Old bike, New tricks

Now that cold weather has moved in to stay for a few months here in the Northeast, I’ve moved my training inside. I still got a few delightful rides in late fall, and our season was gloriously extended with an awesome Trek Travel trip to Provence, but I’m feeling the need to hibernate now! Today I’ll talk briefly about my gravel/trainer bike and spin routine.

First, the bike: I ride an old Trek 1000 SL aluminum frame bike indoors. We bought it used specifically to throw on our Wahoo Kickr Snap trainer because we didn’t want to stress the frame of my carbon road bike. It was atrocious to ride with a cranky triple chainwheel and jumpy rear cassette; on the trainer, it rode only slightly better than on the road, where the chain frequently derailed and almost never shifted smoothly, if it stayed on at all. For some reason that still confounds me, this terrible bicycle’s previous owner rode it in a triathlon.

My compassionate husband brought the bike to Tooky Wheelworks, where we took off the gosh-awful drivetrain and set the bike up with an elliptical chainring in the front and bigger cassette in the back (with the idea that during warmer weather I’d be able to haul my toddlers behind it in the Burley; we weren’t going for speed as much as power). He also wrapped my handlebars in some KILLER orange tape – I couldn’t ask for my training bike to look more awesome! But because the bike’s speed with the new gearing maxed out at around 18mph, it was still frustrating to free-ride on the trainer; even inside, I couldn’t build much momentum, so last winter I pretty much exclusively rode with Zwift’s training programs so that I didn’t have to touch the shifters; the trainer adjusts resistance under my back wheel for me.

This summer, we went back to Tooky Wheelworks for another complete overhaul; I wanted a gravel bike, and the aluminum frame seemed like the way to go for a couple of reasons.  First, I really disliked the chatter through my carbon frame road bike when we were on gravel, and the skid of the skinny back wheel. Second, the kids didn’t tolerate the Burley at all, and I was frustrated with the useless low speed of the Trek. Back to the shop! Now she has a sweet crankset and completely new rear cassette and derailleur. Her bottom-of-the-line Shimano shifters got an upgrade, and new wheels (with knobby tire in the back!) carried her over gravel like a dream. After a near-crash experience with the awful caliper brakes, we replaced them, too.

Now that I like the drivetrain on my bike, it’s changed my indoor riding, too. I can free-ride on the Zwift app and shift smoothly; I don’t *have* to follow a training program. For the first few indoor rides of this fall, I did just that, exploring Zwift’s new New York scenery and enjoying powering through climbs, thrilled with the differentials on my bike. But the grind of indoor riding – being stuck in one place is hard on the hips and the mind – has gotten to me, and I need to start an actual training program so I actually have a goal. Between now and Christmas, I’m working through the FTP booster; two weeks of a nasty upper respiratory virus have left me weak, and I need to get my cardio endurance back up and running.

So I’ll pose the question to you: what would you do next? We are toying with the idea of doing some cross country mountain bike races  next fall, but that’s still a long way off. I’d like to hit spring ready to climb and stronger than I left fall (avg pwr on smooth road rides around 135w). With other workouts, yoga, skiing, kids, and cooking on my plate, I reasonably have time to ride 3-4x a week for 1-1 1/2h if I’m really dedicated.