For a little entertainment I mapped out the Prescott to Sedona AZ route for RAW/RAAM a few years ago and loaded it onto the CompuTrainer. Because it fit into my training plan I drew up a previous `performance' that I did on this route in 2005 on the DF and raced against myself today.
It wasn't long before I let my `previous' self race ahead of me knowing that I planned to be on the trainer for 2 hours today and probably 4 tomorrow, that I wasn't mashing myself up in training these days like I used to back then, and that my `previous' self was only riding for 1:30:00 hours.
As I/we/me moved into/onto Mingus Mountain, up towards Jerome I started gaining on myself. I always do better on the hills. But so did `me' of 4 years ago, so I never really caught myself.
If I race against myself for a longer period than I set the previous performance the previous `me' continues on at the wattage `me' was doing when `I' stopped the last time. It turned out `me' was doing 322 watts up the mountain at that time four years ago (gulp!).
I laughed outloud when I saw that I was racing against a `me' doing a steady 322 watts. My wife came down, wondering if she was finally going to cash in on my life insurance.
A few minutes later, as we were getting to the top of the route, in the city of Jerome, AZ, the totally wacky feature of DeLorme courses had me climbing a hill with a 45% incline. Of course, the electromagnetic load generator will register inclines only as steep as 15%. Thereafter it just pretended that the other `30%' incline didn't exist. And I was crawling up a 45% hill in my 30x34.
Another loud laugh that had my wife stomping on the upstairs floor to keep me quiet down there in the basement.
Honestly, the workouts on the `virtual' courses are sort of fun and entertaining but in no way are they as challenging as when the C'trainer is set at just ergometer mode. For example, set the resistance at 160 watts and push. Very hard to do for long.
