Tag Archive for training

At Last! Change!

March 1, 2010 Bike No comments

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.

Hey Hey It’s Training Day

February 15, 2010 Bike No comments

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

February 10, 2010 Bike No comments

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.

More Training

February 4, 2010 Bike No comments

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.

Training Program

February 3, 2010 Bike, Off-Season No comments

So, with the road and track seasons fast approaching, the question has come up as to what training program I’m following. This season, I am doing a 550-hour program, with two peaks (road season and cyclocross season) using Joe Friel’s The Cyclist’s Training Bible as my framework, with Weight Training for Cyclists to help round-out the plan. I got a bit of a late start due to the insanity of the holidays and the aftermath in January, but I think I’ll be okay.

Right now, I’m in the Prep/Stability phase. Prep comes from the Training Bible — I’m doing basic endurance work right now, with a small amount of speed skills thrown in. On the weights side, I’m going 2-3 times a week and doing 60-70% of max weight, 15-30 reps, 1-2 sets. It’s a light workout, and man, I when I’m doing the cardio I want to drop the hammer, and when I’m on the weights, I feel foolish barely pushing anything around.

It’s about patience right now, though. If you were building a house, you wouldn’t rush the foundation just so you could get to the interesting stuff, right?

Right.

So for the next few weeks I’m going to look a little goofy at the gym, pushing around light weights and never hammering hard on the cardio stuff. But I need to focus on the fact that I’ve got time until the season starts, and that I need to focus on getting the groundwork done.

Things I’ve noted thus far:

  • I need to be religious about getting my body weight and resting heart rate recorded every morning, first thing.
  • Stretching = important. Must do that more.
  • Need to work in some time every day for visualization/deep breathing exercises. Mornings, probably.
  • Easier to change your diet when you’re working out. Your body will tell you what it needs.

Training Program

December 4, 2009 Bike No comments

My big thing the last couple of weeks has been flipping around through my copy of the Cyclist’s Training Bible and Weight Training for Cyclists, and starting to plan my 2010 campaign. It been interesting, as I’ve got to have a two-peak season (road/track for the first peak and cyclocross for the second). I’ve got the phases hashed-out, and am hammering out the individual workouts for the prep phase.

Tonight, I’ll be running some tests. LTHR first, then Wingate, and possibly CP60. After that, I’ll start working on my max one-rep on the weights.

I want a good solid season in 2010.

Class Recap, Training Woes, More

November 16, 2009 Bike, Life No comments

Class went well yesterday. I did dink around with more brazing, and I’m getting much more comfortable with it. I also got my first hands-on experience with TIG welding, which is pretty much the opposite of brazing in every way imaginable. It really bent my brain, but at the same time, it was good — it made me think about brazing differently. The result is that I feel much more comfortable with moving bronze/silver around the joints. Next weekend, I’ll be building a BMX frame — not for me, but for one of Paul’s kids. I’m actually pretty psyched about that. Clearly, I’m doing something right.

Training, well, I’m still sore from Friday’s foray into the weight room. It’s not painful-sore, more of a tight muscles condition, and it’s driving me batty. Especially since I have more weights on the agenda tonight, along with a 90-minute endurance ride (zones 1 and 2). This time of year, it’s supposed to be easy — getting my body slowly acclimated to the stresses I’m going to be throwing at it starting at the end of March. The problem for me now is one of mentality. I’m going bugshit when I’m at the gym, trying to avoid pushing myself beyond the training zones I’m supposed to be in. How to deal with the overwhelming urge to push myself harder? The best I can do is keep reminding myself that I’m just getting started and that the peak of my abilities is still six months away. The problem is getting myself to stick with that plan. Anyone else deal with this problem in the off-season?

All this bike stuff has caused me to miss almost every Vikings game this season. And it’s been a pretty solid season. I’m not really too upset by that, though, as much as I love the Vikes. I’ve got so much else going on in life right now that managing to catch the occasional game makes it all worthwhile.

Still working on that first writing exercise. That’ll be posted early this week.

Good Morning Internet

November 15, 2009 Bike No comments

It’s 7 a.m. on a Sunday. I’ve been up for a little bit now, following up on email, and going to write a quick post.

