The Stationary Bike: My New Nemesis

I rode my stationary bike today. Given the level of mental and physical effort involved, I kind of feel like there should be a parade thrown in my honor or at least some sort of commerative plaque involved. Barring that, I'll give you a rundown on how it went.

Today's FURMAN workout called for 45 minutes on the bike. Seven minutes at an easy pace, 30 minutes at a moderate pace, and 8 minutes cooldown at an easy pace.

I haven't been on a bike in years so I knew it wouldn't be easy, but I also went in thinking of all the leg muscles I've built up from running the past several years and that I was only being asked to do a moderate workout.

"It will be a little challenging but not too bad," were my thoughts as I hopped on the bike and started the timer. "I've got this."

Oh. My. God. I did NOT "have this." Apparently running muscles don't translate into biking muscles. At all. As the clock counted down my time backward, here were my thoughts:

44:30 - "Easy-peasy. I wonder if I'm on too low a setting for the warm-up?"

41:00 - "The setting is not too low. I'm sure the knots in my legs are normal. No worries."

39:00 - "Houston, we have a problem."

37:00 - Time to go up to a moderate pace. In my case, this involved going from a Level 2 (out of 16) to a Level 3.

35:00 - "I'm not going to make it. I'm not going to make it. I'm not going to make it."

34:00 - "Wait. I'm okay. It just took some getting used to. Whew. I can do this."

33:45 -"I'm not going to make it. I'm not going to make it. I'm not going to make it."

And so it went. I alternated between a Level 2 and Level 3 with an avg RPM of 100. I think I ended up doing about 13 miles by the time the clock stopped ticking. I was drenched in sweat. Almost more so than when I run, and bear in mind this workout was done inside a home with the air conditioning set on a frosty 74 degrees. 

I'm sure, like running, the bike will become easier with time and practice. It can't happen soon enough. Wednesday's bike workout calls for me to do some "hard" levels of training.

Level 5, watch out. Here I come.