Spinning Death

One of the first things that I got rid of in preparation for this move was my "ghetto trainer bike" and trackstand.  So now I don't have the ability to ride indoors at home anymore.  Today was slated to be an indoor workout but my original plan was to just ride outside... well, the weather had other ideas.

Since I only have another two to four months left here in the springs, in any capacity, going out and buying a spinning bike or setting up a new trainer is not worth it.  My goal is to sell things on Craigslist right and get rid of all of my stuff and not buying stuff which I might have to turn around and sell and or move.

So I now have a very reasonable monthly gym membership that I can renew month to month.  In the end it is probably the most cost effective route for me right now.  They have spinning bikes and treadmills so if I can' t do a workout (mainly riding) outside, I have a place to go.

I still consider myself new to this world of cycling but I have learned something that was proven true again tonight. Training on a bike outside, it is rather easy to get your heart rate up maintain certain levels of effort as prescribed.  Indoors on a track stand or trainer, it is a little more challenging but still doable.  The bike on a track stand wiggles, flexes, etc, so as far as I can tell it isn't exactly energy efficient.

On a spinning bike?  Hard. As. Hell.  The frame is so rigid and everything is so smooth that much more energy from spinning the pedals goes directly to turning the wheel.  Energy isn't wasted on wind or absorbed by the frame etc.  It's just a damned hard workout.

But that is what I did tonight.  A ten minute warmup followed by three one minute max efforts with one minutes in between RBI.  That was followed by four six minute max efforts trying to get my HR above 155 for the entire six minutes with a two minute RBI.  The session ended with a seven minute cool down for a grand total of a 55 minute workout.

It kicked my butt.  I was afraid that I was going to break something, that something being me. 

You can see the three one minute efforts followed by the four six minute sections.  Ignore the weird green thing at the beginning, I had forgotten to the turn the gps function off on my Garmin.

In other news... selling stuff bit by bit and starting to feel like I am making some progress.  It has just helped so much that I am staying here and not doing the drive.  I can focus, get stuff done, and feel pretty good about chipping away at it all day by day.

AND, I paid off my Jeep today which I am really happy about.  17 months early!

I also had a long honest discussion with my manager at Verizon yesterday and he basically told me that he would be calling me again later in the week.  The RIF is coming, no doubt. The rumor mill is abuzz with talk of it happening.  Estimated to happen on Thursday.  This is it folks.  Another tumbler in the sequence of unlocking my new life is about to drop into place.  I estimate my house will be on the market come the end of next week.  Heeeeere we go!