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)