Early Morning Workout Advice

Tommy_Morgan

Y'all,

New TeamEN member here trying to pick the brains of those much smarter than I.  Just jumped on board after Open House and am in OS right now before transitioning over to beginner HIM plan for IM Augusta 70.3 on 9/26/10. 

Like most, I'm an o'dark early workout person who generally hops on my road bike about 5:00-5:15.  I have a NR Sol for the front and 2 blinking lights (1 red, 1 white) on the bike. I finally purchased a tri bike (2010 Cervelo P1) which I'm hoping to pick up off of lawaway in the next few weeks.  I need help in figuring out a way to mount a light system on a tri bike and tips for being able to mount my Garmin 305 so I can be able to (hopefully) see the readings for interval workouts. 

I'd appreciate anyone's thoughts/advice/pics.  Thanks.

Nemo Brauch

Have you considered mounting a light to your helmet? I recently bought a set of Knog Frog LED Lights- they are cheap and easily strap onto my helmet with no mounting. They don't provide enough light by themselves to illuminate the road for 5:00am riding, but they do let me see the PowerMeter computer and I figure one more little light helps cars see me too.

Fratto

Wish I could help but at 5am I am locked into a trainer in my garage =(
Wish I could do an outdoor ride! Makes me appreciate my weekend rides!

jetskr

Tommy, I'm lucky enough that that I can wait until the sun is starting to rise before hitting my outdoor rides. Depending on the lights you have you could mount one on each of the bull arms. I have a PM mounted in the middle and just leave the 305 on my wrist and let it beep at me. The great thing is you can program the workouts into it and even type a little txt for it to display. So as long as you know the general structure of that workout you should know when to work and when to rest.

Kitboo

Depending on how dark the roads are at 5am (are there street lights?), you should consider a light mounted on your helmet as well as one on your bike. And as many blinking lights possible on your back (on the bike, on the back of your shorts, on the back of your helmet).
I only ride my mountain bike in completely darkness. I've found that a helmet and a bike light are helpful. You could mount your bike light to the "wing" portion of your aerobars (the part between the bar extensions and the brake levers).
I got a really good deal for my bike and helmet lights from dealextreme.com. Here's a link: http://www.dealextreme.com/products.dx/category.905

tri_antelope

Tommy, my question for you would be which element are you trying to optimize around?

a) riding outside at 5 a.m.?

b)  getting in a high quality interval session at 5 a.m.

If it is a), then some good lighting is definitely what you need, if it is b) I highly recommend the trainer.  Much safer way to focus on getting in a quality level of effort at that hour of the day.  If you are having to worry about whether or not you can see the road, or cars can see you, or if you can see your power meter, then it's going to be hard to focus on hitting target watts for the intervals.  Just my $.02

Tommy_Morgan

Thanks to all for the replies. For background, I currently only have a road bike and generally have no problems seeing where I'm going. I've dodged deer, raccoons, possums, dogs, trucks/cars/vans/semis and once narrowly avoided a skunk. My routes are on mostly back roads where headlights/juke joints/the moon are the only ambient lighting. I've been riding outside at 5-ish since mid-March but haven't really been pushing my pace too much.

As identified by Michael, I'm looking forward to hitting the quality bike interval sessions on my new tri bike that I purchased. I am trying to find out if anyone has mounted any light systems onto their ride and how they address trying to see their PM (which I don't have) or Garmin or computer when doing the intervals. The trainer is probably the best bet, but sitting in the garage in South Carolina in the summer and the lows are in the upper 70s/low 80s does not have loads of appeal to me. I try and get outside every chance I get but if the trainer is my best bet, I reckon I'll just HTFU.

Jeff pointed out that I could program my 305 but that's way too techie for me. I'd likely end up reprogramming some satellites or something.

If anyone has any clarifications or other thoughts, I'm all ears. Thanks again for the replies.

Norton

Tommy,

Dipping my toes into the world of randonneuring has brought me face to face with all things bike-lighting related.

If you really want to go psycho get a Schmidt Son20 dynohub firing an Edulux headlight. Big bux. Me? I opted for an Ixon headlight and a Planet Bike Superflash.