Training Log Archive: Yvonne

In Piqua today -- meetings then toured the town's absolutely fascinating decommissioned reactor. Then did a short jaunt on the Great Miami River Trail just before dark. Flat paved trail, but it skirts the beautiful Miami River and it just rained a bunch so some sections were under water (shallow and rideable) which made it interesting.

Biz trip to Cincinnati area this week. Stuffed bike in rental, left @ 4AM, drove to Cinci, and spent the rest of the day in the field @ my job site then a few hours in the office getting caught up. Was totally beat and a little discouraged by the 1.5 hour trek to hotel that still needed to be made for tomorrow's festivities. But sucked it up and enjoyed a short ride at lovely Miami Whitewater Forest just before dark. Flat paved trail, but pretty unpopulated so pushed the pace a bit. Proud of this ride simply because I got out there.

More intervals on the trainer...

Light jog putting out ~150 eggs into the far reaches of our property. Kiddos got quite the workout scurrying around to find all of them. So fun!!

Trainer spin w/ intervals.

Heavy bag and KM classes. So many pushups in HB that I had to resort to knees. Over 100 I think. Owww

Gym morning. Treadmill. Huh, this is about the extent of my running these days.

- Heavy bag free work 4 min., x2
- Heavy bag swinging singles, 1 min. ea. leg
- 25 squat, x2
- 2 min. plank routine (leg raises, balance on opp. hand/foot, etc,), x2; then 30 sec. forearm plank, x2
- 2 min. jump rope intervals, x2
- 12 pushup, x2

Ooh arms tired, HB work does it every time. Shoulders feel fine though. Good - they took a beating last week in KM.

Spin class. Low 4 intensity -- think I still feel last Sunday in my legs.

Gym morning. Treadmill WU.

- Jump rope intervals, 3 min ea, x3
- Plank 90 sec. ea, x3
- Hip adduction/abduction w/ black band, x2
- 12 pushup, x3

- WU spin - moderate
- 1 min. high effort x5 w/ 3 min easy spin in between efforts
- 30 sec. high effort x6 w/ 3 min easy spin in between efforts
- CD spin - moderate

Easy trainer spin. Didn't feel too bad.

Hip strengthening/flexibility routine. Oh wow, tight quads.

Death by Gravel in Steelville area. This was the longest ride I've done since the DK Half-Pint in 2014 and easily the most strenuous in terms of climb. I recorded moving time (an estimate) and the elevation gain Garmin Connect reported. I didn't know how to track it on my watch in "course" mode.

Main goal: ride steady and just finish. Oh yeah, and I promised my hubby that I would ride w/ others for safety reasons. That made things a little more complicated as the day went on.

Preface: I generally overdress which is not at all efficient, but it is conservative. That actually paid off this time -- I was never cold. I wore the same stuff all day (except gloves) and felt a tad overheated a few times but then the temp would change & I'd be good again.

Leg 1: Got some needed Garmin advice from kgeisen to help my tech-ineptitude then rolled out w/ her and enjoyed some nice chitty-chat for the first 10 mi. or so. Then rode w/ Drew from Columbia and finally w/ silky/sami into the gas station @ mi. 40-ish. Pretty tough conditions w/ an extended period of sleet/snow and lots of cold folks. Plus slushy mud being flung around. @ the gas station, chugged some hot choc but since I don't tolerate real food very well in these endeavors skipped all the goodies there and decided to get moving b4 I cooled down too much.

Leg 2: Hooked up w/ Donovan (another Columbia dude) and we rode to Bass together. He's also training for DK so good to compare notes. Didn't ride fast, just nice and steady. The hills seemed endless! @ Bass, Donovan wanted to bail back to Steelville via hwy 8 so I was left w/ a decision: ride the final 28 mi. by myself or join him on an unpleasant trafficky 2-lane hwy. I really wanted to finish the 90 loop so I hemmed, hawed, hemmed, hawed and was about to reluctantly cave to the hwy route when up rolls the silky/sami DYNAMIC DUO! Yay!!

Leg 3: We rode the final miles together and the time went by lightning-fast which was awesome because I was starting to suffer a bit - especially on the unrelenting climbs. It was so fun to hear about their Belize adventures! At the end of one account, Emily pondered, "well, that was an 8-mile story". Checked the Garmin & yep, 8 mi. were gone, poof, just like that. Thank goodness for pleasant distractions - if alone, I would have struggled big time through this section. Received valuable DK tips from erl. Got a flat w/ 7 mi. to go, but pumped it up and it held to the end (barely). Finished w/ a slightly stiff L knee and lower back, but really no other issues except general fatigue. Yeah, I'll take that. An A++ day for a training ride!! Didn't mention it earlier, but just LOVED riding through the nat. forest and all the amazing Mo. scenery.

C • Well, fortunately it sounds... 3

Shoveling, hauling, and spreading wood chips in various places on our property from the monstrous 12 yard pile Fick Supply brought us. 12 yards is a lot of wood chips! It was a family effort. Logging one-third time.

