Another LSD ride in the books

I am glad it is over.

The ride itself was pretty uneventful. I felt great and had a lot of energy. I was able to get 2:30hrs in zone 2 and about 10min in zone 3. The remaining time was a high zone 1. Some highlights: 2600Kcals, 55miles, avgCad92, avgHr145

I felt good immediately after but later that evening some body parts started to tighten up. Mainly my shoulders. I didn't want to think about it but I had another 2hr workout waiting for me the next day. I went to be early but had restless sleep. Got up at 5:00am to ride again but had no energy. I stopped the workout after 30min.

Next week I am going to ease up on the intensity. I should be tired and drained after a long ride not rev'd up.

Tomorrow I am going to try and make up one of the hours I missed today. I will spend the first hour doing today's Spin up workout. Then I will move on to my Force workout.

I shouldn't look ahead

This week will be relatively easy compared to the upcoming 2 weeks. The weeks total hours is 13hrs. Next week is 16:30hrs then a the big week of 18hrs. That means 4:00hr & 4:30hr rides on the trainer are looming. Not Good.

So I should be happy today is will be only 3:30hrs on the trainer for an E2 endurance ride. The goal for this ride is to stay in Zone2 for a least 2:30hrs.

Building the Pyramid

I have a good foundation with lots of time is Zone 2. Now it is time to work on Zone 3 the next layer of my pyramid. This morning I rode continuously in Zone 3 for 30 minutes with some time in Zone 4. I wanted to focus on muscle endurance so I kept the rpms lower near 80rpms. I could of gone longer but decided 30min was a good start. I may do another workout like this later this week.

Phase 1 is Complete!

All 4 weeks of Base 1 are done.

Yesterday I did my first fitness test. It was a 30min all out test to get my LTHR. This time I took 45min to warm up. I basically used a warm up you would use to get ready for a Crit. Easy at first, the about 15min zone 3, and a few zone 4-5 efforts.

The test - with a good warm up it was very easy to get my HR up to 170. After 5min, I was at 176 and working very very hard. I thought it wouldn't last. Then 178bpm, I was going to blow up. I kept it there. I faded a little bit in the last 10min but not much. So my avgHR for the 30min was 176bpm. My avgHR for the last 20min was 175bpm. Not bad of an old man!!

For my training, I will take that 175bpm result a bit down to 173bpm. So now my zones are:

Z1 113 - 141
Z2 142 - 154
Z3 155 - 161
Z4 162 - 172
Z5 173 - 189

I think the test was a good estimate of my current LTHR. I was well rested and highly motivated. I think keeping my cadence high through the test helped. I didn't have the muscle fatigue in my legs to slow me down. My avgCAD was 105rpms.

I have a Muscle Endurance workout on the schedule tomorrow. I am going to make sure that I am comfortable in Z2 before I start. The goal is to ride in Z3 for 30-40min at 90rpms. I want to ensure that I keep good tension on my quads throughout the 30-40min.

Not much to Report

Just sat on my butt at work today. Last week was a hard week and I was very much looking forward to a week off. I could get use to sleeping in late.

I know the "Rest Week" is very important but I am ready to go again. Next week will start base 2. I start building on my aerobic pyramid. I have been doing long endurance ride with 2-3:00hrs in my Zone 2. Now I will put on the next layer of the pyramid and add some time into Zone 3. In the next 3 weeks I hope to be able to sustain up to 90+min in this zone. I still have 5 Muscle Strength weight lifting sessions left to complete.

Sunday I will do my fitness test. I am looking forward to that too. This time I am going to spend 30 - 40min warming up before I make an all out effort. I have no idea where my LT is now.

Now We rest.

I finished my longest week of Base 1. Hooray!! Now it is time for a rest week and then start Base2.

Saturday I did a 1:00hr spin class and tried to lift but was pretty wiped out. So I went home, recovered for a bit and then went out on a 3:00hr ride. I used my Single Speed. I figured I could use the Single Speed on hills to make up for not doing a weight workout.

Sunday I rode with Pat C. for about 2:30hrs. We headed straight North into the wind up to Blair.

I had a good training week but I am ready for some down time. I was able to ride 17:00 of the scheduled 17:30hrs. This week will only be 9:00hrs... that should be easy.

Mid week

I think of Friday as the halfway point of my training week. Today I going to do speed drills. This will include some isolated leg drills and spin ups. I have been working diligently on keeping my cadence high on my endurance rides.

I am sold on the merits of keeping a high cadence for endurance rides. In using a high cadence I can get into my zone and stay there without the muscle fatigue. I still am tired after a long trainer workout but after recharging my energy stores I can carry on with my daily chores. More importantly, I can do another aerobic workout the next day.

I am not sure at this point if the high cadence is making me faster. I seemed to get better speeds when I drop my cadence down from 100rpms to 80rpms at a comparable heart rate.

Tomorrow, I have a 4:00hr day which I am going to break up into two workouts. Probably Spin Class/weights & 2:00hr E2 workout. Sunday it is 3:00hr E2 workout.

BTW- Did 2:00hrs on the trainer last night with 0:55mins in Zone2 and some time in zone 3.

No Options

I was going to get through today's 4:00hr trainer ride if it killed me ( is that an option ?). I had two goals for this ride. Do the 4:00hrs and make sure at least 2:30hrs was in Zone 2. I played it conservatively at first. Allowing myself to ramp up to Z2 and kept it on the low end of that zone.

The first 2:00hrs were long. The 3rd hour was like being in the middle of a long car drive and you just want to get to your destination. I hung out in Z2 for a good chunk of the hour 4... still feeling good. The last 0:15min felt painfully long.

In all I had 3:00hrs in Zone 2 and finished the whole 4:00hrs. My avgHR was 141 and avgCadence 92.

