Training Log Archive: veinbuster

I noticed a threat of a migraine early this morning so tried to get that in check before taking a relatively easy ride during a round of lake effect snow. The snow turned to rain at about the half way point. It didn't matter much because I was already dirty and wet.

The ice is off the river and has melted down to spots of gravel on about a third of the woods trail. The bit of snow mixed with the melt water made for pretty good grip.

There was a puzzle in the woods in that there appeared to be the trail of a one legged man running out and back. It took a while to get past the asymmetry of the out and back prints and notice the prints were symmetric side to side - just someone with a much longer stride than I usually see.

C • Fatty 2

Day 2 soloflex and free weights

I had an unexpected pull in my lower left abdomen doing flies. It made more sense when I looked at the muscles. I seem to have reached the age where these things tend to linger.

Sufferfest: there is no try

No word from Tacx so I tried a session without resistance control, or power meter. The default for the trainer is flat so it meant guessing what gear to use for the various power levels. Judging by the average heart rate I came pretty close. I treated the big gear as 9/10 (280 watts when setting power). One gear down for 8/10 and another down for 7/10. I used cadence for in between and used the 7 or 8 with I high cadence for 10/10.

4xincreasing intervals - up a half step in power 3 times each interval. 1,2,3 then 4 minutes.

TT8 with increasing power every 2 minutes

4x increasing intervals, same power handling but this time 4,3,2 then 1 minute.

This video is where they started using a rotary timer part way through each interval to tell you how much was left. I like this much better than watching for a three second count down.

Day 1 soloflex and free weights

Another bust with the trainer starting a session. Waiting for a response from Tacx.

Ice fest.

2C with extreme fog. I could tell when there was a body ahead at 70-80m, but couldn't tell if it was coming or going until about 50m. Most of the paved portion of the path was just wet with periodic stretches on lumpy ice where melt and rain water flowed across.

The unpaved trail was a while different ballgame. The heavily travelled parts were a sheet of ice covered with 2-5mm of water. I rode about 3km of this, making the most of Tree parts in the ice to help my grip.

The less traveled parts had spots of bare path on the edges, but not always wide enough to clear my bars. This was much more relaxing.

The worst conditions were on the wooden walkway. The melt water flowed off the side so the surface was a glistening convex ice way. Coming back, I walked about a third of this where the edge had a bar spot for my boots, but wasn't wide enough for the bike.

This wasn't my hardest workout, but it certainly had more tense moments than any other outing this winter.

Day 3 soloflex

To and from the outdoor skating rink. The left side bar wasn't quite ideal for carrying my skate bag but wasn't terrible. Lots of wet ice out there. We've been melting every day and refreezing every night.

This might be the first time I've really tried to skate since my leg issues. I've put the skates on a couple of times, but not in the last 10 years.

The first five minutes or so were tense but after tightening the skates a couple of times I started to feel like I might be able to skate again. I took it easy anyway to remind myself where the picks were - everyone else showed up with hockey skates. Even so I caught a pick several times and had to relearn how to catch my balance without grabbing more ice with a toe pick.

I felt all of the muscles in my shins and feet. Much of that is lack of use, but some might be swelling that is often in my ankles with any upright activity.