Check, check...one, two...

Is this thing on? I almost forgot the URL of this blog to come back and give an update. But here I am. I got a lot of updates to give but I'll meter them out over time. Let's start with something fun. Back in like November I bought a Computrainer. For those not in the know, this is an indoor bike trainer where you use your own bike. The thing is, it's the best trainer you can buy. What makes it so cool is that you can hook up a computer to it and ride courses made up of computer graphics OR using real videos filmed on actual courses. I ordered 3 real course DVD's: Ironman Canada, Ironman Wisconsin, and Escape from Alcatraz.

So this very expensive device sat in a box on my dining room floor since November. Today I went out and bought the cheapest Windows laptop Best Buy had that had HDMI output. I wanted HDMI so I can eventually hook it up to a big screen LCD tv when I finish my basement gym...one day. I only own Macs and Computrainer requires Windows, thus the laptop purchase. I could run WIndows on my Mac but then I'd have to buy a WIndows 7 license and laptops aren't that expensive so I just bought a new one. I got home, unboxed everything and set it all up. I did a 10 minute warmup and then rode the 1st 16 miles of Ironman Canada course (I rode for 1 hour). This is the first time I've rode a bike since Ironman Rev 3 back in September. The ride was pretty cool. The faster you ride the faster the video moves, if you stop the video freezes. This video was filmed on the actual race day in 2008, so you see other racers on the course while you're riding, the aid stations, the referee motorcycles, you see it all.

The 1st hour of the course wasn't too bad, mostly flat, though I was drenched in sweat when I finished. You out of town with a lake on your right and mountains on your left for about 9 miles of flat riding. Then you veer off to the left for a little loop where you will hit a small climb that gets up to 11-12% grade. Wow, that killed me. I was in my smallest gear and out of the saddle climbing...and it was really tough for me. My heart rate strap wasn't working but I'll bet my HR was close to 200 at one point. I'm weak. Oh, I forgot to tell you that the Computrainer automatically adjusts resistance to coincide with the video. So when the course goes up the resistance cranks up. On the downhills the resistance goes way down but you still have to pedal so there is never a break from pedaling. Anyway, it was a lot of fun to ride the course and this will be great practice for the real deal since I'll know exactly what is coming and what to expect.

There are so many other things the Computrainer does but I'll fill you in later. I would have taken a picture of my setup but I was scanning a ton of paperwork and doing taxes so I have crap all over the place. So I'm not taking a picture of my mess. I'll clean up sometime and share a pic. Well, it looks like the 2011 training season has finally begun for me.