Recovery Week

I haven't done much this week and I need to get going. With the reduced hours on the bike I try to take care of things that fall by the wayside. I haven't done that yet.

Got on the trainer last night for an Hour E2 workout. That went good. This morning I led the spinning class for a solid hour workout. I didn't get much sleep last night so I may skip the weight workout tonight. I will do it as a second workout tomorrow.

I am starting to get geared up for the Spring Fling and Damn Races down in Lawrence, KS Mar 7/8. I hope to do two crits and then the road race following day. These will be training races for me so I may be looking to ride some extra miles that weekend.

Base 3 Done

I finished up Base 3 with well below the prescribed hours. On the bright side, I hit all BT workouts (Cruise Intervals, Hills, and Long ride).

Yesterday I was able to ride 67miles in just under 4hrs. Saturday, I had the spin class do four 5minute hills and then I got out later for another 20miles of hill work. Friday, on the trainer for 70min tempo.

So I ended up the week with 11:30hrs. I had thought of repeating my base 3 but I could really use a rest week. So, this week I 10hrs is on tap then I start my build training phase.

Tuesday Act Two

As I posted earlier my goal last night was to do cruise intervals... 8x8minutes. Well, I did 5. The first 4 were fine. I hit my target HR and kept it there throughout the 8min interval. I knew I was getting tired toward the end because it was getting difficult to maintain zone 2 during the rest interval. For the 5th interval it took a little extra time to reach zone 5a. After about a minute there it became increasingly difficult to maintain and I eventually quit after 6mins. Still I was able to ride for about 1:45min.

I hurt myself bad. My heart was racing all night long and I didn't get to sleep until about 2:00. Knowing my alarm was set for 4:00am did not help either. Instead of doing the 2:30hrs planned this morning, I did 1:00hr spin class. My weight lifting workout tonight is also on the chopping block.

Tues Act One

Dateline Tuesday 4:00am, the alarm rings. I thought about rolling over and catching more sleep but it is the beginning of base three, there will be time to rest next week. After some morning chores I climbed on the trainer. Today I have two muscle endurance rides scheduled. Act I a tempo workout - maintain 160bpm for 60min. Act II Cruise intervals - 8 x 8min intervals in zone 4/5a.

So this morning was tempo work. My focus was primarily on heart rate and secondarily on form. My legs got a good force workout last Saturday/Sunday so I wanted to leave any strength work out. I took about 10min to warm up then I started the tempo work. I didn't reach zone 3 until about 8min into the workout. It took about 20 more minutes to get to 160bpm. The last 30min I was comfortable maintaining 160bpm HR with a cadence of 92 - 102rpm. I think my TT cadence is about 92. That seems comfortable.

Tonight the main event ... cruise intervals. This will be a 2:00hr workout. I plan to do 8x8min intervals near LTHR(172) with 3min rest into zone 2. Again the focus will be on HR and not strength. I had been doing my weight lifting Tuesday nights but that has been pushed to Wednesday night.

Base 3 Week 2, in the books

It was a tough go but I finished week 2 of my base 3 week. Now I have Base 3 week 3 staring me in the face.

Weekend wrap up:
Friday - I had an 3:00 E2 workout split into a 1:30 in the A.M. and 1:30 in the P.M. The A.M. work out was fine but I should have just skipped the P.M. workout. I was tired and did not want to sit on the bike for another 1:30hrs.

Saturday - Spin class in the morning. We focused on zone 4 work and heavy resistance. In the afternoon, I did some long hills on the trainer. I did 6 intervals. The first one was only 5 minutes but the rest were 6, 7, 8, and 8minutes. Each time I allowed my HR to climb into zone 5a. I focused on keeping my pedal stroke smooth.

