SilentStorm's Journal

Speaking as a hockey fan, how beautiful is today?!?

Another game night, another smacking down of the Flyers by my 'Guins! I haven't been this excited since back in '91 and '92, during our two cup runs! Yeah baby, Yee-aaahhh!!!!

Still doing normal stuff with regards to the Tri, but I'm now get to incorporate a couple new machines into the mix. One is a device called the AMT 100i by Precor. It's an "Adaptive Motion Trainer" that has aspects of an elliptical machine, an ArcTrainer, and stairclimber all wrapped into one.

If you are curious, do a Google or Yahoo! search for this. By choosing how wide a stride you want, it will exercise different muscles accordingly. Not as evil as an ArcTrainer by itself, but it's a tough nut to crack nonetheless.

The other is an upright bike that I cannot recall the name of. However, there is one very interesting thing about it. It has a computer screen that you look at, and it gives you a computer-generated trail and riders to follow. You actually "steer" the bike, and if there are uphill segments on the trail, it increases the resistance on the pedals to mimic an actual uphill experience. There's even a mock shift on the main stem supporting the handlebars that allows you to adjust the "gearing" accordingly.

I tried it last week with a short course and was impressed. This week, I tried a tougher trail and got some rude shocks when the grade on the trail jumped up to 30% in spots. Boy, was that a shock to deal with! Still, it's now my favorite because of the simulations it offers you. Heaven help me if there is a l'Alpe de Huez course on it! (If you aren't a Tour de France nut, you won't understand how big a deal that one is. Trust me on that.)

Edit note - The bike in question is made by a company called Expresso Fitness. We have the upright bike at our gym. They also make a recumbent bike.