Category Archives: Biking

Workout for Saturday, 20 April

Biking, Photo post, Workouts

Went for another bike ride on Saturday.  I did the exact same loop as last weekend except that at the north end of the back straightaway I extended out to the north to see what was there and then stopped at a different convenience store at the turnaround.

Unfortunately what I found was that my quiet, rolling rural highway turns into a major commercial and industrial artery about a mile above my programmed left turn.  I’ll have to do some more map and car recons to find a nicer extension to this route or possibly a new, longer loop course.

This time I did remember to charge and bring my camera.  The photos don’t do justice to the scenery but I’ll include them at the end to give a feeling for the route.

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Self portrait (also known as the “last known photo” in extreme cases . . .).  The jersey was a birthday present from Twin Six.  It’s called The Brew Pub.  The back has a really cool chain ring insignia on it.

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Nutrition.  I ran out of peanut butter so I was using a weired PB-combined-with-chocolate-spread-thing.  It was . . . okay.  Not as good as PB & Nutella.

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Route starts out following the shore of Mabprachan Reservoir. . .

More after the jump . . .

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Workout for Wednesday, 10 April

Biking, Bodyweight training, Push-up/Sit-up Improvement, Workouts

 

 

 

 

 

Up at 0430.  Knocked out pushups on the balcony and a 40-minute  trainer ride on the bike.  I snapped a screenshot of a different page of the pushup app because this one actually shows the rest intervals.

On this workout I used NO EXTRA REST TIME and I knocked out the final set of 60 without coming out of the front leaning rest.   Felt really good.  Breaking the lead in sets in half makes the fatigue much more manageable compared to the workout on Monday.

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I also finally pulled my mountain bike out of the closet (covered in cobwebs and with two completely flat tires).  It’s all polished up, lubricated, pumped and ready to go.  Next week I’m going to start sneaking out after work and hitting the mountain bike track near my office on Thursdays. If I don’t post next Friday, send help.

Workout for Wednesday, 20 February

Biking, Workouts

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I’m going to do a change-step in my cardio rotation so that my hard run days (intervals, tempo, etc.) fall after my swim days instead of my bike days.  Better rested legs means more energy for my hard runs and more intensity in the runs which means better results.  I think that’s how it goes anyway.

I’m also adding pull-ups into my rotation starting on Friday.  It’s a prelude to adding back in full blown strength training.  I’m still working on that plan though so for now the pull-ups are the next step.

Workout for Friday, 1 February

Biking, Gear, Workouts

As promised, I tried something new for my cycling workout today.  I tried this:

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This is a cycling training DVD that I have had for years.  And yesterday when I went to use it I had to take it out of the shrink wrap.  So yeah.  I’m not 100% sure but I believe I got this for free with my CycleOps trainer.  Not sure though.

Anyway, I’ve never used a training video before although obviously I know they exist, and I even have a good friend who used to have a special set up in his garage to ride in the winter and watch videos (training and otherwise).  I wasn’t sure what to expect, and honestly I wanted to do something different but I didn’t want a flat out, 100% interval intensity workout since I had a hard run scheduled the next day.

Anyway, turns out the video has a several different viewing segments that you can select and mix and match as desired to create the length you want.

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I didn’t even actually do the main workout segment (“The Race”, like I said, I was saving my legs for my next run) but I did enjoy the parts I did.  It was fun to have a structured program to follow, I enjoyed moving up and down the levels of intensity and moving between the different video segments really broke up the duration and made riding on the trainer much more tolerable.  I’m definitely going to look for a good opportunity (scheduling wise) to get more into this DVD and do a good long workout of it that includes the main Race segment.

If you’ve read any of my other cycling posts you know that I normally dread the trainer.  But it’s pretty easy to make it more tolerable.  If you’re actually training for cycling or a cycling-inclusive event (like a tri) I think that training videos are definitely the way to go.  They make long trainer sessions tolerable and give you a good motivational boost and a gauge for how hard you are training and how hard you need to be training.  If you’re just spinning along for cardio training or you’re using the cycling as cross-training then the key is entertainment.  Set yourself up in front of the TV or your computer and queue up a bunch of YouTube videos or Netflix shows and start churning those legs.  I like to listen to audiobooks while I’m riding but that’s just me.

For the time being my focus is on running, so I probably won’t hit the cycling intensity too hard, but after I’ve reached my CPFT goal I’ll start to diversify my effort a little bit.  I’ve already got my eye on some other cycling training materials including some online/downloadable/streaming videos with custom sound tracks matched to the intended pace/intensity that look completely badass.

[Note: no Garmin Connect capture today because my 310XT froze up on me.  It went to the “Transfer Data” screen and got stuck.  It was like that for hours.  None of the buttons would work.  So yeah, no data on this one.  Just a manual place holder on my calendar.]

Workout for Thursday, 24 January

Biking, Workouts

A nice little spin on the cycle trainer tonight.  No screen caps since my Garmin is (as usual) being tempermental about uploading and transferring to Garmin Connect.  Spinning on the cycle trainer is approximately 500 times more boring and mind-numbing than running on a treadmill or swimming laps.  It is absolutely critical to maintaining good mental health (not to mention for being able to stay on long enough to achieve a fitness objective) to have some form of entertainment to get you through.

TV series on Netflix or DVD are great.  Right now I don’t have any of those but what I do have and really enjoy are audio books.  I’ve always been a fan of audio books for my long runs or rides when I’m training alone.  Same on the trainer.  I use the Audible app on my iPhone and a pair of bluetooth headphones so I don’t have to deal with cables.  Plus it means that I can put my phone on a table or something and not have to put it anywhere near my grotesquely sweaty body.

So far I’ve almost always just done boring steady state riding on my trainer.  Occasionally, I will do some kind of interval riding (warm-up, 2 min hard, 5 min recovery, repeat 4 or 5 times, etc.) but nothing intelligently designed or structured.  Just messing about.   I actually own a cycling trainer DVD (no idea where it came from) but it’s still in the cellophane.  One of these days soon I’m going to pull it out and give it a whirl.  I’d like to introduce some variety in my cycling workouts and milk a little more fitness value out of them than just basic cardio and calorie burning.