I’ve been in Albuquerque this week for work. I had planned to bring the Cotic (it needs a name still) and grab a couple of rides while I was there. Obviously things didn’t go according to plan.
I ordered a bike bag from CRC a couple of weeks ago, the Evoc bike bag. My Cotic is just about within the dimensions that can fit in the bag. The issue is the length. I received the bag on time but with work getting in the way I didn’t try and start packing until the afternoon before I left. With the bike in the bag the rear dropouts push the back of the bag out. Almost to the point where it looks like they would not have proper protection. It looks like if the bag were tilted on its end the dropouts would make contact before the support rods.
Given that I had left myself too little time to confidently figure out a safe packing arrangement, and to put the fork token in, I decided to leave my bike at home this time. My hotel would have a workout room and I can ride the bike in there.
Turn on, tune in, sit down and spin
The recumbent. Over the years of traveling I have generally tried to avoid using gym exercise bikes. The saddles are uncomfortable, and the position has typically not felt great for me. Recently though I have been using the exercise bikes, a little warm up and warm down spin, which has been fine. I haven’t used a recumbent exercise bike for years, so I thought I would try and do some Z2 work on the recumbent at my hotel. It shouldn’t be too hard and I can catch up watching some MTB videos on youtube. I rode twice. Both attempts really killed my legs. The armchair seat was very uncomfortable and I got a numb butt quickly. But my lack of leg strength was the most concerning
I’m guessing, although I don’t know for sure, that the recumbent pedaling position uses different muscles. It felt like a struggle to maintain a cadence. I couldn’t get a ‘saddle’ position that felt good, so I had the ‘saddle’ back and then I slid slightly forwards on it. This didn’t help with my numb butt. Both days I couldn’t go for much more than 30 mins and I’m hoping it’s because of the bike rather than my legs. Nothing felt natural about the riding on the recumbent.
Twisting my melon
This evening I decided to catch up on my reading and blog writing (natch), and also eating some fruit. Albertsons had a large fruit bowl which has a good mix of strawberries, pineapple, grapes and melons. Usually these bowls have much more melon and less of the other fruits. This one is about an even balance, which is great. It’s snowing again back home which means I’ll be back to Zwift tomorrow I guess. I may have to get some 27.5 wheels and some plus tyres and build an almost fat bike for the snow.