I haven’t posted a ride in a while. Partly because I ride the same route most days, and partly because there are only so many pictures of your bicycle you can post before people start to worry 😅. But mostly it’s because I’ve started training indoors. There are a few reasons.
Other People (unfortunately)
Yep. The main reason is… other human beings.
Two particular encounters pushed me over the edge.
The first was a while back, cycling home around 2 a.m. I’d just passed through the city center, was on a well-lit road, almost home. Across the street, two guys were walking (not in straight lines). One of them spotted me and decided it would be a brilliant idea to run up and try to yank me off my bike. His hand almost grabbed my shirt, missed me by maybe a centimeter. I shot off like I was chasing a QOM. He tried to chase me, but I was full of adrenaline, a lot faster, and he was too drunk to form coherent motor skills.
The second was a couple of months ago. I was cycling home after a late shift, around 21:00 hours. The route home goes through a quiet countryside stretch, one-car-wide road, used mostly by cyclists and hikers because it’s peaceful and pretty. I was cruising at 30 to 35 kph in my aerobars when I heard a sound. Thought it was my drivetrain, I looked down, nothing. A kilometer later, I realized someone was drafting me. About 5 km earlier, I had actually passed a man on an e-bike. Turns out he decided to latch onto my wheel and draft me.
I waited, assuming he’d back off. He didn’t. When I finally pulled over to get rid of him, he passed, shouted something again, and kept turning around to look at me. I checked my bike, no flat, no broken chain, my bag was still attached. In other words, he had zero reason to be that close to me except… whatever reason he thought was acceptable.
I cannot explain how upsetting this was. I’m a woman, alone, at night, tucked in my aerobars, on a countryside road and a stranger on an e-bike decides to silently draft me and shout things while following my wheel? Aside from being rude and dangerous (hello, I’m in aerobars), it’s just… why? I cannot think of one harmless reason to do that. It’s just super creepy.
Add in the cat-calls, the stares, drivers overtaking me like I’m invisible then slamming their brakes in front of me, the classic SMIDSYs (“Sorry Mate, I Didn’t See You”), and I hit my limit. Done. Over it.
Training Reality Check
Around the same time, I looked at my training data and realized I’d hit a plateau. My commute times stopped improving. My long rides weren’t actually faster; they were just shorter because I’d reduced stopping time. Translation: I was no longer training to ride faster, I was training to eat a banana faster. Excellent for snack efficiency, terrible for progress. Sure, commuting kept me fit (in the sense that it allowed me to consume industrial quantities of chocolate), but I wasn’t getting any stronger.
So… Indoors It Is
With a training plateau and commuting becoming the opposite of fun, I switched to indoor training 3 to 4 times a week, with one weekly outdoor ride to prevent my backside from forgetting what a saddle feels like.
After some tips from my coworker Max (thanks again), I ordered a Kickr Core and signed up for interval training using the JOIN app.
Of course, nothing is ever simple. Originally, I put my main bike (Rainbow Dash) on the trainer, but the mudguards turned into dirt sprinkler systems. I tried taking them off and putting them back on for outdoor rides, but that was a fast track to losing the little bit of sanity I have left.
So we mounted Gold Member (the spare bike). After battling a wobbly cassette, it worked fine, except Gold Member and my anatomy disagree on what “comfort” means. After about an half a hour, my backside started to resemble pulled beef.
Enter: 3D-printed Kickr feet. My husband printed them; you slide them on, stick tennis balls underneath, and the whole thing gets a more natural rocking motion. It actually helped the saddle discomfort a lot, but it still shows up around the one-hour mark, luckily no longer existential. I’ve now ordered a new saddle and seatpost because I like sitting, and I’d like to keep that option in life.
Tech, Apps, and Overreacting Algorithms
The JOIN app worked great, until I upload an outdoor ride over 150 km. Then it panics, tells me I’m overtraining, and deletes the rest of my scheduled workouts like an overprotective AI parent. Meanwhile, I feel fine the next day. So I just stopped uploading the long rides. Problem solved.
Honestly? I’m looking forward to staying warm, un-harassed, and semi-sane through winter.
Final Words
Usually, I sign off with “keep the rubber side down”. But on an indoor trainer, that’s… not exactly a challenge. So instead: Keep the legs spinning, stay uninjured, and may your FTP rise faster than your heart rate!