Thursday, January 15, 2009
S.tart P.edaling I.ndoors N.ow
I'm taking it easy tonight. There's a "YOGA Flow" class at 6:30 which I may try to do.. Thanks for reading.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Tuesday Recap +
Looking at one year ago, it's very easy to see why my knees were shot after Jan 13- I did two epic rides that weekend- 4+ hours on Sat and 3+ hours on Sunday. You can see the huge spike there in the pink ATL. I have avoided such Tom Foolery this winter, and I'm increasing training load in much more metered doses, as you can see in the above chart showing you how my CTL (42 day constant in Blue) is moving up a lot more gradually this year. Year before, CTL jumped 11-12 points in two days, from an already low TSS of 45/day. It's little wonder I needed to get the Active Release therapy to my knees. No such problems in 2009.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Monday Recap
40 minute spin in the morning, after an extremely restless 6 hours of sleep. After work, I bolted over to the Y for spin class with my wife. A challenging 61:41 at 200w average, 94 rpm and 159 bpm. The new shoes feel weird but gave me no discomfort.- my old DMTs have the DIY heat molded insoles and I didn't realize how well they conform to me, til tonight.
SSSsss... Rosssssaaa..
From the land where child laborers skillfully wrap round gear shift knobs and motorcycle gas tanks with brittle burl veneers.. somehow.. I give you this work of art: a DeRosa clad completely with the skin of a python, which the artisan/former Turkish National Team member claims he trapped himself. I believe him about the laminating.. There are a few more pictures, but my time is limited at the moment.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Saturday: short and tough, Sunday: Nautilus
Having slept in a little late and missed the 8:00 am ArcenCiel ride on Saturday (it was 15 degrees out- my limit is 20 degrees) I ended up leaving on a punishing solo excursion at 3:00, making sure to take my headlight because I knew it would be dark when I returned, and it was. This ride was challenging- it covered more than 2/3 of my usual 57 mile loop- meaning I basically hit all of the hills and skipped the easy part. I'm encouraged by this data! Today I slept late again, missing spin class and Yoga.. Roads were incompatible with bike riding so I ended up going to the Y and doing a challenging set of Nautilus- hitting most of the upper body machines twice. I keep a chart to monitor progress and on most machines I've increased the weight considerably since my first session. Tomorrow night I'm doing spin class and using my new shoes, picked up from the clearance rack at Providence Bike: These things have about as much class as a pair of Crocs, but they're cheap, brand new, all mesh and extremely light. I plan to break them in over the next 6-8 weeks in spin class and then decide (ugly or not) whether they are worthy of replacing my tired and nearly four year old DMTs. My other purchase from this weekend is a little more unusual for me: I haven't the slightest idea what to look for in a running shoe, but These ASICS Gel Cumulus are double wide and they fit like a glove. Tried them out for 15 minutes on the treadmill at the Y- blissfully comfy. I think I did all-right getting these for $29 at Marshalls.
The week ahead is going to include a lot of variation, including spin classes Mon, Wed, Thurs AM, Pilates on Tuesday, Yoga on Thursday PM, some easy spinning and FT work on the windtrainer, and of course, some long fat burning rides on the weekend. I could see myself sticking to this pattern for the next 4-6 weeks with no problem.. and I should be thanking my wife for discovering that we could do many of these activities together at the YMCA, all while our little one is in the free child care and having a great time in the supervised gym activities. It's a win-win no-brainer and we're both getting stronger and losing weight. Thanks for reading.
Friday, January 09, 2009
Individual Leg Training Continues..
Thursday, January 08, 2009
Pilates+
Tuesday, January 06, 2009
2006 Cyclonauts Criterium
On the Treadmill, literally and figuratively
This morning on the windtrainer:
20:00 warmup
10:00 FT+10%
10:00 R
10:00 FT+10%
10:00 Cool down
Tonight: Pilates!
In spite of a careful diet with careful portions, I'm adding some muscle mass, but what better thing to replace fat with, than lean muscle? Keeping the Nautilus reps at 20-25 is probably a good idea. I don't understand how there is any health benefit (besides getting ripped) to lifting the whole stack of weights for 6-8 reps, yet I see a lot of older, taller, yet pear shaped guys doing this. I guess it's possible to be strong as an ox AND out of shape.
Monday, January 05, 2009
Sunday's 4 hour grind
Saturday, January 03, 2009
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
No 587: Last post of 2008
Bisikletci Murat wishes you and your family a safe and happy New Year.
Sunday, December 28, 2008
1% of 8000
Your Hero did 1% of 2008's total mileage today, in a duration of 4:35. I'm a little worn out of course, but I'm very happy about my knees. Usually, at about the 2:15 to 2:30 point, the knees begin to protest, and by the 3rd hour, they're doing more of an LA riot than a protest. I can attribute today's pain free ride to a few things. See if you'll agree:
1. On Friday I did a one hour Level 1 YOGA session at the Y (awesome- I loved it and I'm going back for more.. Nega Coach will be proud- always preaching the importance of stretching)
2. The yoga was followed by two completions of the Nautilus circuit (Very light weights, 20 reps, focused on establishing settings and proper form) a light soreness today is accompanied by the positive sense of progress in the "structural fitness" department.
3. It's warm today! (56 right now) My worst knee pain occurs primarily on the very cold rides- when it's under 30 degrees.
4. Lately I noticed that my seat's a touch too low, primarily from observing my reflection in the window when I'm on the windtrainer. I hoisted it up about 4-5 mm and it feels so much better.
One other revelation of today's 80 mile ride- very cool that I did not cramp up even once during the ride.. But after I got home and leaned over to remove my booties, THEN I felt a nasty and breath-taking pinch in my hamstring. Data galore and possibly some other trivialities coming up later. Thanks for reading.
Saturday, December 27, 2008
What if..
If this idea turns your crank, please show interest with a comment, or write to me privately at reiscotools@yahoo.com. If a large number of New England teams participate, I'd like to start a new blog which covers this topic more appropriately. The idea is for every New England team to add one or more international riders to their team roster. Bike racing is extremely cost prohibitive for most poeple in Turkey. This idea will make our sport more accessible to more people. Think about it.
FYI, the next care package departs for Turkey on Jan 2nd (it's a Specialized Tarmac Expert complete bike), There will be plenty of dead air space inside of the bike box. Can we fill it up?
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
New Britain Criterium 2008 Redux
Monday, December 22, 2008
Adaptation: one leg intervals
Nothing does as good job of proving adaptation to stress, than a power meter. To wit, a week ago I did a set of one leg intervals. They were pitiful- 119 watts average, per leg. (Call this my untrained benchmark) Four days later, I was able to do two sets, same gear (39x19), separated by a 5 minute recovery (1 minute between each leg) Average watts were high 130s in the 1st set, low 130s for the 2nd set. Speeds and distance also way up compared to the workout. My next session of one leg intervals will be in the 39x17, and go 2 full minutes. The data of the 1st 90 seconds will be fun to watch. These intervals will increase in duration by 30 seconds every couple of weeks, until I reach 3:00 minutes. They are indeed evil as Brendan correctly pointed out. Those last 10 seconds really turn you inside out. Another interesting observation: leg is stronger than the right.
It's not too late..
This video is excellent!