We all know spending hours on the indoor trainer can be more than a little boring. Being the first year on the trainer, I've tried all the usual ways of passing the time. What I have found is the more I try to occupy my mind with things "Not" cycling, the less I am focused on the training itself. I don't suspect this to be a good thing.
Since posture and efficiency are so important, I have been practicing the following.
To help direct my attention to the area I am training, I often use a little Zen to help me stay focused. For example, today's training from RightWay Personal Training involved low cadence intervals and high cadence rest periods.
During the four minute low cadence reps I counted the RPM's of EACH pedal stroke; concentrating on even workloads for each side. During the high cadence periods I concentrated on keeping the upper-body smooth and the lower-body efficiently cruising along.
I will often count my cadence and then spend a minute trying to keep the cadence the same, then count it again to see how I am doing. In this way I hope to teach my body to "feel" it's way into a zone and stay with it. In the meantime my focus is where it needs to be, the energy is being directed to where it should be and the time is ticking away. Before I know it I'm heading into the final minutes of the workout. Zen and the Joyride4Life... Live it...
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I was a serious runner many years ago, before the days of ipod (or Walkman, or other such devices). Other runners often asked me what I thought about during a long run to distract me from the pain and boredom of running. I found such questions amazing, and tried to explain that rather than trying to distract myself from what I was doing, I concentrated on it; every little thing, like foot plant, breathing rhythm, arm swing & such. Those who were seeking distraction were invariably slower than I was; I never knew anyone faster than I who claimed to need distraction! I'm no expert, but I think you are on to something here!
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