Training Log Archive: veinbuster

Day 3 resistance bands and push ups

Connective tissue needs a bit more work in a hotel.

Runny type test number 2

The hotel gym had weights and medicine balls, but no bench and very little floor space with the giant cardio gear stuffed in there. So I gave myself half and hour on an elliptical.

It was set for miles, so I started out with a target pace of 4.5, which seemed fairly natural for not being in a hurry. It took a while for it to pick up my heart rate and when it did it was showing 105-110. It didn't feel like that to me. My heart monitor was showing mid 150s. I tried to ignore that and pay attention to the pace which kept creeping up to 5.

At about the time I was considering if I should check with my doctor about the very different heart rate readings the machine caught up to my Garmin. That took 14 minutes. At 15, I decided to try to settle the pace down to 4. This felt really slow, a fast walk really, but also was easily sustainable.

So one more data point in my time versus distance walking/running/hiking experiment.

Recumbent tests. Haven't sorted through the photos Mrs. took of me trying new stuff, but the highlights were:
- ICE Full Fat is boss. Really nice engineering. Handled much better than the other fatties (there are getting to be quite a few options). Managed my unsanctioned curb test like nothing happened. It has a huge footprint though.
- I'm really warming up to the internal over/under drive on the front. I'll run some numbers to see how it might suit one of my bikes in the Rockies.
- I've pretty much decided internal rear hubs aren't for me. I've tried three now and even the Rohloff doesn't shift as smoothly under power as I want it to. I really like the idea especially for a winter bike, but I'll stick with a derailleur and needing to do regular cleaning up
- I think I'm finally over the R84 that I lusted after for years. It is quite nice in real life (first time I've actually been on one), but 'Bent's Kodiak may have ruined me for blocky carbon
- I'm more impressed with Hase engineering every time I visit them. They've addressed my complaint with ground clearance for the mid position of the rear hub by building a linear shifter. Very cool and pretty smooth. The suspension for their Kross has changed a bit since I rode a prototype and strikes me as much more serviceable now. This is probably the trike with the best chance of handling single track, though it might still be too wide for the tight stuff
- finished up with a Greenspeed hand trike that was great fun. A bit tricky for tight cornering, or braking into a corner, but it is tempting to have one just because. I did really notice how slow most recumbent riders are while riding this - I didn't expect to have to maneuver by so many people

A few quick laps before heading to Cincinnati to see if there are any recumbents that want to go home with Mrs.

Day 2 free weights and push ups

28C, still air and clear blue skies for the first day of autumn.

Perfect day for a ride. The only problem is it is getting hard to burn the 1200calories that qualify for a bonus apple dumpling with fresh cinnamon ice cream.

I wasn't feeling the bike ride with commuters today, perhaps peripherally influenced by Flight and 'Bent both crashing last week.

Soooo...I thought I would try a bit of a run during the wash cycle. I set a half hour limit on a little 200m circuit. I ran the heart up to the high 160s then walked it back to the 140s. That was about 4:1 for the first 2 km when I decided to do a walk lap and noticed my walk pace was about the same as the average with run-walk so I shifted the balance to trying to pick a run pace that didn't ramp the heart up so quickly. No luck at that, but it might go better starting out differently.

I would need different compression to do this with any frequency. And maybe some gait coaching before I have bad habits to break. Hiking would probably work better for me.

Day 1 free weights