Ok, so I haven't written in a while so I'll first bring things up to speed. After my September ride, I went on a few other rides. Mainly local 13 mile rides but on October 24th I took a ride south. Going on the same route that I would take to Hyrum, but this time I went to Paradise and started out on the road to Mt. Pisgah. The total distance was 24 miles. It was quite a climb up the dirt road in Paradise heading towards Mt. Pisgah. The start of the dirt road was at 4778 ft and was really steep for the first 100 ft I climbed vertically in less than a quarter of mile. I continued on that road until I got to the fork in the road that turn North back to Hyrum where another steep grade awaited. I was exhausted and had to stop for a break. That was another steep climb in relatively the same distance as the base of the climb. However when I reached the top at 5200 ft, I set a new personal record that day, I went 39 mph coming off of that hill. I dropped 1.7 miles in less 4 minutes, with an average speed of 26 mph. My GPS actually showed a 47 MPH high but Looking back at the data I could only see a 39 mph high. I was quite impressed. It was a paved-straight road going North from Mt. Pisgah rd. back to Hyrum. This was the last ride I went on for the season.
However, last night I made a purchase of a blackburn bike trainer. It has a centriforce resistance module. I was really leaning towards purchasing an upright bicycle, and I found a really good deal here locally. But I saw an ad in the paper for the blackburn trainer and I talked to the employee at Al's Sporting Goods and decided to take the trainer instead. I thought it would be more realistic than using an upright bicycle since I would be using my own bicycle. I can actually use any bicycle. Which I thought would be a great way to get in shape over the winter months.
Last night I used the bike for about 30 minutes. I tried shifting to different gears. One big difference in the trainer is that shifting is almost opposite of what happens in the real world. Shifting to a higher gear is more difficult but one main reason you up shift is to push more speed out of the bicycle in the real world going down hill for instance using a low gear would be pointless. But going uphill using a low gear is advantageous because it creates less resistance and it makes it easier to climb. Simulating this has on the trainer has the opposite affect.
Last night I used the bike for about 30 minutes. I tried shifting to different gears. One big difference in the trainer is that shifting is almost opposite of what happens in the real world. Shifting to a higher gear is more difficult but one main reason you up shift is to push more speed out of the bicycle in the real world going down hill for instance using a low gear would be pointless. But going uphill using a low gear is advantageous because it creates less resistance and it makes it easier to climb. Simulating this has on the trainer has the opposite affect.
