Sunday Gym Spin, round two!

For this past Sundays gym spin we were happy to have Peter S. join Lenny, Craig and myself for the fun. Better still Pete brought the 2007 solstice 'movie'. the deal with the movie was that they sent a rider out for a fast afternoon lap with a helmet vid-cam on. He turned in a 52:08min lap so it was VERY representative of the speed I was riding it myself. So, while we spun base miles we got to 'do' a lap of the solstice course.
It.
Was.
Awesome.
So much fun to watch a lap of a course we all knew so well and watching it on the big screen while turning circles was completely engrossing. It was actually very weird to be pedalling away reading the trail on the screen anticipating the bumps, compressions etc. and then *not* feel them on the bike. Totally unnerving and even weirder when the camera guy started flying through the single track. We were all leaning, steering, bobbing, swaying just about falling off our road bikes! damn good thing the trainer is stable! It was also interesting to remember and actually 'feel' how hard some of the albion course sections were when we were just pedalling trainers.
Conversation during were based around our collective and individual perceptions of the course.
e.g.
"oh shit, I hate this section. it just kicks my ass every time!"
"yeah, you've just blown yer legs up that last climb, cross the road thinking it'll be, and needing a recovery and are totally not ready for this energy sucking false flat with the loose sandy shit."
"yeah, yeah. ..oh this! this root! bites me too! I only got the timing for that right once. ..saves sooo much energy when you get it right."
"can you believe they put the water station here? jeesus! who can drink after that section??"
"this corner is retarded! and that wood runner down the middle of the bridge is a menace!"
"hey, is that where Channy bought it?"
etc etc.

That film made the session. The 52:00min went just as fast as a real solstice lap. Which is to say that it hurt bad for a few minutes at the start then was sooo much fun for 30min and then back into the "holy jeezus fukin krist, is this not over yet??? waddaya mean 5km to go?? that can't be right!!??"
yep, just like solstice! weee!!!

Looking forward to next week! I hope Pete can make it again cause that was an awesome diversion for an hour.

On another note, I was watching that solstice lap thinking how much it hurt and how hard it was to maintain that effort for 17km and wondering how I'll be able to pace out and manage my effort for the BC Bike Race.

shit. 100+km days. Get that 'managing your effort' thing wrong and yer a long looonnng way from the finish line! ..only to wake up the next day an do it again. eeesh. Thankfully we'll get some good long back-to-back days in North Carolina end of March.