ALC7 Down, Time to Start Training for 8!

The ride was awesome. I rode 503 out of 545 miles. Not bad on a first effort. Naturally, I must go again so that next year I can ride all 545 miles. So time to start training and keep my general fitness level at least where it is if not continuing to improve. :) I'm going to combine my last two week's activities into this one post and then be better about routine posting.

Day - Sunday, 6/15
Ride Type - Road Training
Ride Distance - 20.0 miles
Ride Length - unknown
Avg Speed - unknown
Avg Cadence - unknown
Avg Heart Rate - unknown
Max Heart Rate - unknown
Calories burned - unknown
Total Training Distance To-Date: 20.0 miles
*Note - I didn't bring my computer but we did the Lake Merced loop - roughly 20 miles. :)

Day - Monday, 6/16
Ride Type - Weight Training

Day - Tuesday, 6/17
Ride Type - Weight Training

Day - Tuesday, 6/17
Ride Type - Indoor Training
Ride Distance - 11.3 miles
Ride Length - 00:45:00
Avg Speed - 15.1
Avg Cadence - 85
Avg Heart Rate - 123
Max Heart Rate - 133
Calories burned - 789
Total Training Distance To-Date: 31.3 miles

Day - Thursday, 6/19
Ride Type - Indoor Training
Ride Distance - 15.31 miles
Ride Length - 01:00:00
Avg Speed - 15.3
Avg Cadence - 87
Avg Heart Rate - 123
Max Heart Rate - 134
Calories burned - 1082
Total Training Distance To-Date: 46.61 miles


Day - Friday, 6/20
Ride Type - Cross Training - Intervals on Treadmill

Day - Saturday, 6/21
Ride Type - Weight Training & Cross Training - Intervals on Treadmill


Day - Monday, 6/23
Ride Type - Weight Training


Day - Tuesday, 6/24
Ride Type - Weight Training

Day - Tuesday, 6/24
Ride Type - Indoor Training
Ride Distance - 11.55 miles
Ride Length - 00:45:00
Avg Speed - 15.4
Avg Cadence - 87
Avg Heart Rate - 122
Max Heart Rate - 140
Calories burned - 818
Total Training Distance To-Date: 58.16 miles


Day - Thursday, 6/26
Ride Type - Indoor Training
Ride Distance - 11.83 miles
Ride Length - 00:45:00
Avg Speed - 15.8
Avg Cadence - 89
Avg Heart Rate - 124
Max Heart Rate - 136
Calories burned - 844
Total Training Distance To-Date: 69.99 miles


Day - Saturday, 6/28
Ride Type - Indoor Training
Ride Distance - 15.91 miles
Ride Length - 01:00:00
Avg Speed - 15.9
Avg Cadence - 90
Avg Heart Rate - 129
Max Heart Rate - 142
Calories burned - 1138
Total Training Distance To-Date: 85.9 miles

Keep On Truckin'

This morning, I woke up at the ass-crack of dawn (5:40am to be exact), met my neighbor/friend/tentmate/cycle buddy extraordinaire Danny, and we went went to Gold's and did cardio. I ran intervals for 35 minutes. I have decided to not keep those stats as I don't get the same level of detail and also don't trust those machines' calorie burning estimates as much as my heart rate monitors, but I since my monitor is part of my cyclocomputer, it won't measure calories if I'm running in place. :(

But I cross trained and feel good about it!!

Running Wednesday

I was a good boy again and got up VERY early, met my buddy Danny on the corner and we were at the gym by about 6:20 this morning. YIPES. I ran a 45-minute version of my interval training, burning about 500 calories and covering 3.51 miles. I ran a total of 18 minutes. Not bad an accomplishment by 7:05 a.m., huh?

On the "Road" Again

Yay I'm so proud of myself. I managed to get up and put in an hour on Clyde this morning while catching up on last night's epi of Big Brother 9. Now I gotta kick it in gear and get to work.

Day - Wednesday, 3/26
Ride Type - Indoor Training
Ride Distance - 13.30 miles
Ride Length -1:00:00
Avg Speed - 13.3 mph
Avg Cadence - 93.7
Avg Heart Rate - 139
Max Heart Rate - 167
Calories burned - 849
Total Training Distance To-Date: 699.79 miles

The Resurgence of X-Training

So after my ass was handed to me on Saturday's ride... I was toast that day and Sunday. But I woke up at 5:30 (sometimes I wonder, WHY?) and was at the gym and on the treadmill by 6:00 AM today. I knocked out 30 minutes of intervals running - so ran for a total of 12 minutes. Not bad, considering I haven't done intervals on Clyde in almost 3 weeks and I haven't run in about 2 months, at a minimum.

I gotta step EVERYTHING up - not just mileage on the road.

Total mileage
Cross training

It's time. The ride is only 68 days from today. HOLY SHITE!

