I want to love the bike trainer and the treadmill, but I don't. There are so many reasons to love these two pieces of equipment. For one thing you can watch tv while on them! Who doesn't love that? I have a ton of Ironman races on my DVR that I can turn on while I work out on my trainer. You can use either piece of equipment anytime! I can't exactly go out for a run or a bike ride at 5 AM, but I can hop on the treadmill or trainer! This is also the time of year when it begins getting dark early. By the time I get home from work and get ready for my workout, I'm confined to the indoors. Boooo!! Last year the treadmill really helped me when I was training for a half marathon. We had several days of icy conditions, which meant no running outside. There was the trusty ol' treadmill waiting for me at the gym. Mother nature couldn't help me, but that big hunk of a machine sure could. It seemed so happy that I was running on it. I was able to get my workouts in, including a 7 mile run, and stay on track with my training. This summer I did some of my running on the treadmill because it was so freakin' HOT outside. I also did some of my bike workouts on the trainer for this same reason. It was kind of nice not having to load up a bunch of equipment into the car, but still not as fun being outside and actually moving forward.
This morning I did a 30 minute run with pick-ups on the treadmill, and this evening I have 45 minutes on the bike trainer. I really wish I didn't dislike these pieces of equipment so much, but I can't help it. In fact, part of the reason I'm writing this entry is so that I can put off the trainer workout a little longer. Perhaps over the winter training I will learn to NOT hate them so much. For one thing, I've stopped calling the treadmill the "dreadmill."
The bottom line is that it's time for me to suck it and do what I need if I want to be an Ironman!
"Some days the training was harder than the race was today." Desiree Ficker
Agreed...I have a love/hate relationship with my treadmill too. I like that it allows me to do my workout but it certainly lacks the variety of running outdoors. I have however learned to love my trainer.I live in the pacific northwest so there is no outdoor riding from November thru to March so its super handy for staying in some kind of bike shape over the winter. Santa is bringing me a new trainer for Christmas...( the other one died a horrible death)....so I'll let you know how it goes...which trainer do you use? Are you happy with it?
ReplyDeleteHi Donna, I'm using a Travel Trac Fluid trainer. It's not the greatest, but it gets the job done. It's a hand-me-down from a friend. One day I'll invest in a CycleOps.
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