Here we go again...again

It has been a tremendous amount of time since I started this blog, and I just never kept up with it. I have actually been training quite a bit, I just never documented it. This is what I managed to accomplish since my last post:

• Bought an old road bike for training and on-road rides. It is an 1988 Schwinn Traveler (47cm ladies style frame). I got it on ebay for $125.00. I have upgraded the shifters, wheels, etc. I'll put up the details with some pictures in my next post. It is a bit heavy (about 26 pounds), but she rides nice and didn't cost me more than my first year college tuition.
• I upgraded my Kona Hahana with a RockShox fork, the RECON, with 130mm of travel. My teeth and arms have thanked me for it ever since.
• Trained for several months for the Diabetes Challenge Ride - a 100k road ride around Clearwater, FL.
• Rode three days a week for 20 miles and one weekend day ride for somewhere between 30 and 50 miles.
• Finished my Ride on November 19th (2006), 100K in 4 hours.

My future goals are as follows:

• 2007 - Ride offroad more and build up my endurance, speed, and skills offroad.
• Spring 2007 - Ride in the Squiggy 6-hr Offroad Challenge, and not embarrass myself.
• Fall 2007 - Complete my first on-road century (not sure which one yet).
• Fall 2008 - Do a multi-day off-road ride somewhere with actual mountains (NOT Florida!)

As for training, I have changed the routine from what was proposed in the book as to better fit my schedule and ability to get out of bed at 5:30am every morning. Here is my planned training schedule for the next two weeks:

• Monday - one hour on-road ride
• Tuesday - strength training
• Wednesday - one hour on-road ride
• Thursday - strength training
• Friday - one hour on-road ride
• Any other day - offroad ride or 40 mile on-road ride & strength training

I plan to take my one-mile speed at same heart rate as I noted before tomorrow morning to see where I am at when I start training this week. I'll post all that stuff next time, hopefully in a day or two.

I plan to continue to document this time, if for no other reason, than to help me continue and improve.


Quote for the next two weeks training:

Arriving at one goal is the starting point to another.

--Fyodor Dostoevski

Week 5, Again

Well, week 5 did not go as planned due mostly to my job. I had early fieldwork on Wednesday, and had to go out of town on Thursday and Friday. I did manage to do 2 days of road biking, one day on the elliptical trainer, and more day combination of road/off-road biking. I lifted weights only 1 of those days. So, I am going to repeat week 5 over again, and not move on to week 6 at this point. The plan for this week is:

Monday - Bike 45 minutes, strength training
Tuesday - Elliptical Trainer, 45 minutes
Wednesday - Bike 45 minutes, strength training
Thursday - Elliptical Trainer, 45 minutes
Friday - Bike 45 minutes, strength training

I don't have to travel this week, so I have no available excuses come next Monday.

One good thing happened this week (in regards to all of this) -- I went off-road biking on Saturday. I really enjoyed it. I could feel the differnce all this traning has made. I did not get fatigued and I was not sore the next day. I didn't go too fast, but overall I was pretty proud of myself. Next, I hope to do longer off-road ride and take a MB clinic from the local off-road biking club.

Quote for my week:

It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop.
Confucius

Week 5

The hard stuff starts now. I will be biking 45 minutes to one hour, five times a week, plus 3 days a week weight training. I have to travel this week, which will put me in the gym one of those five days. I was thinking of trying an elliptical trainer once a week. This will give me some weight bearing exercise, but won't pound my unhappy joints.

So, with my travel in the middle of the week, here is my plan:

Monday - Bike 45 minutes, strength training
Tuesday - Bike 45 minutes
Wednesday - Bike 45 minutes, strength training
Thursday - off
Friday - Elliptical Trainer 30 - 45 minutes, strength training
Saturday - Bike 45 minutes
Sunday - off

Following this week, if I feel OK by Sunday, I am going to plan an 10 mile (or so) offroad ride for the following weekend. I feel that I have a wee bit of endurance now, and should be able get down the trail without needing medical attention. Probably do some portion of Wilderness Park.

Interesting thing to note: I quit caffeine one week ago today. My heart rate was a full 10 bpm less for the same effort as it was just two weeks ago when I was a caffeine junkie.