Indoors Again

Day - Tuesday, 2/17
Ride Type - Indoor Training
Ride Distance - 13.38 miles
Ride Length -1:00:00
Avg Speed - 13.4 mph
Avg Cadence - 92
Avg Heart Rate - 151
Max Heart Rate - 181
Calories burned - 858
Total Training Distance To-Date: 597.2 miles

Happy Valentime's Day

Yes, I know I misspelled it. It's one of those common misspoken items, like "supposably" or "for all intensive purposes". Whatever.

Still on track, fuckers. And I broke the 500 mile mark. I figure I'll break 1500 by the time June 1 rolls around.

Day - Thursday, 2/14
Ride Type - Indoor Training
Ride Distance - 13.24 miles
Ride Length - 1:00:00
Avg Speed - 13.2 mph
Avg Cadence - 93.8 (AWESOME!)
Avg Heart Rate - 150
Calories burned - 851
Total Training Distance To-Date: 509.84 miles

Shameful but getting back on track

Shit it's been a Loooooooong time. Too long. But now that it's into Feb, no time to waste on procrastination and/or excuses of feeling ill, cold, stress from personal life, etc. I got up and did it, and if the damned rain will still stay away this Sat, me and two of the 'bos are going to do a 36 miler. It should really kick my ass, but gotta start back up somewhere...

Here are my stats for today:

Day - Wednesday, 2/6
Ride Type - Indoor Training
Ride Distance - 13.18 miles
Ride Length - 1:00:00
Avg Speed - 13.2 mph
Avg Cadence - 87.7
Avg Heart Rate - 152
Time above zone - 00:00:00*
Time in zone - 0:00:00*
Calories burned - 836
Total Training Distance To-Date: 438.7 miles


*I still haven't figured this out yet - I know - Lame! I'll do it later.

Kickin' my ass, Part Deux

If you look at the dates, it's been a while since I've been on Clyde in ANY fashion. I'm still awaiting test results, but the doc suspects I am either pre- or early-ulcer. After picking up some pretty severe nausea on Christmas Eve and keeping it for two weeks, along with a headache that comes and goes but mostly comes for about two weeks, I decided to go in and see the doc. Thankfully I'm on some med that is treating the symptoms right now and they seem to be helping. Not that an ulcer is any big deal really, but feeling like you may vomit pretty much all the time is not a big helping hand to thinking about getting on the bike or treadmill and putting in a tough hour of interval training.

This morning I almost quit at 30 minutes - but I powered through despite the fact that my headache came knocking at about 20 minutes into the workout. It will be interesting to see how I feel the rest of the day. And keep your fingers crossed - I have my first road ride in almost a month on Saturday. It's a pretty easy 30 miler in the East Bay. My neighbor Danny is supposed to be going with me. Let's hope I make it!

Day - Thursday, 1/17
Ride Type - Indoor Training
Ride Distance - 13.54 miles
Ride Length - 1:00:00
Avg Speed - 13.5 mph
Avg Cadence - 84.6
Avg Heart Rate - 153
Time above zone - 00:00:00*
Time in zone - 0:00:00*
Calories burned - 874
Total Training Distance To-Date: 425.52 miles


*I still haven't figured this out yet and I've got to get to work - so I'll do it later.

Kickin' my ass!

Crap - I've not been on Clyde in two weeks - and boy can I tell now that I just finished an hour on him? My ass hurts like it did on my first few rides. It's kind of unbelievable just how much frequency in the saddle makes a difference in how well your ass handles that time. But I had to and I did... I've even already cleaned my house and changed my bed linens too. What a productive Sunday!!!

Day - Sunday, 1/6
Ride Type - Indoor Training
Ride Distance - 13.38 miles
Ride Length - 1:00:00
Avg Speed - 13.4 mph
Avg Cadence - 89.7
Avg Heart Rate - 160
Time above zone - 00:39:00*
Time in zone - 0:18:00*
Calories burned - 859
Total Training Distance To-Date: 411.98 miles

*This is still just an estimate - I gotta do some more research on how to pick apart timing and heart rate. Maybe I should read the owner's manual or the Help files on the application? :)

Running off Frustration

I hadn't done anything body-worthy in a week... and had been battling tummy trubs the whole week as well. I finally felt well enough to tackle some physical exertion and also had some frustrations I thought would mete out from some endorphin release, so I packed up Sat morning and went to the gym for an interval run. So glad I did.

Day - Saturday, 12/29
Run Type - Interval Training
Run Distance - 4.33 miles
Exercise Time - 00:55:00
Run Time - 00:20:00 (10 2-min intervals)
Avg Speed - 4.72 mph
Avg Heart Rate - 157
Time in zone - unknown*
Time above zone - unknown*
Calories burned - 660
Total Running Distance To-Date - 12.08 miles

*I had some issues with my equipment. i.e., dropping my 'pod, forgetting to lap my garmin computer, etc. so this is just lost for this workout. WAH!

Super Sunday

Since I popped my tire on Friday, I went shopping yesterday and got new, thicker, reinforced tires for city riding. While not puncture-proof, they are more resistant. I also bought more tubes and replenished my CO2 supplies. I came home, changed my tires and cleaned my bike with a vengeance. I even cleaned out the caked in muck in my rear derailleur. This morning, I mounted my new Garmin (thanks again Scott and LouAnne!!!!!) and put it to the test. It is really freaking cool. It has a workouts function, so I installed the software, customized a new workout file based upon the one-hour Carmichael intervals I've been working on, then uploaded it to the bike computer. I geared up - got on and told it I wanted to start and it tells me when my "lap" is done - SO easy and no real thinking involved, just watch TV and try not to die of a heartattack! :)

Day - Sunday, 12/23
Ride Type - Indoor Training
Ride Distance - 13.32 miles
Ride Length - 1:00:00
Avg Speed - 13.3 mph
Avg Cadence - 89.7
Avg Heart Rate - 152
Time above zone - 00:30:00*
Time in zone - 0:24:00*
Calories burned - 853
Total Training Distance To-Date: 398.6 miles

*the new Garmin measures heart rate in more detail, so these are estimates. I need to play around the the Training Center software to figure out how I get real time measurements. It's measuring too complex right now.

Freaky Friday

I was inspired by my run on Monday and thought I would do it again today. I woke up at 5:45 am, lolled around too long as I am want to do in the mornings, then finally motivated to get out of my house by 6:45, on my bike, headed to Gold's SOMA. I climbed on the treadmill by 7:15 and ran intervals again. I did well - it was easier this time, so I ran an additional interval (9 sprints this time instead of 8 as on Monday).

I showered at the gym (something I HATE doing) and then climbed back on Clyde and headed to work. Around 6th and Brannan, by the 280 on-ramp, I took a screw in my rear tire and popped it. ARGH! I pulled over on 5th and Brannan and began the tube change. I got the tube in, and the tire re-seated and then used my CO2 cartridge to fill the tire - my first time. I pretty much wasted most of the first cartridge due to my mistake in use. WAH. Then with my 2nd and final cartridge, I got the tire inflated. But the tire was mis-seated at the valve point on the rim. I had to bleed about 75% of the air out to reseat it properly. Then I didn't have enough gas in the last cartridge to get me pumped back up. DAMN!

I tried calling a cab but they were busy and said it'd be a while, so I began to walk. At 2nd between Brannan and I think Harrison I caught a cab and had to take the front wheel and the seat post out to get it to fit in the trunk. I try to be good and exercise and the baby Jesus does nothing but shower hate and punishment on me. Why??? WHY??? :)

span >Day - Friday, 12/21
Run Type - Interval Training
Run Distance - 4.0 miles
Run Length - 0:50:30
Avg Speed - 4.8 mph
Avg Heart Rate - 156
Time in zone - unknown
Time above zone - unknown*

* My damned Polar 200CAD cyclometer BROKE on Wednesday, so I didn't have the benefit of my heart rate monitor today. I already bought a new one but it's a different make/model and I haven't charged and installed it yet. So the avg above is per the treadmill computer and I don't really trust it.

** I forgot to enter my weight until about 5 mins had passed, so this is slightly understated, but directionally correct.

At least I got something in....

We tried to get all the moving parts together for a ride late yesterday, but the overcast weather and time got the best of us and we just didn't do it. By the time we picked up my brother's rented road bike, it would have been dark about 20 minutes from the end of our Lake Merced Loop. So we bagged.

Luckily, yesterday morning, I did motivate with middle brother to Gold's SOMA and I put in a run. I haven't run in ANY capacity in quite a while. I am not surprised at how sore parts of my body are. What I am pleasantly surprised over is just how far I went and how well I managed on the intervals DURING the run. Clearly my conditioning on the bike is translating off of it as well - which is quite exciting. Without the biking, the run I did yesterday would have been something I would have had to work up to over a course of probably 4-6 weeks of running 2-3x/week. So that in and of itself is a small victory. I wore my heart rate monitor and took my cyclometer with me - and I ran intervals. I used the Carmichael interval hour I've used a few times thus far on the bike and modified it for the treadmill and then just put in what I could for as long as I could.

Warm up - 6 mins (3.8 mph, 2.0 incline)
Run - 2 mins (5.5 mph, 0.5 incline)
Recover - 2 mins (3.8 mph, 2.0 incline)
Run - 2 mins (6.0 mph, 0.5 incline)
Recover - 2 mins (3.8 mph, 2.0 incline)
Run - 2 mins (6.5 mph, 0.5 incline)
Recover - 2 mins (3.8 mph, 2.0 incline)
Run - 2 mins (6.8 mph, 0.5 incline)
Recover - 2 mins (3.8 mph, 2.0 incline)
Run - 2 mins (7.0 mph, 0.5 incline)
Recover - 6 mins (3.8 mph, 2.0 incline)
Run - 2 mins (6.5 mph, 1.0 incline)
Recover - 2 mins (3.8 mph, 2.0 incline)
Run - 2 mins (6.8 mph, 0.5 incline)
Recover - 2 mins (3.8 mph, 2.0 incline)
Run - 2 mins (7.0 mph, 0.5 incline)
Cool-down - 10 mins

And here are my stats:

Day - Monday, 12/17
Run Type - Interval Training
Run Distance - 3.75 miles
Run Length - 0:50:34
Avg Speed - 4.5 mph
Avg Heart Rate - 158
Time in zone - 00:18:11
Time above zone - 00:26:12
Calories burned - 766
Total Running Distance To-Date: 3.75 miles

It's a C-O-N-spiracy!!

So lots of different forces are conspiring to keep me off Clyde: Sick brother vomiting upon his arrival from Singapore (but thankfully he's better now!), holiday overeating early due to early family holiday gathering, then this morning, my buddy Liz's back is acting up so she had to bow out, plus it's a bit drizzly. None of these things are really avoidable or changeable, mind you, and I realize that, but it just all sort of sucks. I've been a bit bad this month. Better to slack in December than in May - only one month from the ride - I suppose...

But here's where cross-training comes in handy. I'm going to go off to the SOMA location of Gold's, check it out with my other brother, and run. Should be interesting. Perhaps I can begin to work in one to two days a week at that gym, leaving my house early, riding my bike, working out, showering for work there and then I'll only be like 10 mins from work, if that. That would be nice. Or maybe I could go during lunch? Who knows.

At any rate, the Singapore brother is feeling better and we are to go for a shorter bike ride this afternoon on the Lake Merced Loop (provided it doesn't rain again) - so I will mount Clyde at some point today... And I'll get back on him on Thursday as well for indoor interval training. I guess all is not lost.

Lazy-Assed Weekend

I was awful this past weekend. I shopped, ate, hung out with my dog and my brother's dogs, watched TV, ate, drank, cooked, watched football, ate and hung out with the guy I've been seeing. What's missing you ask? CLYDE!!! No, he wasn't stolen. But I ignored him like a red-headed stepchild this weekend. And today, I paid for it. I did the crazy Chris Carmichael interval training again this morning but didn't feel like I pushed with as much intensity. But that's the price I guess I pay for taking a whole week off. WAH.

Day - Tuesday, 12/11
Ride Type - Indoor Interval Training
Ride Distance - 12.5 miles
Ride Length - 1:00:00
Avg Speed - 12.5 mph
Avg Cadence - 79
Avg Heart Rate - 142
Time in zone - 00:37:56
Time above zone - 00:15:35
Calories burned - 798
Total Training Distance To-Date: 378.0 miles

Intervals

I picked up my first issues of Bicycling magazine over the weekend and have to say, I like it. I found a training article by Chris Carmichael (Carmichael Training Systems) about interval training and about a guy who used this technique with improved nutrition and cross-training and lost a TON of weight. Like over 240 pounds over the course of three years!

So I was going to train anyway this a.m. so figured I'd try his routine. DAMN. It was hard but rewarding. And apparently the manner in which you train your heart in intervals burns calories now AND later... and I like that. :) Here's the routine

6 mins - warm up
1 min - low gear, fast pedal
1 min - recover
1 min - low gear, fast pedal
1 min - recover
2 mins - max intensity (high gear, high speed)
2 mins - recover
2 mins - max intensity (high gear, high speed)
2 mins - recover
2 mins - max intensity (high gear, high speed)
2 mins - recover
2 mins - max intensity (high gear, high speed)
2 mins - recover
2 mins - max intensity (high gear, high speed)
6 mins - recover
2 mins - max intensity (high gear, high speed)
2 mins - recover
2 mins - max intensity (high gear, high speed)
2 mins - recover
2 mins - max intensity (high gear, high speed)
2 mins - recover
2 mins - max intensity (high gear, high speed)
2 mins - recover
2 mins - max intensity (high gear, high speed)
8 mins - cool down

total workout - 60 mins

here's my stats:

Day - Tuesday, 12/4
Ride Type - Indoor Interval Training
Ride Distance - 12.9 miles
Ride Length - 1:02:01
Avg Speed - 12.5 mph
Avg Cadence - 79
Avg Heart Rate - 147
Time in zone - 00:37:08
Time above zone - 00:20:25
Calories burned - 877
Total Training Distance To-Date: 365.5 miles