Private session w/ Paul to cover all 8 bear hug defenses w/ as much repetition as time would allow. Paul to me "is that your left shoulder making all those weird crunching sounds??". Umm, yes, it is. Immediately after this session, I wrote everything down, so hopefully I will finally get these defenses straight.

KM level 1 and 2 classes. Shoulders got thoroughly worked over in L2 class w/ some of the drills we were doing -- and not exactly in a good way. Tender.

Easy trainer spin.

- x3: 1:30 plank routine (forearms then to hands, then opposite hand/foot raises, etc. for duration. IMO this was much easier than on forearms only)
- x5: 12 pushup
- hip strengthening/flexibility

- 10 min treadmill run WU
- x2: 3 min heavy bag free work; 20 jack; 5 tuck jump; 15 burpee

Spin class; low 4 intensity instead of usual high 4. Kinda pooped. Prob. would have been more effective to do this on Tues. but early classes are only Mon. and Fri. Oh well.

One less hour of sleep plus an added bonus of misty sprinkles, dense fog during the dark part of the ride (first 1.5 hrs), and gobs of grit flung everywhere. But I got my ride in - YAY:

- Hamburg/Greenway loops
- Katy -> Page bridge -> Creve Coeur park and back

Hip strengthening/flexibility routine.

Gym morning. Treadmill WU run.

Spin class. Maxed out on a few standing and seated "climbs" -- good. The gym cut the class time down to 45 min. for all future spin classes -- bad.

- From work, down Hamburg to Katy
- Side trip to Lost Valley; up center road hill, then all gravel doubletrack to base of drop-in hill from Hamburg; turn around and back to bottom of center road hill; x3
- Katy to Klondike boat ramp then back to work

Definitely not feeling peppy; likely due to spin class efforts this morning -- legs were feeling it. LV gravel pretty chunky in spots so some rough descents but there's nothing wrong w/ riding on rough gravel - good practice.

KM level 1 and 2 classes.

Hip strengthening/flexibility. Tough work week this week - glad tomorrow is Fri.

Trash/recycle bin hauling to highway. Haul/run/haul/run plus some additional running on our yard trail.

Easy trainer spin. Nothing fancy.

Hip strengthening/flexibility routine. I had been slowly increasing reps for each of the moves. Tonight I added a red resistance band for the clams and 1# ankle weights for everything else (except the leg swings at the end). Harder.

- From work, Hamburg/Greenway out and backs in the dark, then headed down to Katy
- Side trip to Lost Valley to ride center road hill to top and back down
- Katy to Matson Hill Rd., up hill to Duke and back
- Katy to Terry Rd., Terry to Duke and back
- Katy to Dutzow then back to work

Forgot what a butt-kicker Matson Hill Rd. is! After Terry jaunt, made a goal to increase my AVS to over 13 mph (I was at about 12.1). Was making great progress on the way to Dutzow - flying! Which usually means it will be the opposite after the turnaround. Yep. Worked HARD on the way back -- but made my goal.

One noteworthy event -- stopped briefly @ Augusta kiosk on Katy to make clothing adjustments, etc. I picked up my bike to move it against a fence and it felt all wiggly and weird. Upon closer inspection, I saw that my rear quick release was completely loosened and the frame was just resting on the skewer through gravity. Kind of a freak-out moment as I thought about my descent on Terry. Not sure if it loosened on the chunky gravel hills -- no matter, it was obviously not tight enough to begin w/ and I should have caught that. Lesson learned: better pre-bike inspections! Not just chain/tire pressure.

C • Hills! 5

Running laps around giant playground w/ daughter plus a little on park trails. She was pretending it was a cross-country race (we had watched excerpts of one on YouTube earlier). Good little runner!

Hip strengthening/flexibility routine.

Impromptu gym morning - spin class.

Treadmill jog

2 sets:
- 2 min jump rope combos
- 90 sec plank
- hip adduction/abduction w/ black band

One-on-one session w/ Paul to work on areas for improvement (footwork and straight punch form/arm extension). My Fridays at work have lightened up a bit so I hope to fit a few of these in now and then. Nothing like learning from the master!

Lost Valley hills:

WU - from work, down Hamburg to bottom of 6% grade hill (the long, not too steep one), turn around, back to LV "drop in" hill.

Repeats - down "drop in" hill, up next gravel hill, turn around, back to Hamburg. Repeat sequence of 2 LV hills 5 times.

Then motor back to work.

KM level 1 and 2 classes. Reviewed lots of stuff and learned a couple new moves - fumbled through.

Various intervals - feeling a heck of a lot more energetic than last night.

3 sets of 20 w/ 8# DBs:
-lunges ea leg
-squats
-side lateral raises
Ea set followed by a 60 sec plank. 8# DBs pretty light - will increase.

Then hip strengthening/flexibility routine

Simple spinning. Tired.