Sunday - I climbed on my SS for a 4:30hr ride. Temps were from 28 - 33 degrees, almost no wind and it was sunny. Weather wise it was a pleasant ride. I started off with some flat roads and finished with some rolling hills. I put on my studded snow tires just in case I came across some ice patches. The studs make it sound like you are constantly riding on gravel. I have no idea how fast I was going but I felt strong and fast climbing the hills on Highway 36 and 75. I had good energy through the entire ride.

Next week is my long week 20:30hrs. If I get 18:00hrs in I will be extremely happy. I am going to increase the duration and number of cruise intervals I do for muscle endurance. More hills on Saturday. Also, I am going to substitute a couple tempo rides for my endurance workouts. The long ride will be the same 4:30hrs. With the weather and snow on the ground it looks like most of the time will be spent on the trainer.

One day closer to Spring

Winter is back but I am checking off the days 'till spring. I don't know exactly how many days but I know that another day of winter has come and gone.

Last nights speed work routine went well. The goal was to keep a high average cadence with a couple intervals of extremely high cadence. I was able to do a couple minutes with my cadence in the 130s. I finished the night with an average of 100rpm.

Climbed on the bike again this morning for 90minutes of zone 2 work. I had good energy throughout the whole workout. For this workout I focused, like the night before, on a smooth high cadence. I have another 90minutes to do tonight.

Junk Miles

Last night I forced myself to climb on the bike for an endurance workout. Zone 2 stuff. I was pretty tired to start with so it took some extra time to get my HR up into the 140s. My perceived exertion was about right but the HR dropped back down to 130s, that's zone 1 for me. I kept going. After, 1:30hrs the HR dropped down below 100... not good. I tried to remotivate myself but I wasn't feeling it. So I envoked the "no Junk Miles" clause and got off the bike at 1:40. I took my shower and by 9:00 was passed out on the bed. I have to be happy with three hours and 40min of riding for the day. Tonight will be some speed work.

Quick Update

Did some weights last night. Kept all the same weight settings still looking to increase then number of reps. I was able to increase the number of bench presses by one with 135lb to four sets of eleven. I also up'd the number of sit ups to 26 on the incline bench.

This morning 2hrs on the spinning bike with another 2hrs tonight.

I don't like Wednesdays much. I am usually tight from weight lifting and I have long rides on the bike. It makes it hard to wake up in the morning.

I am looking forward to my first weekend of racing March 7/8th. Starting to firm up plans for that.

Cruise Intervals

Another round of Cruise intervals was in store for me today. Since the first interval last week was really tough I took a full 20 minutes to warm up to zone 2. It was still hard to get my HR up to zone 5a. I did another 7min interval and then two 8min interval (this was last weeks workout). I did a final 10min interval. This last interval was actually very easy. There was very little effort to bump my HR up to 168bpm and from there I ramped it up to 175bpm.

I noticed some improvement over last week. I was able to stay in the aero position longer and it was easier to stay in zone 2 for recovery. I think I have my LT dial in at 172 plus or minus a beat. 170 is hard but I can maintain that for quite awhile. When my HR hits 173bpm my breathing is heavier.

I am happy to see my weight go in the right direction... 193.8lbs. I seem to be losing about .5lbs a week. Next week I want to see 192.*lbs.

Weights again tonight. Same routine as last week.

Woo Hoo

This weekend was great! Record temps, I needed the outside riding goodness.

Friday Craig and I headed out on a 3hr endurance ride. For the most part we stuck to the zone 2 workout, but we pushed it for a couple sprints. He has some great top end speed. I can get him on the longer sprints though.

Saturday, I pulled out all the stops. Rigged the Pinarello for launch, ditched the winter boots and armadillo/goo wheels. Met "The Bike Way" boys for a ride. The plan for me was to do hill intervals HR can be zone 1 - 4. The hills weren't very long so I would work hard through a couple hills. Then rest for a couple minutes and then hit the next two. It felt good to open up the lungs after months of base training. I am not as slow as I thought I was.


