Tonight’s Workout
Tonight: E2 ride, 90 minutes. Zones 1 and 2 (endurance), mostly 2. Should be okay, legs are a little heavy/tired from last night. Hoping that vitamin intake, plus the creatine intake last night will help keep the muscle soreness down prior to tomorrow night's next session on the weights.
Weight goal: 175 lbs.
Current: 200 lbs.
Starting Weight: 205 lbs.
Percentage of Goal: 16%
The weight routine is tough, and time consuming. In order, it goes like this:
- 10 minutes of brisk walk/light jog warm-up.
- 10 minutes of stretching.
- Core package: Russian Twist with 10 pound medicine ball, Back Extension with same medicine ball, Crunch (same ball), Reverse Crunch, and the Supine Bridge.
- Legs: squat (strength building) followed by the ball lunge (stability).
- Chest/Shoulders/Back: Bench Press (strength) followed by the seated row (stability).
- Shoulders/Upper Back: Lat Pulldown (strength) followed by the dumbbell shrug (stability).
- Power Building: squat jumps (plyometric, 8 reps, 2 sets).
- 10 minutes of stretching.
- 10 minutes of brisk walk/light jog cool-down.
At Last! Change!
I'm now into Base 1 for my cardio/gym work and the Strength phase of my weightlifting. This means that cross-training for cardio is no longer an option until August or so, when I need to start with the cyclocross prep. It also means adding a new variety of cardio workout, which has been limited to endurance work (E2) and spin-ups (S1). I now get to add single-leg riding (S2) to the mix.
The weight program is also changing. My core muscle package remains much the same, but will change weekly for variety. On the weights, I'm into strength building, with a mix of stability exercises. After all that's done, I have one power-building plyometric exercise -- in this case, squat jumps -- before my cool-down work.
I'm pretty excited about this. Tonight: weights program, followed by 60 minutes of S1 (spin-ups).
In four weeks, cardio moves into Base 2 (more variety!), and eight weeks from today, I move into the power-building phase of my training (more plyometrics stuff, heavier weights/fewer reps, and a lot more pain).
It's coming together nicely. At the end of Base 1, I need to re-run all my testing -- LTHR, CP60, Wingate -- to see how things are coming along. Pretty psyched.
Frostbike 2010 Review
So this past weekend, I hit up Frostbike, which has become a regular thing now, having been a February tradition for three years now. (You can read my 2008 and 2009 reviews.)
The Reynolds RZR wheels were the revelation of the show, really. I was absolutely stunned by these wheels.
A $6K all-carbon wheelset that weighs less than 900g -- FOR THE SET.
Dear god, these wheels were amazing. The lightness was unreal, and the design was fascinating. The three-flange rear hub was a novel solution to the problem of a radially-laced rear wheel -- a third flange on the body of the hub, just inside the drive spokes has four spokes at a 90-degree offset to resist the torsion on the rear wheel. It's a novel setup, and I'm curious about how you'd replace a broken spoke on that internal flange.
The triple-flanged rear hub on the Reynolds RZR.
They're a technological marvel. I can't speak to their ride quality however, because it's February in Minnesota and I only got to look at them on the sales floor. I don't foresee having an opportunity to ride them, either -- I simply don't have the $6000 lying around to buy a pair, and couldn't even swing it with the shop employee pricing program. They'll have to remain an object of lust.
In the first aisle you roll through, was Gu's booth, and eventually, I worked up the nerve to try the Gu Chomps. My trepidation is understandable when you consider the taste-testing that Kate and I did on the competing product, Clif Shot Bloks. That said, however, the Gu Chomps were very tasty. I'm still not entirely sold on the "blocks" format, but Gu has definitely surpassed Clif in this version of energy food.
I also did spend some time looking at Salsa's new titanium offerings and was suitably impressed. Clean welds, much the same styling as their steel brethren. Were I not starting my own framebuilding gig ("ride your own stuff"), I'd seriously consider a La Cruz Ti as my next cyclocross frame.
Ritchey had a small booth going, and were fun to visit. Chatted with the guys there briefly and discovered that they have a program for small framebuilders. Color me stoked! They even have a nifty solution if I was to start doing seat masts (not really).
