Back to the drum roll for you who did not see the Facebook picture.
I did not go to the pool Friday morning. Why? I wanted to start putting the new machine together. I got out there in the cold with a cup of coffee in hand a started unboxing the new purchase. That took awhile and then I started putting it together. After about fifty minutes of work, I went inside to get ready for work, the formal kind.
At work, I wanted to be home playing with my new toy. I watched some videos on how to put it together since I was not finished.
Wait, weren't you at work?
It's punishment week. We have about a day's worth of actual work to do, and I had done mine, but administration is always looking for ways to punish teachers for daring to be teachers.
So at lunch, I went home and guess what I did? Yeah, I finished putting the new Plate City piece together. And I got to test it a little.
Enough already! What is it?
It's a Rogue Echo bike.
Huh?
Here is a picture.
But I thought you were a Titan man.
I am. I researched this purchase for months, really for months. I looked at both products, read reviews on their web sites, and more importantly, watched dozens of YouTube videos on each bike. The reason I went Rogue came down to the moniter. The Rogue moniter is easy to use (I knew how before I made the purchase) while the Titan moniter requires you to type in your age in before each use.
WHAT!?!?!?
Yeah, that killed it for me. I plan, at times, to hop on and start grinding. I don't want to have to enter my age every single time I use it.
How will I use it?
Let me count the ways. (See what I did there, Bill Hays)
One is as a warmup. It certainly gets the heart rate up and gets the blood flowing in both the lower and upper body muscles. Two is as a finisher. Like most people who use a gym, I like finishers, short but intense bouts of exercise at the end. Three is as a bike exerciser. I find it difficult to get on my bicyle and hit the road. Between a job, swimming, running, and lifting, cycling tends to get edged out. Having a bicyle there should lead to more use, just as having a treadmill there has lead to more running.
But you had a stationary back there already.
Actually, I've had two. Gerald Johnson gave me one, and I used it for a while. It began to make noise, however, and then it seized up. I guess it didn't like living in the rain. Then when Plate City got a roof, I bought a used stationary from a gym in Cleveland. It worked well, but I found myself using it less and less because of the toe clips. I didn't like the hassle of getting into the pedals. Plus, I have a trainer for my road bike, but that requires cycling shoes and clipping in. The new bike has pedals that can be jumped on and used with no preparation and no trying to squeeze into.
Besides cycle training, I plan to use the bike for general conditioning. I am thinking of hitting the bike, then jumping straight on to an already running treadmill. The bike is made primarily for high intensity work. It runs the heart rate up high and it does it fast. Jumping off it onto the treadmill at a moderate pace will give my body practice at clearing lactic acid while running. That's called "active recovery" for you exercise geeks.
Not only that, but I can see it being part of a circuit involving the Swim Pull and the skiergg.
Huh?
Yeah, this thing not only works the legs, but it hits the arm, chest, and back also. Can you spell d-r-y-l-a-n-d? And that is if you use it the regular way. It has footpegs that allow you to operate it using only the upper body. Yeah, Buddy!
In short, this is a valuable piece of equipment that adds tremendous flexibility to what I can do at the City. Oh, did I mention hopping on, running the heart rate up, then going out the gate and onto the road for a run? The possiblities are endless.
What else did I do? I took a short run and did my pull workout. And all the while I was jumping on and off that bike. Life is good. Thank you, Jesus.
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