Bottle Launchers

I had a pleasant surprise waiting for me when I got home the other day! A small, very lightweight, box contained some carbon goodies that took 3 months to arrive from China. In all fairness, the first batch supposedly was 'lost' in the mail. They re-sent the original order about a month ago. Not bad for low-priority mail from China. More importantly, directly coming from China including shipping meant over 500% savings! Suck on that! I wish I ordered another set but I wanted to make sure it was not a scam before placing a large order with them.

With my Carbon Cages arriving, that completes my bike! Everything is mounted, ready to go. Unfortunately mother nature has other plans for my training plan though. More indoor trainer riding. It looks like I wont get outdoors until next week, I haven't even bothered looking at that long range forecast since they're almost always wrong. In the meantime, the bike remains on the trainer. I need a hard cut-over date because when I take it off the trainer I will mount my new Continental training tires to my training-wheels training-wheelset which means I cannot put the bike back on the indoor trainer. These tires are meant for outdoor use and will probably melt if I try to use them on the fluid-resistance trainer. So no going back once I cross the outdoor line. I have to be certain I am ready to take on the weather no matter what.

I'll be the first to admit - I have limits when it comes to cycling. Limits in the form of I will not do a road ride outdoors until it is +10 Celsius or higher. Anything below that means the wind whips right through me and I freeze to death within an hour. On the other hand, I do mountain bike in any weather. However I need time in the aero bars, not jumping rocks on the trail. At least its a workout. The term HTFU comes to mind as I say this. I don't believe in it though, theres nothing worse than getting all bundled up and riding in the cold. Its uncomfortable with all those layers and blah blah blah execuse, yah I am hearing myself. *sigh*. Its so much easier running outdoors, running in any weather is way easier than cycling. I have no problem gearing up for a rainy, slushy, snowy, cold run. If only cycling was the same. Oh and I really hate having to clean the road/tri bike after a wet gritty road ride. I dont mind cleaning the mountain bike, its built to handle the abuse. But my poor tri bike shouldn't be rolling in road grit and possible road salt still out there.
So what happens next? Do I HTFU and get outdoors on the road anyway? Do I just continue mountain biking on the trails until things clear up, even though its not quite the optimal training type? I don't know the answer right now. If you can actually SHOW and prove to me someone is really getting out there in these conditions then I believe it could be done. That would inspire me. Otherwise, I'm pretty certain the majority of us are still tucked away on our indoor trainers and cross-cross training(MTB).

This battle came to light last night because I had a 3hr trainer ride planned but could only do 2hrs. I cracked. Mentally I melted down, I couldn't continue. When on the trainer I have alot of resistance setup on it, this is by design and not by choice. I feel like my legs are turning the equivalent of a steep uphill and at 90rpm my heartrate is only 110bpm. At best I could get it to 125-130 with some crazy resistance but its not sustainable without injuring my knees. My HR is just so low, it makes me feel like 110bpm is hardly worth the workout. Is that even aerobic? I think I've done so much trainer riding that my body has conditioned itself to be efficient at it. I need to get outdoors. I need with wind and elements.








TRAINING:

Bike - 2:00hrs Moderate