Weeks 2 - 4

Well, I got behind in my posting already. Sad, but typical. The biking is going well, though. Weeks 2 - 4 were pretty much the same as Week 1, but with ride time increasing from 30 minutes to 40 minutes. Here are the highlights (for lack of a better word) for the last three weeks of training:

• I can now do a 40 minute ride with an average speed of 15 mph. This is an improvement form when I started, when I could do 30 minutes at an average speed of about 12 mph.
• I got my heart rate monitor and figured out how to use it (it is more complicated than the space shuttle).
• My threshold heart rate - which I am saying is my heartrate after sustaining the hardest pace I could for 15 minutes, is about 160.
• I don't have a 1 mile strech in my ride that doesn't have a crossing of some type. So I took a stretch of uninterupted trail, which was about 3/4 of a mile long, as my threshold mile distance. I'll use this to test my progress as time goes on. At week 3 I did this distance, at my threshold heartrate, in 3 minutes and 25 seconds.
• I plan on hitting the off road trails starting this weekend. I feel that I have gained some endurance and shouldn't pass out after 5 minutes.
• I hope to do some sprint training at the local BMX track. I don't plan on racing, but I thought I would ride a couple of laps to work on my sprinting.

Next week has a big jump in intensity; I will start riding every workday morning for about 45 minutes plus strength training. I'll update this weekend with the schudule and follow up at the end of the week if I can still move.

Quote for the Week:

Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only
through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition
inspired, and success achieved. -- Helen Keller (1880 - 1968)

Week 1 -- Schedule

My schedule for this week is the following:

• Monday, Wednesday, Friday - 30 minute (about 7 mile) bike ride
• Tuesday, Thursday - Strength Training
• Saturday or Sunday - Flexibility (Yoga)

I don't have a heart rate monitor yet; I ordered a simple one and should have it by Tuesday or so. At that point I will attempt to figure out what my threshold heart rate and threshold mile time is -- and log it in. I am sure it will a sorrowful couple of numbers...

Quote for my week:

"Students achieving Oneness will move on to Twoness."
Woody Allen

The Plan

The plan is to train for 6 months following (somewhat loosely) the training plan outlined in a book by Paul Scott called Outside Fitness. It lays out a 24-week training plan for running, strength training, flexibility training, and some power and sport specific training towards the end. I am going to bike instead of run because I cannot run worth a damn. Everything starts to hurt very quickly and doesn't get much better over time. After a couple of weeks my 90+ grandmother is getting around better than I am. So, biking it is.

If anyone is wondering why I am bothering to do this at all, there is actually a reason other than ego or the size of my ass. I got sick last summer. My thyroid died on me and I was sent into hyperthyroid hell where I got real thin (for me) and real sick. I couldn't do much of anything for several months. I didn't have the energy to make chocolate chip cookies and I always thought I could do that on my deathbed. Now, as all of us our prone to do, I made all sorts of promises to human and diety alike that if I got better I would......well, all sorts of stuff. But the one thing that stuck with me after I got better, was the way I had taken my health for granted before I got sick. I always figured I had time to do those things I had always wanted to do. That when I was ready to get off my ass, my body would be there for me, all ready to go after hanging about in a holding pattern for years on end. Not so much, is seems. So, I am going to at least keep one of the vows I made during that time; "stop dreaming, stop reading about other's dreams, and get off your ass and go."

in the beginning, I could crawl...

I have decided to put pressure on myself to meet a goal. The goal is to train for the next 6 months and build up enough endurance and skill on my bike to be able to complete a long backroads ride somewhere pretty. The pressure is this blog.

Noone will probably read this except for me and maybe a couple of friends. But, I would certainly rather post that "I rode 10 more miles than last week!" - instead of - "I drank too much wine and fell asleep on the couch watching Myth Busters" (although I do love those guys.)

So here we go, 6 months from today I will hopefully be saddling up for a 30 mile-or-so ride through beautiful backcountry without packing a respirator. As of now, I can bang out 10 miles on paved flat at an average speed of 15 miles an hour. (That is slower than Lance Armstrong rides while he is drinking champagne on the final stage of the Tour.) So, I don't have much to lose now do I...