AS THE MERCURY FALLS.

As much as I like to not let it affect me, it's hard not to talk about the weather when you primary activity of the day is being outside riding a bike. Just like any cyclist out there, we've all suffered through some nasty days, be it ridiculously hot where it feels like your face is melting off, or so frigidly cold that you cannot feel your extremities. I'm sure many of you would disagree, but I will always take the super hot ride over the cold one! I've finished rides completely crippled by the cold, unable to correctly process thoughts and upon reaching the house hopping straight into bed still in the lycra. Not a pleasant experience! So over this last week the Denver mercury has plummeted to the point where I've dusted off the rollers for the first time this off season. No big deal, I don't complain as this is what I do for a job, but riding indoors provides a whole new cycling challenge to tackle. Tuesday I went through four small bidons in 2.5hrs and still came out losing 1.5kg. Without the wind drying the sweat loss, out on the road it's hard to judge that sort of fluid loss. It's easy when the puddle is right underneath you on the floor however! Being a big music nerd, I do relish in the opportunity to crank the tunes and sink my ear drums into some audio goodness. I've recently discovered that the local library is a pretty rich resource for my music tastes and I'm frequently making trips there to pick up items on reserve. Here is a run down of some of the tunes that get me through:

Tool

For whatever reason I've gravitated towards listening to these guys a bunch over the past few weeks.  As mentioned my library topped up my previous one album collection.  It's aggressive yet super melodic and the extended track play outside the "normal" three minute pop song is a nice feature when your doing stationary bike time.  The frequent use of odd time signatures and creative drum loops is equally as stimulating for the brain, and it's always a nice blend of loud and soft dynamics so when it's game on for an interval usually there is something there to give you a boost.  Album wise I've locked into "Lateralus" pretty strongly.  It's a brilliant piece of work, and actually there is huge amount of mathematical thinking and blending within the title track of the song.  If you have a spare 9 minutes, watch this video.  Genius.



 Silversun Pickups
This was a classic, "I've heard of these guys and look there is their album on the library shelf lets give it a go" type scenario.  It's catchy in an easy to digest sort of way, and I think the lead singers vocals are great, something a little outside the norm.  Pretty driving stuff and sounds great when cranked to 11.  I have both albums but I'd probably rate Swoon as a good pedaling accompaniment. 



Less Than Jake.
I hadn't listened to these guys for quite sometime and I forgot how fun they were.  Vocal harmonies are sweet and you can't go past a horn section.  This always goes down great with about 30min to go.



So there you have it! Other than cycling or music concert DVD's, I'm not really into the whole watching a movie while on the trainer thing.  I've tried it before, but I just end up losing focus and my legs slow down.  Something about being a male and multitasking I don't know......