Training Log Archive: veinbuster

After relaxing yesterday I got impatient waiting for it to warm up today and layered for 0C as best I could under a spring jacket - the cold gear is all home where cold is the name of the game.

It would gave been a nice morning for a ride with the proper gear: no wind and very quiet. As it was, I never really warmed up. Still better than sitting on a trainer.

Day 3 resistance bands and push ups

I haven't really measure my resting heart rate since my Polar died. It gave me a nice measure of my fitness level and my rest heart rate was part of that test. My mission was to see how young an age group I could be categorized as elite - no illusions on my part regarding athletic ability - it was just a heart thing.

The heart profile is interesting in that just sneaking a peak at the monitor blipped it up. The spike is standing up. The downward step function continued a bit after I turned the log off and reflects a standing rate. The machine at the grocery store says my heart rate is too low and gives me a black mark on my overall health rating. I disagree.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/633275920

This is pretty much a rest day so good for flexibility.

5 poses targeting the lower back which can suffer on work weeks. A couple were harder to hold for three minutes than I might have expected given that I have stretched about 350 days a year for close to 30 years.

Before the ride I shimmed the steering to hold it up about 15 degrees - not suitable for the road but good leg clearance for the trainer. Also backed up the seat another cm which added to the knee clearance. Then I zip tied my Playbook to an iPad holder so I could play video. That used a bit of the knee clearance but I still had much more room to move around without worrying about bashing my knees. The key lesson is that you can fit yourself to a bike on a trainer very differently than the same bike on the road.

The ride was mostly to test what should now be a workable setup. I had noticed that I can't really read above about 160 watts of effort, so after a good warmup I tested the Playbook with Sufferfest: Extra Shot. This is pretty much 20 minutes of high intensity work, with little ups and downs in the intense range. Heart rate average during that 20 minutes was 155, which might be a bit lower than a fit test would demand.

Power: avg-155, max-371

Today's plan was to try to settle on a steady state effort and finalize the trainer set up. I accidentally hit stop instead of lap on the Garmin again so lost 15 minutes which will show my heart average a bit low for the session. That is a sign that I need a better place to keep it. It will be a squeeze to get it on the bars.
I also need to do something about seating. Any padding in the shorts results in it getting quite uncomfortable at about 40 minutes. I'll try adjusting the seat some more and try to create more space for my knees around the bars so I can move around a bit. As is it has no chance of working for the 10 hours required to become a knight.

The ride:
Steady state still looks to be around 160 watts. I did 5 power runs and recovered well with that as a recovery pace. During my cool down I did 5 sprints. It wasn't planned but I noticed in a lower gear I could spin at 140 so I did 5 runs testing how big a gear I could get that cadence with. Those sprints were hitting 400 watts while the power runs hit 500.

Power: avg-151, max-541

C • Sounds like you're at home this week? 11

Day 2 free weights & pushups + abs, with a bonus round of tire toting. I could have parked closer, but there seemed to be some principal dictating how far I should carry the summer tires.

I thought I would run home from the car drop of (snow tires getting replaced) so took the Garmin. It turned out barely worth recording other than to note that wearing real running shoes makes it much better than the walking shoes I wore last time. The Garmin lost the satellite for a bit. When I go back for the car it should be warm enough to wear shorts instead of jeans and to ditch the leather jacket. And I'll probably use the shoulder of the road rather than the rickety side walk which dictated many walk intervals.

Peaks at the Garmin suggest my pace wants to be 9-10 km/hr. To sustain that I'll have to learn how to breath properly.

Sat quietly with one shoe on at 11 and then went out for a peaceful road ride. There was a fair bit of traffic, but I stayed mostly around the edges of a few little towns. Wind was calm and the road was flat for the first 25km, then I looped over to a hillier area. At 40km the wind picked up, but not enough to impact stability and the extra effort to keep moving wasn't a problem today.

I did notice at one red light that even after 40km, my average speed dropped by 1% at just one light. My snacks and drink lasted to 50km and my legs fave me permission to head home. I realized that without the Ride to Conquer Cancer this year, I hadn't had many long rides. I'll have to fix that next year.

Beautiful day. Sunny and 15C by the time I finished - it was 9C at the start.

Day 1 free weights + abs + tire toting (snow tire time)