Kurt Kinetic Road Machine

Kurt Kinetic Road Machine set-up, complete
with flywheel, resistance unit, and roller.

Between taking time off running to recover from 2012 and having no time due to the baby, I found this winter to be the time to add an indoor training option to keep up my aerobic fitness. I ended up settling on the Kurt Kinetic Road Machine, an indoor cycle trainer that uses "thermodynamically neutral silicone resistance fluid" in a seal chamber with a magnetically coupled drive shaft...; long story short, it's a smooth, quiet ride with automatic resistance that changes as you shift gears and speed. Fluid trainers give consistent resistance at all temperatures, and the 6.25-pound flywheel gives a pretty realistic feel when both hammering and coasting.

Set-up was easy, and had it assembled in no time. I paired it with a Kinetic fixed riser ring for the front wheel, and a generic equipment mat and sweat net.

To avoid boredom spinning in one place, I've been doing Flying 40 intervals. They consist of 40 seconds of hard pedaling (100+ cadence) in a middle gear followed by 20 seconds of recovery, completed 10 times for one set, and repeated for four sets with five minute recovery periods. I end up with a hard one-hour workout that really ramps up my heart rate.

Complete set-up in my "pain cave" corner of the basement.

  

Cranking out some intervals.