Rollers

When Mr. Lady Roadie first ordered a set of rollers last winter, I tried them out for about two seconds with my hybrid before deciding rollers are intended for the mentally unstable.  He's been happily using them ever since, although I do have to occasionally untangle him from his bike post-mishap.  For those of you not familiar, these are rollers:

As you can see, there is nothing to hold your bike in place, and with a little wobbling you could ride right off the rollers.  This is what can happen:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HN1cuVRRRzM 


However, they can greatly improve your bike handling and are less boring than a trainer, so two weeks ago, I decided to give them another try.   There may have been both screams and tears involved.  I got set up in a doorway, with Mr. Lady Roadie to the front and side, ready to catch me if there was a fall.  Every time I started pedaling, it felt exactly like I was trying to bike on ice.  Mr. Lady Roadie insisted that if I went faster it would be easier.  It was, to an extent, possibly because only people who no longer value their life and health could go FASTER on rollers.  I was holding onto the doorway nearly the whole time, and it took all my courage to make that giant leap from doorway to both hands on the handlebars.  I had to draw from other scenarios where I acknowledged to myself that I was afraid, for a good reason, and then proceeded to do whatever thing I was reasonably afraid of anyway.  I'm sure most of us have had experiences like that.  I'm a horseback rider, and I frequently have that reasonable surge of fear when I'm told to tackle some jumps I feel are beyond my (very limited) ability.  With riding, I take a deep breath and put my faith in the horse.  I'm not as sure its logical to put faith in an inanimate object like a bicycle, but that's what I had to do to get both hands on the handlebars.  I spent maybe 30 minutes on the rollers, moving in fits and starts but mostly hanging onto the doorway for dear life, and probably clocked less than half a mile total.

Today, I realized I was half a mile short of my weekly goal.  I had a lazy rainy morning, and then I had to work at the barn, and by the time I got back it was dark.  It seemed silly to set up the bike on the trainer for a half mile ride (okay, it was a lazy day, not just morning), so rollers it was.  And it actually went better than I thought possible!  Getting started was daunting, and putting both hands on the handlebars was frightening, but once I settled in I went for 3 miles with no major incidents.  I stopped when the sweat started dripping into my eyes, and I was too scared to take a hand off the handlebars to wipe it off.  Next time I'll set up a fan, definitely.  I'm not sure what it is about rollers that makes one sweat so much!