Who are you on the bike? — Increasing Intervals

1) For my Millenials, this week’s banner is from Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure movie. I never realized how much bikes were a part of his shows. Filmed in the midst of the BMX bike craze, just about everyone I knew was riding. Then came Nintendo — and video games in general. Much like the post-pandemic downturn of indoor cycling, only the diehards, the self-explorers and goal-chasers remained. The fad, and Pee-Wee’s show, was over. To quote Kendrick Lamar: “We gon be alright!”

2) This week, I challenged my riders to see themselves differently on the bike. To understand the fad is over and there’s real work to be done. We discussed Vincent Van Gogh and his self-portraits. How his color palette went from dark colors to brighter ones. Some say he was going crazy toward the end of his life, but the hues in his later works are quite bright. He essentially reinvented himself!

3) In class, most can see themselves in the mirror. But post-pandemic, are you willing to redefine who you are on the bike? To paint a new image of you?

4) This week’s profile contained five successively increasing effort blocks. The playlist is above . . . with the profile shown

below.

5) Over the next few weeks, we’ll discuss the various types of cyclists. Perhaps you’ll discover a new you on the bike? We start with the time-trialist.

The time-trialist is an expert at maintaining a hard steady pace over long distances. In the last 5 miles of the race, time trialists often attack. Without assistance, they can hold off a group of riders. Dutch rider Tom Dumoulin, a former world-time trial champion, has one of the smoothest pedal strokes in cycling..

On the women’s side, few do it better than Annamiek van Vleuten: