Rollin', rollin', rollin' down the river...

So tonight I finally went to the trainer session at one of my LBS. Steve, the bike store guy just lets people come and ride on their trainers at 9pm on Thursdays. It was sort of weird meeting in the darkened parking lot, waiting for Steve to arrive and open the building. Like this secret club.

Anyways, it's not a class, so it's free, and pretty much they just do a DVD workout. We did a DVD called "No Slackers Allowed."

Um, hello! I am the queen slacker! The workout was rough. My heart rate was in the 170s. My heart rate rarely tops 155. I thought I was going to die. Let's just say I pretty can totally sympathize with Little Miss Runner Pants' reaction to her first trainer spinning class.

But then after class, I did this:



Okay, I didn't really quite do that. But I did get on the rollers. That was sort of freaky to try. Steve held onto my seat until I was comfortable and then let go without telling me. Sort of like you do with little kids.

Earlier today, Steve was trying to convince me to do a roller race. In a roller race, you just see who can ride two miles on the rollers the fastest. The fast people do it in about 6 minutes, the slower people in 8-9. I don't think there is any way I could balance on that thing for 9 minutes! You lean a tad to the right and the whole bike swerves to the right. Scary! Anyways, the race is in two weeks, so I don't think I am going to get good enough at rollers in two weeks to race. Let me rephrase that: I don't think I am going to get good enough at rollers to stay on for 2 miles in 2 weeks. Race? What? I don't do that. I'm a slacker!

In other biking news, the RAGBRAI route was announced today. I am going to try and do the Humboldt to Hampton leg (~60 miles). With the Wild West Relay the first weekend in August, there is no way I can take an entire week off to do the entire thing this year. My dissertation research requires me to take data depending on meteorological forcings, so I gotta spring into action on demand. I might be persuaded to go all the way to Cedar Falls (another 60 miles). Anyways, registration for the lottery ends April 1st, so if anyone wants to do ride their bike across a chunk of Iowa whilst stopping to eat pie and drink beer, let me know!