I fear tomorrow is going to be tough. A three hour day but I am going to break it into 1:00hr in the morning and 2:00hrs in the evening. I will do the time but not put any pressure on myself to stay in Z2.

Getting Started - Base 1 Week 3

I climbed on the trainer again this morning for the first of 17:30hrs scheduled this week. At first I thought it was going to be difficult to get my effort to zone 2 but after about 0:20min I was there. Hanging solid at 145bpm, then 150bpm. Out of the blue I pick a goal to stay in zone 2 for 30min. I felt pretty good.

Tonight, I will do my 7th MS session at the gym. This will leave 5 more Muscle Strength sessions. I feel really strong. How this relates to my riding, I am not sure. I am hoping to bust through this workout, get home and get to sleep early. I have a long day tomorrow.

This season in the weight room has been a lot better. I have been choosing my weights very carefully & conservatively. Doing this I have noticed that I not as sore in my legs.

Glorious Rest Days

Mondays are my rest day. No Spinning, no trainer, and no weights.

I had a good weekend. I did not make it to the gym Friday night so after an hour spin class on Saturday, I spent an hour lifting weights. After 6 of 12 sessions in the Muscle Strength phase I am at my upper limit for the hip sled. I did 4 sets of 5 reps@585lbs. According to the training bible I should stop increasing my weight and do more reps. I still have a way to go to max out for my sitting and standing rows.

Saturday afternoon I was able to get in a nap and then later I did another 2:00hrs on the trainer. I felt really good for this and was able stay in Zone 2 for over an hour.

Sunday - Again with the trainer. This workout was ugly. I took my time to get my HR to zone 2 but could not keep it there for long. I was ok with that so I decided upper zone 1 was good. At some point I fell below Zone 1. I didn't have the focus or drive anymore but for some reason I stayed on the bike for the full 3hrs. Not sure if ran out of energy or was just plain bored with the trainer.

I can't help but think about this week. It is going to be a long one but this is my last week of base 1 until the rest week. I still have to make it through 2 days of 4:00hrs. On of these days I can break up into two workout but one has to be continuous. One of my goals is to ride constantly in zone 2 for 2:30hrs. That should be challenging.

The 72hr Forcast

looks like this -

This morning - 100% chance of Speed work which includes periods of cadence of 110+rpms. (This is done already)

Tonight - Fairly light stretching followed by periods of intense lifting... changing to intense stretching.

Saturday - 1:00hr spin in the morning with a 90%chance of a 2:00hr endurance ride in the afternoon.

Sunday - 90% chance of a long Endurance ride of 3:00 - 4:00hrs

Going to be a long winter...

I took Wednesday off work due to the weather. I spent most the morning removing snow from sidewalks, streets, and ally ways. Then after lunch I hopped on the trainer for a wintery ride. I was doing ok. I allowed myself to gradually get to zone 2 and I kept it there. To break up the monotony every 15 min I would stay in zone 2 but change my cadence from 80rpms to 105rpms. Coming up on 3:00hrs I had 2:00hrs in zone 2 and 1:00 in Zone 1. Then I crashed in my living room. Yep, my bike came out of the trainer. I tried to get on the bike again but I was done. I really wanted to do a 4:00hr ride, maybe Sunday.

This morning I did a two hour ride. I spent most of the time in upper zone 1 with some short intervals into zone 2. This seemed more like a recovery ride.

I hope this snow burns off so I can ride a few more times outside.

Quick Update

Popped on the trainer for a quick 1:00hr endurance ride (mostly zone2). Tonight, if the gym is open, I will lift.

That is all!

Team Ride Output

Above is the chart from my polar unit of last Saturdays Team ride.

Catching Up

Friday - I spent about an hour lifting in the gym. Still doing low reps with high resistance. My knees are holding up better than I thought. I was able to do 4 set of 6x500lbs on the hip sled with some strength to spare.

Saturday - Taught spinning early and then took a road trip up to Norfolk with Rich to ride with the team. I probably rode to hard in spinning and with the team but it didn't stress me out too bad. On the team ride I had just as much time in Zone 4 as I did in Zone 2. In Base 1 week 1 most the rides are no higher than zone 2. Total time ~3:30hrs

Sunday - Since I just shy of my scheduled hours I jumped on the trainer for another hour of Zone 2 work.

This was a good start to my training. This week I start my base 1 week 2 training. The same types of workouts just a little longer duration.

Wednesday Ride

Left work at noon and was on the road at 12:30. I am starting, more and more, to dig into my winter clothes. I broke out heavy weight amfib pants, winter boots, balaclava, and facemask.

From my office I headed North up the trail a bit and then took blondo to 192nd St. back North into the wind. I made it up to Elk City then West for a few then South through valley, through Venice, and back down to Q street. Forty Seven miles all together.

This was an endurance ride so my average speed was very low. I had good energy for the first 2hrs. It was easy to stay in my zone 2. After two hours it took a lot of focus to stay there. With about 45min left to ride I let my effort fall to a comfortable level which was a few beats below my zone 2. For 3:30hrs I had an avg HR of 140bpm. I am ok with that.

Rode for 1:30hrs this morning. More Zone 2 work... fun fun!!

Ready to ride

I have a 3:30hr ride scheduled today. I took a 1/2day off today to do this ride. I wish I was off yesterday. Temps over 50degrees is much better than in the 30s, but I think I will be on the trainer for the next 2 days.

Did my first Muscle Strength weight workout yesterday. I was able to get 3 sets of 6reps @ 500lbs on the hip sled. I feel pretty good today so I will stick with that for a couple more sessions. My goal is to be able to get 6+ reps at 580lbs.

That's it for now.