It’s a classic trope of the tough-guy genre of film. The bad guys jump the good guy, and one of them holds him while the others work him over. It’s not personal, you understand. It’s business. So the head bad guy, the one with the speaking part, says, “OK, bub! The face or the stomach?”
Late November in the Northern Hemisphere, we get a similar proposition, the basement or the cold?
I know some very strong riders who build their strength on the trainer during the winter. In fact, to call it “the trainer” these days is a lot like calling the device in your pocket a phone. Today’s “smart trainers” are more like massive on-line role-playing games. The days of pedaling tempo against a resistance fan with vintage Paris-Roubaix on the VCR are long gone.
I don’t do well on the trainer. As it turns out I don’t really love to pedal. What I like is to move through space outdoors. You can jazz it up however you want, I still don’t love it. I do it sometimes, because madness lies the way of inactivity, but I can seldom stomach more than 20 minutes.
Then there’s the cold. And here again, just to call it “the cold” doesn’t get at the real challenges of wintertime riding. Howling winds are problematic. Snow and ice are complications that sometimes make the riding not safe. So you don’t just have to tolerate the cold, which some of us do better than others, but you also have to navigate a whole array of further obstacles. Will your tires hold the ground? Is the snow packed down or loose? Are we on the rain/snow line today and how do we deal with that?
When I put myself in the good guy’s shoes, I’m pretty much always gonna choose the stomach. Sure, I’ll get the wind knocked out of me, but I have muscles there, and I can mount a modest resistance.
I will also almost always choose the cold over the basement (not that the basement is that warm). Maybe this is really a confession that I don’t ride a bike for exercise, but for sanity. Fitness is only ever a side-effect of what I’m doing once I throw a leg over.
How about you? The basement or the cold?
This is why the good Lord invented skiing, don’tcha know.
Recent winters indicate I choose neither. I run. Not much and not far. But I’m moving and keeping some fitness and giving my bones some good stress. I don’t love running but I don’t like sitting still.
And come February, I’m really missing my bike so much that March in Albany, NY almost doesn’t seem horrible sometimes.
Until a few years ago I would do both with enthusiasm. Hitting the road or trails in almost any condition and ride the rollers while I watched World Cup CX racers do their thing. Nowadays I carefully choose the days to go outside and ride. Since I gave away my road bike this year I don’t think the rollers will see the light of day soon. XC skiing, keeping my property clear of snow and firewood hauling make up the bulk of my winter “fitness.” There is nothing better than rolling around on two wheels but it takes a bit more gumption for me to make it happen.
The Skate Ski. So I guess the cold. Like you I don’t do it for the pedaling, but for the movement through space outside. A few years ago, before moving from Flagstaff to western CO, I would just drive down the hill and continue pedaling or twisting throttle at a lower and warmer elevation.
In the late 90s I had a fancy indoor trainer and all the videos to ride along with. This was in Minneapolis which is infamously snowy and cold. Then one day I decided I wasn’t a hamster (even if I was kind of shaped like one at that point). I gave away/sold all of my indoor schtuff, bought cold weather gear and rode. No such thing as bad weather; just poor clothing/gear choices as the saying goes. Another mantra I’ve abided by for years is the RA rule; Ride Anyway. I’ve ridden year round ever since. I now have an extra-curricular in snowboarding for additional rad-getting, but I’m out there one way or another as Ms Harry commanded.