Sunday, back down to a endurance ride for 3hrs. Even though the temps were still fine, there were not many cyclist on the rode. I did see Dave Rodgers on the way back from Ft. Calhoun. I will have to race him if he and I do masters races. UGH!! Oh well new motivation to train smarter.

Spring Fever !!

Cough...must leave work early. :D

Going out for a ride about 1:00pm today. 3hrs, hills low intensity. I am saving myself for tomorrow. I have a hill workout tomorrow with some Bike Way boys (Dan, Craig, and Rich). Heading south Louisville, Buffalo Rode way. I am going to hit the hills hard and as many as I can. See if I can get that "Punched in the Face" feeling. Wehrspan Lake, 2:30 at the main entrance... all are welcome.

Quick update

Did an hour ride at the Trek store. We watched a CTS Mtb training video. It was pretty good, a lot of 30secs max effort WI with 30secs RI. Then the same but for 2min. Since I was doing an Endurance ride I kept my HR in Zone2 and switched between the big & small chain rings for the intervals.

Today I am scheduled for some speed work. I am going to lift tonight and do some speed work in my 3hr endurance ride tomorrow.

I feel good but I want to get faster... faster!

Base 3 - Day 2

Yep, it is only day two into my Base 3 period. So I won't claim any major victories but I am staying on track. After briefly riding with Dave Rodgers and Chris Spence I have new found inspiration to get faster. Therefore, I have new inspiration to keep on my training schedule.

I did weights for an hour last night. Dropping the weight on some exercises helped. I was able to get more range of motion and a better burn.

This morning I did a spin class plus an hour of riding.

I have another hour tonight of endurance riding tonight and tomorrow is an easy day. I am looking forward to Friday. I have 3hrs scheduled and my take the afternoon off to do that since it will be so warm.

It's a start

Base 3 workouts started for me today. First thing to tackle was Cruise intervals. Three to Five intervals 6 - 12min long working hard building to zone 4/5a. My goal for this workout was to get 30min in these zones.

I did a total of four intervals.

Interval One - was 7min and the toughest. I had to work very hard to pull myself out of zone 1 into zone 4. I touched zone 5a for a few seconds. My form wasn't pretty either. I was all over my bike.

Interval Two - another 7min better. Since my HR was comfortable in zone 2 for the rest period it wasn't so hard to get up to my target zones. Again I labored to keep my HR into zone 4/5a.

Interval Three - 8min now that's a cruise interval. I got up to zone 4 within the first minute and hovered around 172bpm HR for most of the interval. I had some time to experiment lifting my effort to 175 and then back down.

Interval Four - 8min last one! Got the HR up to the appropriate zones quickly and was able to maintain a HR at 174 for a couple minutes.

All in all a good workout. I did what I needed to do. Next!!

Next is weights tonight. My focus for weights will be to drop the weight on the hip sled increase the reps and go for more burn. I have been doing 3 set 4 by 630lbs but I am not getting very much range of motion. Also, it is just tough on my knees. So I am going to back it down to 540lbs... get full range of motion then go to failure on that.

Week Wrapup

I took another rest week last week. For the most part I didn't do any training until this weekend. A spinning class mid week and that was it.

Saturday was a good day though. I did spin class in the morning and rode with Dan in the afternoon. I allowed myself to go hard. Although my HR was extremely high most of the ride I had good energy for 3hrs. I was above 165bpm for 1:35min. We logged 55 miles.

Sunday, I was off for another 3hr ride. This time at a lower HR and a slower pace. I did run into Dave Rodgers and Chris Spence at NP Dodge park. They were just getting started so I was able to keep up until we hit the hill going north. I was surprised to hold on for so long but blew up toward the top of the hill. They started picking up the pace so I just drafted for awhile then let them go. I need a lot of work.

Anyway, I ended up with 9hrs last week and am ready to start Base 3 Week 1. Tomorrow will be Cruise intevals. I will try to get at least 30min into zone 4 & 5a. One of this weeks goals is to get my weight down to 193. I have 'till the end of the month to get down to 190.