Virtual Time Trial

Now Sport in Arden Hills held a virtual time trial contest at their store. It's just down the road from work so some of my work biking buddies go over there at noon for their winter training. For some it's a better option then trying to get on the trainer at home with kids, etc., drawing on their time.

For the TT everyone would bring in there own bike, then the guys at Now would set it up on their computer training system. The system puts a load on the wheel to simulate the ride that we see on the TV. There is a computer bike rider that represents me. So as the computer biker went up a hill I could feel the pedaling get heavier. All I was missing was the wind! Although you can see that they had fans so at least I could stay cool.



The TT was about 5 miles long which amounted to about 12-14 minutes for most people. As you can see in the picture as I was finishing, it really gave me a workout! According to the final results, I finished 4th. Its fun to see that 4 of the top 6th are people I ride with at work including the top 2. Paul at Now Sports plans to do the virtual TT more this winter. I do my own trainer work at home in the basement but it can be boring. Stuff like this is good motivation to keep training.