I was going through my archives and came across this workout report from Ryan Davenport, an athlete I have coached for several years back in Boston.
Ryan is a young guy with a lot of athletic ability, was captain of his track team at Boston College, loves to cycle, and a regular training partner of his is Tyler Hamilton, ex-US Postal Rider and now the lead rider for Credit Agricole, for whom he finished 2nd overall in last year’s Giro d’Italia.
Ryan has quite a collection of riding stories from when Tyler was with US Postal. Lance and Roberto Heras both passed through Boston on different occasions and he was able to long rides with these stars.
In any case, I just love this workout report that Ryan sent along some time ago. Next time you are feeling hassled about getting a workout in or are feeling short in the motivation department, remember this example of what a “can-do” attitude produces.
Ryan’s Epic Winter Workout Since my landlords have complained about me biking in the house, I had to move my computrainer to the backporch. The backporch, although enclosed, is not heated nor insulated.
I have a thermometer on the porch which read 18 degree F at the start of my workout. I had to wear a hat, gloves, armwarmers, legwarmers, and jacket. After warming up or 20 min., I had to stop and put on booties because my toes were frozen.
The plan was EA11 but I was so cold that I was beginning to doubt that the workout would take place. However, by 35 minutes, I was actually starting to warm the porch up with my body heat and began peeling off layers. I started the workout and was going pretty good. . . steam was just flying off me and ice crystals formed on my shirt as I began to sweat hard.
Half way through the workout, the wind (which is gusting to 50mph here) blew the door to the porch open. Snow is now blowing around the room. I had to either stop the workout and get off the bike and close the door or continue. . . I continued. At this point I was only wearing bibshorts, HR monitor, and hat and gloves. I have the Beastie Boys blasting on the stereo and my neighbors, seeing the door open, came over to see what was going on. . . .I am afraid to think what I looked like at that moment. . .
No one said anything to me, they just stared at me as I gritted my teeth and headed for L4. . . everytime I looked down, I hoped to look up and see no one watching. Eventually, my landlords came down and watched from the warmth of their house. . . . I had quite the audience.
I finished EA11 and sat up to spin for a little bit. I smiled at my neighbors and they waved and I could see the weird “what the hell is wrong with this kid” look on their faces. My landlords were gone. I put some clothes back on but they were frozen. I grabbed my water bottle but it had frozen as well. There was a 3 inch snow drift in the back corner of my porch.
I closed the door and wedged it shut with a shovel and went inside to take a shower. . . rather pleased with myself.
2 hours later, my landlords came down and said I could bike indoors if I liked.
