Battle of the Roll

So I got myself a set of rollers.

The good news is I haven't injured myself.  The bad news is I need to touch up the walls again, but after tonight's successful ride I'd say things are getting better.

My main reasoning behind getting rollers was that lately a few things have happened: life went "HEY YOU SEEM COMFORTABLE LETS GET BUSY" and my internal clock shifted yet again, so suddenly midnight seems like a nifty time to ride my bike.  I was also sitting inside one weekend as the rain was pouring down and thought that maybe it wasn't such a bad idea to have something around that I can release some energy on, so here we are.

Truthfully, I'm not training for anything, and because of my temperamental heart I probably never will.  But that doesn't mean that when things get nutty I want to just sit around, and lately my little grocery store trips and short commutes aren't cutting it for me.  Having to divide my time between building and riding has been a lot harder than I thought, and building has certainly taken a priority.  

So I did some research and went with rollers over a trainer due to recommendations from friends and the fact that the benefits of rollers appealed to me more.  I read articles and watched some hilarious and awful YouTube videos - some people who made them look like it was nothing more than a smooth transition from the ground, and others who probably broke a few bones trying them out for the first time.  Properly inspired (and terrified), my rollers arrived and I set them up between two walls, adjusted the wheelbase, and plopped Nine down on them for some fixed gear rolling.  

Then I promptly fell into the wall.  

That's about how my first two attempts went, so if nothing else I've learned that my core is way too weak and I need to focus on my upper body a bit more, and also that there's a benefit to wrapping your bars in tape that matches the color of your walls.  After some good advice from a few friends, the third time was better.  Then this time was the best.  

Two of my biggest mistakes were that I kept looking down, and also that I was in way too high of a gear starting out.  I've been thinking of changing up Nine's ratio, but now that I'm getting the hang of these things maybe I'll stick with it a bit more before I go on a belt drive shopping spree. 

I'll win this war, rollers.  I will win it hard.  

I have give a shout out to a good friend of mine for giving me advice regarding the rollers before I purchased them, and also for her advice when I was failing miserably and needed help.  Thank you Melissa!