041 : 013 fan bike inoculation

I have a few new folks (and a few who should know better) who have not yet been able to wrap their heads around an honest 10 minute airdyne test, and after the most recent “fitness is fucked” podcast, curiosity has been piqued. I have found that a target  of bodyweight (in pounds) in calories is a good stretch goal for most people – as in attainable with diligent and deliberate effort over months, but for the uninitiated getting on a bike and “just going for it” is a recipe for disaster, and often for avoidance of the test itself. This is a little structure I put together to give people an easier on-ramp, to try and lower the psychological toll so they can get a dose of hard work for the right duration, and start to wrap their head around it actually being possible. 

Opener

Spin on the air bike at conversational pace for 5:00

Then

5:00 accelerating air bike starting at a conversational pace

Then 

5:00 accelerating air bike starting at the average pace of the previous piece

Then

20 rounds of :15/:15 where the first :15 seconds is ~ 5 rpm or 50 watts under your previous average and the other :15 is faster than that. 

Notes

The accelerating pieces are useful tool in exploring the feeling of correct (and often more importantly: incorrect) pace. An easy way to think of it is that you should start at an east pace and accelerate a little bit every :15-30 seconds. The idea is to constantly ask yourself “is this progression reasonable?” And then to test your answer. For the second accelerating piece the start place should be easy, but also feel like work. While I still am constantly asking if i can accelerate smoothly I answer “yes” less frequently, and the top end speed is much lower. The idea here is to shrink the window and get more comfortable with this type of discomfort. 

When we move in to the :15/:15, remember that the slower portion or “floor” is the more important part here, be wary of going so fast during the secondary portion that it impacts your ability to hold your desired pace. Press the pace, for sure – but never to the point where it interrupts your ability to hold the floor. The idea here is to distract the player from the idea of a 10 minute test and to try to have the physical experience of a hard 10 minutes without the dread of being 3 minutes in and being overwhelmed with the idea of pushing the pace for another 7. 

One more structure that helped with inoculation is longer accelerating pieces.

10 minutes accelerating. 

15 minutes accelerating a few rpm/watts every 5 minutes. 

30 minutes accelerating a few rpm/watts every 10 minutes.