Training Log Archive: veinbuster

Day 3 resistance bands and push ups

Mrs. shade walk. After spending all day in a lawn chair at a pig roast, she needed to stretch out her hips. Stopped for a light breakfast after a bit more than an hour, then headed home. 30C by 10 am.

The plan was through Mechanicsburg to warm up. Time trial to Carlsyle. Easy turn around through town while fuelling up. Time trail back to Mechanicsburg, then cool down to the apartment.

Checked 'Bent and Bash progress which seemed stalled, but seems to have just been a posting delay. Weather said 10% chance of rain. Radar showed rain to the north, but you'd think if it was pushing my way the weather forecasters would update their probabilities.

All kitted up and I thought I heard thunder, but maybe it was a bouncing truck so I went out anyway. Almost immediately heard thunder off to the north, but I was going SW so should be going away from it. Light rain at 7km, but not really enough to raise the oil out of the road. Hit 10km and upped the pace keeping the heart well in the 160s. Big rain started at 14km - some of the drops big enough that they gave a bit of an ouch on the arms so I eased a bit. That 5km interval showed an average heart rate of 168, max 175 but I didn't really feel I was at my limit. I think I could have maintained it for the 10km I had planned, but it was wet enough that I eased off a bit - next 5km at 162 average.

I thought of looping back early, but I was already soaked so did the loop through town and saw a group of young girls on their scooters happily going to dance class in the rain, so good thing I didn't wimp out. The stones in town were very slippery - definitely not good to make a tight turn around on. When I did make the turn around I heard thunder right off my shoulder, so once I got through every red light in town I settled into a brisk pace back - not aggressive, just brisk.

Rain eased off with about 9km to go so I did a riding in the drops test and managed with no difficulty for 800m before needing to sit up for a red light. I should be able to ride the drops for a kilometre (huge for me) so might try a kilo one day. Rain started again after 3-4km and as I rounded the corner to the finish, the thunder started up again.

Satisfying ride though.

Calf started to show signs on swelling at 772cal today, so consistent with yesterday. I still love riding this bike on clear road though.

Today was dedicated to finishing climbs. Not a lot of total elevation but Picked a route that let me pick up the near by 6-12% grades.

Last ride I noticed an easing off when the end was near and clearly doable. I. Was hyped about getting up the steep beginning at 6% and backed of the power on the 2%. Speed dropped a fair bit, but the big penalty was I hadn't previously noticed that it kicks back up to 6% for the last 70m or so and with momentum gone it killed the speed. So today I ran all the hills making a pint of maintaining the power until I was over the crest. I finished with the hill that prompted this exercise and crested at 27.1km/hr. And heart rate was only 161 so finishing didn't ramp it beyond what the main part of the hill had.

Only 26C today but very muggy. Wind came and went from the SE so gear changes in turns were not normal. Would have stayed out longer, but need to get back for a shower before Mrs. movie date.

Leg note: calf started feeling a bit engorged at 800 cal versus the 1,500 or so on the trike. A bit of that might be attributable to not wearing the socks I've graded for bike rides - just wore work grade. The difference is the bike ones are a bit less snug behind the knee. Most of the difference is likely the pinch point in the pelvis even riding on the hoods of a race bike. I'll collect a few more data points on the road bike.

Day 2 free weights and push-ups

A bit late getting out because the live Tour feed didn't get recorded (for reasons unknown), so I watch the last bit of the 2-4 replay. This meant traffic was pretty heavy which slowed the pace in the town sections a fair bit.

I stuffed a repaired tube and extra air in my jersey pocket because I've become flat paranoid on the road bike in PA. Didn't need them. Early in the ride I felt pretty stron so went to shift to the big chain ring and was already on it. Stayed on the big ring throughout, including the 6% climbs - which seem quite inconsequential after the Rockies. The 40km/hr wind tried to push me around some, but also seemed to be just a nuisance after the fierce wind heading towards Edmonton on AB16. Or maybe it's just Flight's periodic references to Rule #5. Regardless, it was a very satisfying, even if a bit short.

Equipment test: a few rides now on the Michelin Pro4 I replaced the SWorks Turbos with. They have a pretty good grip. They aren't as in your face 'I got this and am not budging off the line' as the Turbos, but I never felt like they lost grip at all. If I was racing, I might put a set of Turbos on for the huge confidence they instill in corner speed, knowing I'd be swapping them out before the rubber got to thin.

C • Pro 4s 4

The sun before the storm.

Hot and muggy at 30+C with a storm sporting dime sized hail coming in at 30mph. I rushed out in the sun to get a bit of a ride in.

This was the first ride using only one contact lens and it was interesting to see how much protection I had been taking for granted: the combination of sweat and allergens made the eye sting to the point of being nearly useless. I'll give it a few tries to get used to the environment before plotting a new strategy.

Day 1 free weights