bike stuff to buy, but had never bought any of it because I liked the LeMond.
After scouring the interwebs, I ended up buying a barely used (maybe twice) LeMond of of eBay. The previous owner probably found they didn't like the jet engine roar keeping the baby us or the mindless hours that stationary cycling truly is. It probably sat in the closet in the box for five years until they decided to sell it, and I swooped in and bought it.
If something works well for me, I usually don't like change. I still run ten speed drivetrains on all of my bikes. When my car was totaled a couple years back, I replaced it with the exact same make/model/year/color. When I feel compelled to make a change, I make it, but in this case I wasn't moved.
After I finished setting up the dungeon in a reasonable fashion, I mounted the Storck (now relegated to stationary duty) on the trainer and did a 90 minute workout. It's going to take some time for me to adjust back to the trainer, as I couldn't sustain the wattage I once did. All of those long, slow miles in Mississippi did not translate directly. They never do.
I've got plenty of time to adjust. And redecorate.
Now that I'm back, I decided my trainer dungeon could use a little sprucing up. A few years ago I laid some recycled Pergo over part of the concrete, which only made the room more depressing and mainly served to collect sweat and dirt. The more I tried to clean it, the worse it looked. Time for a change.
I went to the local home improvement store and looked at all of my options. I was looking for cheap and durable, but they were fresh out of that. After bouncing between the various options and making my lovely wife irritable, I decided on vinyl planks that look like wood but hopefully are more waterproof. I figured it would have to look better than the dingy Pergo.
Problem was, the dungeon was full of ski and bike stuff. The rest of the garage was piled high with even more ski and bike stuff. To put the flooring down, I would have to empty the dungeon.
I made the garage pile a lot bigger and more precarious, then laid down the floor. Not really all that hard to put down, and if you squint just right it almost looks like a hardwood floor. It certainly made the little room slightly classier, although now I'm probably going to have to paint the walls because they now look worse than the floor.
I moved the bike and ski gear back in, rearranging things perfectly so they will be an even larger mess in the future. This is going to be an ongoing project, but hopefully once I organize it better I won't buy yet another SRAM Force rear derailleur, since I have five of them already. Front derailleurs, shifters, cranksets... I might want to stay away from eBay for a while.
The last thing to go in was the "new" trainer. After six years and countless hours on the same trainer, it was time for an update. The trainer world has exploded in the last couple years, with computer-controlled "smart trainers" adjusting resistance and making cappuccino while you effortlessly spin your worries away. Of course, I had kept up with the trends, because hey, more bike stuff to buy, but had never bought any of it because I liked the LeMond.
After scouring the interwebs, I ended up buying a barely used (maybe twice) LeMond of of eBay. The previous owner probably found they didn't like the jet engine roar keeping the baby us or the mindless hours that stationary cycling truly is. It probably sat in the closet in the box for five years until they decided to sell it, and I swooped in and bought it.
If something works well for me, I usually don't like change. I still run ten speed drivetrains on all of my bikes. When my car was totaled a couple years back, I replaced it with the exact same make/model/year/color. When I feel compelled to make a change, I make it, but in this case I wasn't moved.
After I finished setting up the dungeon in a reasonable fashion, I mounted the Storck (now relegated to stationary duty) on the trainer and did a 90 minute workout. It's going to take some time for me to adjust back to the trainer, as I couldn't sustain the wattage I once did. All of those long, slow miles in Mississippi did not translate directly. They never do.
I've got plenty of time to adjust. And redecorate.
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