Edge Composites didn't have anything stunning that they didn't have last year. Talked to them a bit about painting their stuff. Since most of it just has clearcoat, that could be sanded down and used as a base for more color. Good.
Shimano was showing off Di2 again. Nothing huge here, but I still want a Di2 kit. Like the Reynolds wheels, you can file it under "lottery purchase". I did ride it again and was just as impressed as last year.
Campagnolo didn't have anything revelatory, either. Did talk to them about their carbide frame facing kit, which I am going to need and will probably pay out of the ass for.
DZ Nutz and Chamois Butt'r had samples available. DZ Nutz had their chamois creams, which I am going to try, and Chamois Butt'r had a new formula, plus electrode gel for heart rate monitor straps. I'm going to give some of this stuff a try over the course of the coming week.
All in all, not a bad show this year. Looking forward to 2011.
Exhausting Weekend
So Friday, I got home from the office around 2:30 p.m. I immediately plopped down and ordered up Peggle for the PS3, which has been a total joy. One of my favorite features on this thing is that I can take a replay and automatically upload it to YouTube, as evidenced by the mother of all blind-luck shots that I took on Friday at the end of one board:
Kate arrived home around the time I was finishing with the last board in the "Adventure" mode. She played for a bit and then we headed over to the Red Dragon.
It is flat-out impossible to leave that place and not have a hangover the next morning. Our table of 15 people ran up a $500 tab in only a few hours. A good time was had, as always. And Josh, Jumi's boyfriend, offloaded some of his old welding supplies on me, which is awesome. Torch and a set of small oxy-acetylene tanks. Rawk!
We got home, we did stuff, and we went to sleep.
Saturday morning, I woke up with a IQ-dampening, but not suicide-inducing, hangover. I had some fluids, chatted with Johnny Surprise on GChat, and then I got my shit together and headed off to Frostbike. I had a pretty good time there, met a lot of cool industry people, and saw some really cool stuff. I've got a write-up forthcoming, and will probably post it tomorrow, after I've had a chance to test out some of the sample products I received.
Hit up Target briefly on the way home, and when I arrived, Kate was still asleep(!). She finally got up around 3 p.m. We lounged on the couch together for a bit. My new copy of the Paterek Manual arrived, and I wound up reading a large portion of that. I looked up, it was 11:30, and I decided that I had missed enough of the Cutters Ball where it would be better to go to bed and save the energy for Sunday's framebuilding session up at Paul's place.
Framebuilding went well, as it always does. Paul was making his final preparations for NAHBS, so I stayed out of the way as much as possible and accomplished the following:
- The 29'er received some finishing work in the HT/DT fillet. There's a low spot I need to drop some 56% silver into next time so that I can finish that.
- The commuter bike got blueprinted, and I finished the shaping of the BB lug. Then the seat tube was mitered and brazed into the BB shell, the steerer tube and fork crown brazed, and I raked the fork blades and started slotting them for the dropouts.
- The pursuit frame didn't get much attention -- all I did was silver braze the stainless dropout faces onto the rear dropouts.
After the hour-long drive back to the Cities, Kate dragged me out grocery shopping, after which I passed out on the couch.
This morning before work, I got some work done on the WP template I'm going to use to make the Pallas Athena Bicycles site, read some blogs, and found a possible new site template for this blog.
My weekends are more exhausting than my work weeks.
Hey Hey It’s Training Day
Nice quiet day off yesterday. Spent a large volume of time on the couch with Kate, watching the Olympics. Did briefly venture forth to hit the grocery store for snacks, dinner ingredients and some of the stuff for lunches this week.
Training resumes tonight. I've got weights, and a 90-minute E2 ride. Easy, but then in the "Prep" and "Stabilization" phases, everything is. We move to Base 1 for the Joe Friel system, and Strength for the weight system, both on February 28th. Thank god. Because light weights and E2 rides are getting pretty goddamned monotonous.
It's weird, but since I've started working out again, a lot of my little aches and pains have gone away, my digestion problems have resolved themselves, and I'm sleeping a lot better. I guess that last item is not much of a surprise, but it's definitely a good thing.
Tonight, I also need to make time to read Chapters 12, and 14-18 of the Cyclist's Training Bible.