Training went well yesterday — a 1-hour recovery ride in zone 1. My heart rate did slip upward a few times, but never for more than a few seconds. Really, how bad can one of those go? Not very. The upside was that I discovered that I can go out and ride when the temp is in the low 40s without freezing my balls off. That means I can stretch the outdoor riding season for another week or two. Good!

Today, I am still sore from Friday night’s weights session. I hope to be fully recovered by tomorrow, as I have more weights and a 90-minute endurance ride on Monday’s schedule. Thinking about splitting those up into a morning session and an evening session. We’ll see. Today’s a rest day, so that helps.

“There is pain in discipline and there is pain in regret. Which pain will you choose?” – Mark Sartain

Class today should be a fun one. I’ll update later. For now, though, the preparation must commence.

A Couple of Bike Things

November 14, 2009 Bike 2 comments

Stopped off at Discount Steel to buy some 3″ square tubing with which to build my own welding stand. It’ll be what I’m learning to TIG weld on, too, incidentally. Once it’s done, it gets powder-coated (red or black), and I’ll set it up down in the basement. It’ll be awhile before I’m building at home — probably not until after the wedding, I suspect — but over the next few months, I’ll be pulling in more and more bits of hardware. The building table is probably the next big item after that.

I started my off-season training program last night — after the steel place, I hit up the gym. And was quickly reminded of how much I despise training at this time of year because it feels like I’m not really accomplishing anything. Last night called for 45 minutes of “E2″ — endurance work in zones 1 and 2, for those of you not using Joe Friel’s system. I noodled along and for the first 15 minutes or so, I was really frustrated. So I put on some really angry music and visualized racing ‘cross and that mostly removed my thought process from the situation. Occasionally, I’d have a moment or two of wanting to let the frustration boil over into working harder than I should, but I opted to trust the training program and finished up.

Also had weights on the agenda last night, too. This was not as frustrating, and I did a balance of full-body work. It’s early in the season, so I’m in the “stability” phase of trying to build fine muscle structure and get the body used to shoving weights around again. Low weights, high reps. The only thing that really killed me was the lunges — the legs are pretty damn tired, and last night I was having a difficult time with the stairs. Clearly, I overdid it a bit.

Today’s a lot easier a day — an E1 recovery ride for an hour. High near 50° today, so I may bundle up and do it out on the pavement while Kate’s off shopping for wedding dresses with her mom.

Tomorrow’s a day off from training (I’m at 8.5 hours a week for the first 8 weeks of this) more framebuilding class with Paul, which should be a lot of fun. I get to talk over my blueprints with him, among other things, and explain why I put a 73.5° head tube angle on a ‘cross bike.

Veterans Day and Assorted Things

November 11, 2009 Bike, Life No comments

Big ups to all who have served or are in the process of serving. Extra big ups to everyone I served with from 1991 to 1998. You guys are family, even if we didn’t always get along. Also, a big thanks to the people of the Minneapolis VA Hospital for their professionalism, their caring attitude, and the ability to get me through an entire battery of tests, physical therapy, and more tests in a manner that is both timely and thorough.

All that said, there are other things going on here in Dan Land that I should address.

SAD has hit me like a ton of bricks this year. My god, it’s tough to focus on anything. And I sleep constantly. This has got to stop. I need to get a sun lamp — and soon. Plus some Vitamin D supplements. And more exercise.

On the subject of more exercise, I’ve been hammering out the training program for the 2010 season. As of right now, my phases are all fixed in-place. I merely need to do my LTHR, Wingate, and CP60 tests to see where I’m at, and this week, I can start hitting it hard. That should alleviate some of this seasonal affective crap. So I should really take care of the testing tonight.

I haven’t really laid out any solid goals for the season, other than that I want to do really well. I’ve set my peaks around the state road race championship and the state cyclocross championship. Two three-week long race sessions. And between now and the week of Dec. 26, 2010, I have about 600 hours of training time. My hopes? Well, I’m not going to discuss those here. Let’s just use that cliché about my eyes being bigger than my stomach.

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