Breaking Away, Prefontaine or Without Limits, Bloodsport, Gladiator, Braveheart for a good mix of sports and action. When I lived in a rainier climate and spent a lot of time on the old trainer I found surf videos a great way to pass time. Surfing is very mesmerizing to watch and the videos are usually shot in sunny locations - worked for me. I don't ride the trainer much these days but at the gym when I ride the bike I can watch 2 hours of ESPN Sportscenter no problem.

If you're putting in the long slow miles watching a movie or two is a great idea. We used to have "movie night" in here when Charlie McCall and I used to ride the trainer and watch two movies back to back. We called them "2 movie rides".

I've watched "Titanic" (I love that movie), "Heat", "Shawshank Redemption", "Mission Impossible 2", All James Bond movies. I'll watch anything. I'm not fussy.

Speaking of time on the trainer, check this out (I'm in Netscape, copy and paste in your browser):

http://www.bikesportmichigan.com/editorials/0000051.shtml

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

Aside from the obligatory TdF & IM tapes, I enjoy watching concert DVD's and college basketball. Concerts are cool for those just putting in time rides. For hard/easy rides, I love to watch my Tarheels play. My typical strategy is to spin/recover while the clock is running, and do various big gear or out of the saddle or TT efforts during timeouts and commercials.



Happy trails,

Chris

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Happy trails,
Chris

I started renting DVD's of prior seasons of TV shows that I don't have time to watch. Specifically, I've watched all of season 2 of "24" and am now watching the first season of "Sopranos". Each DVD has 4 episodes and no ads, and each episode usually end with a cliff hanger, especially on "24", so you're easily drawn into another 45 minutes of riding as the next episode plays out.

Alias and Sex in the City also have DVDs out of prior seasons and I'm sure others do. DVDs are the only way to go on the trainer since you can ususally get subtitles and avoid missing subltle communication in the show that the trainer noise would drown out.

My favorite is Girls Gone Wild with Snoop Dogg.

You can't go wrong with Rudy.

Babylon 5. I think it's the best scifi series ever. It's good for the bike, better for the treadmill. 4 episodes per disc @ 45 minutes per episode means that it works for almost any workout you do. My wife got me the first three seasons on DVD for Christmas, bless her.

So I recommend that you buy your favorite TV show on DVD and watch it while you run/ride. It will make the time melt away when you're doing LSD. Oh, I kill me.

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Thanks for this post. A hamstring strain has confined me to the bike, and weather and darkness have shackled the bike to the trainer.

Two flicks that I used this weekend: three hours with "Lord of the Rings: the Two Towers" and 2 hours with "Pirates of the Caribbean." "O Lord Where Art Thou?" is pretty entertaining for an endurance-based ride, also.

My ride yesterday on the trainer was 1:45 while watching Clint Eastwood in A Fistful of Dollars. I like to watch anything with action that doesn't require too much concentration. Last weekend it was "Basic" with John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson which is a pretty good flick. I always rent moview for my longer weekend rides and pick some that I know my wife won't want to watch :) For cool, sports-oriented movies you can't beat Prefontaine or Without Limits as mentioned in another post.