Training Continues
Weight room at the OTC in Colorado Springs. From Flickr user klm_digital_snaps. CC licensed.
I wasn't terribly consistent last week in my training. The good news, though, is I can already feel my body starting to respond to the stresses I'm putting on it.
Last night, I did 90 minutes of E2 (endurance work, zones 1 and 2) on the stationary trainer. It, like most stationary work, is rather bland. However, I felt noticeably stronger than I did two weeks ago, and when you compare my heart rate and my power output, I'm noticeably producing more power at similar heart rates. Very good.
Tonight: weights.
I'm still not in the strength-building phase -- that doesn't begin until the week of February 28th. Tonight, though, I'll be adding a new exercise to each of my areas (upper, lower, and core). Thus, tonight will look like this:
Upper:
- bench press
- dumbbell shrug
- bicep curl
- seated row*
Lower:
- squat
- hamstring curl
- calf press
- dumbbell lunge*
Core:
- reverse crunch
- back extension
- crunch
- side plank*
* New exercise this week.
So I think that -- for now -- the switch to Snap Fitness is sufficient for my basic needs. The close locale certainly makes getting there a lot easier, and makes me more inclined to go on a regular basis.
New Bike Project
The tubeset for my pursuit frame.
From left to right: the aero down tube, the aero wheel-wrapping seat tube, the top tube (which I will be ovalizing), the bottom bracket shell, the head tube, and the chainstays (which I will also be ovalizing). I've also got a pair of chainstays (Columbus MAX) that Paul is hooking me up with. So it'll be a mix of those with some True Temper Platinum OX and Verus HT. Also, not pictured are the rear dropouts, which are Pacenti MkIII track drops with stainless faces.
I've already got a good chunk of the parts needed to build this sucker up -- I just need a crankset, headset (integrated), fork, and wheels.
Color scheme: going with a basic white frame, with BC04 Stratto Blue panels from House of Kolor. Subject to change.
Framebuilding Update
No class this weekend, and I don't have another framebuilding session until Sunday the 21st. The 29'er is approaching completion, and the lugged commuter/touring frame is underway. The tubeset for the single-speed 'cross frame is still untouched (which is okay). There's also a tubeset for a track pursuit frame on a UPS truck somewhere.
Met with a painter last night, and it looks like I'll be doing business with him. Hoping to have that 29'er frame in front of him in the next 4-6 weeks and the lugged commuter not long thereafter.
Yesterday, I found a source for 316 stainless tubing, in the thickness and ID that I need. Looks like the raised metal downtube logos are still going to happen.
Today, I'm hoping to finish the head badge design and get the HTML portion of the website done.
Tomorrow, I need to swing by a small local print shop that I found online and see if they can do print masks for me (cut adhesive vinyl). And get a price quote.
Saturday Plans
- 90 minutes on stationary trainer (morning), with audiobook.
- Clean office.
- Clean out car.
Lunch with future in-laws, trip to Uncle Hugo's.- Visit with possible future painter for my bike frames.
- Gym for weight training (evening).
Not a very productive day so far.
More Training
Spent an hour on the stationary trainer last night. I was very bored and had a hard time finding a comfy position on the seat. And I get to do it again tonight. Yay.
I hate pre-season training. God, how I hate it.*
* It probably wouldn't be so bad if I lived somewhere warm enough where I could ride outdoors year-round. Also, I suffer through it because I know it'll make me appreciate my road time more come spring, and I need to be ready to race this year.
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I'm at Don Pablo's - Roseville (2700 Lincoln Dr, Roseville). [fontosaurus]
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Checked in at Don Pablo's - Roseville
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I favorited a YouTube video -- Cycles http://youtu.be/-0Xa4bHcJu8?a [fontosaurus]
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have my Friday off, so here's my Follow Thursday: @mightywombat, @veloveggies, @Scoutwell_Cat, @kilgette, @actualmiles, @DoWhatITellYou #ff [fontosaurus]
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Man, talk about enabling commerce. http://is.gd/aeKE9 [fontosaurus]
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Mmmm. Thunderstorm. [fontosaurus]
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I'm at 3M Center- Building 225 (3M Center, Building 225, St. Paul). [fontosaurus]
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Checked in at 3M Center- Building 225
