Make the Kid Suffer

Sometimes when I have a trainer ride, Julian gets excited and wants to ride the trainer as well.  Usually this ends up being nothing more than 20 minutes of spinning for him, but he's done better lately with a recent full hour trainer ride.  After all, he does want to build up some quads like one of his favorite riders - Peter Sagan from team Liquigas.  This time was going to be different.

Julian was already happily spinning along when I began my warm-up.  After about 10 minutes I asked him if he was going to join me on my intervals.  He looked slightly apprehensive but said yes.  On the menu was high cadence drills - 10 sets of 30sec with 1min recovery.  Like any set of intervals, the first few are reasonable but then recovery gets harder and the legs burn quicker.  I let him know what was coming and that no matter how hard it got, he was capable of completing the workout.  When the time came I counted out loud to cue him .....

5 ..... 4 ..... 3 ..... 2 ..... 1 .....

1st interval - It took him a little time to figure out the right gear and really accelerate the feet but he was in a nice groove by the end of the 30sec.

2nd interval - Already in an easier gear he was able to spin up much more quickly.  He also discovered how much quicker the legs can start burning.  I think he was relieved when I shouted out, "Rest!" to indicate the recovery phase.

3rd interval - By now this was becoming a full fledged "event".  Julian was starting to feel it and our cheering section of Angelia and Connor were getting louder by the moment.  Angelia would be yelling, "Go Julian!", "Keep it going!", "You got it, Julian!" while Connor was busy yelling "Go, go, go!" and "You're gonna beat him Daddy!" (Yes, he's a Daddy's boy.)

4th interval - Getting tougher for him (me too) and I talk him through what he's experiencing.  Especially dealing with that mental thing that happens during intervals where the efforts seem to get longer and longer while the recoveries feel shorter and shorter.

Sagan leading the field.

5th thru 7th interval - Real suffering occurring here.  It was no longer enough to just cheer him on.  Angelia was creating race situations and yelling, "Here comes Peter Sagan!  Hold him off!  Go! Go! Go!"

8th and 9th interval - I think it took every ounce of guts he had just to turn the cranks at this point.  The idea of a fun night on the trainer with Dad had long passed.  Pain was evident on the face and in the body position.  I wasn't doing much better as I was getting some tightness in the core that was making things a bit uncomfortable.  Still, I focused on Julian.  "Only 1 more to go.  You can do anything for 30 seconds.  Give this everything you have.  You'll have all night to recover afterwards."

10th and final interval - He dug deep and turned in a solid final effort, collapsing over his handle bars when I shouted, "Rest!"  His whole body was slumped over and the cranks stopped turning.  Naturally we still had a cool-down to do and I told him to keep the feet moving - that cadence didn't matter anymore but he needed to keep the legs moving for the next 15 minutes.  He was not thrilled with that idea.  Of course this provided ample opportunity to discuss why we cool down properly and the benefits of doing it as well as what can happen when you skip it.  Eventually the 15 minutes passed and he was never so relieved as when I told him we were done.  The only question is ..... will he ride the trainer with me again?

Sagan won this round but hopefully Julian will give him another run for it.