Why Yes, I Happen to LOVE the Indoor Trainer

“This is my body, and I can do whatever I want to it. I can push it; Study it; Tweak it; Listen to it. Everybody wants to know what I am on. What am I on? I am on my bike busting my ass six hours a day; What are YOU on?” 
― Lance Armstrong

I discovered today, the beauty of the indoor trainer. Now, this post comes with a disclaimer. I've never in my life used an indoor trainer. This is due mostly to the fact that when it was too cold to bike I was typically out running. Since I can't run of course, I've had to find other means. 

But still I had never used an indoor trainer because if I absolutely HAD to be indoors...well, swimming was much better than sitting on a stationary bicycle. Right, right? That was before I pulled a muscle in my arm. I know, I know....MODERATION. But my 2 hour swims were definitely not moderate in any way, shape or form. So I semi-injured myself. Honestly though it actually feels good to have normal "I work out a lot" pains. It's actually quite exhilarating to not have to constantly worry about my foot. To worry about my bicep is, to say the least a nice change of pace. 

Back to the indoor trainer. The Wisconsin Athletic Club has a really  nice cycling room, where it's dark, and there are fans that blow on you and keep you cool and you stare out over the pool and watch people swim (little did I know that there were all these people potentially watching my pool workouts). Right, so I thought the time would go soooo slowly but in truth, I am fully addicted to indoor trainers. For starters, I was able to cover (not literally) so much more ground than I can when regularly biking in Milwaukee. Here there's so much traffic, so many lights, so many hills. On a good day I can do about 16 miles in an hour. On the trainer, without any stops I did about 22 in an hour. 

I can NOT wait to go back tomorrow. And honestly, I'm so mad that I've been braving these stupid 30 degree days and painfully biking in the cold while wearing about a million layers of spandex when the quiet, peaceful, wonderful world of indoor cycling was there waiting for me all along! 

And finally, on a totally separate note, I took a very big step for me today. I sucked it up, tried really, really, hard not to have a panic attack and called a nutritionist. Who, to her credit, is probably the nicest lady I've ever talked to on the phone and did not scare me one bit. My appointment is a week from today in the morning. During that week I have been instructed to keep a food log of everything that I eat and email it to her. (It was when she said that, that the panic attack began) So these next few days will be an interesting experiment. I'm not necessarily looking forward on being instructed on what I'm doing wrong when I eat. 

Still though, even that can't burst my happy-I'm going to California and I get to bike bubble. That said, I'm pretty sure there's nothing in the world that can burst the California happy bubble.