Category Archives: Gear

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 Friday, 25 January

Gear, Running, Workouts

The accomplishment of today’s workout made me feel like a badass.  Not how I performed, or the feeling when I finished (although it’s always a good feeling).  No, this time getting started made me feel like a badass.  More than usual even.

Why?  Because I overcame golden excuses to bail out.  I motivated myself to go for my run, got down to the spot along the road where I usually warm up and found out that my Garmin was dead.  Boom.  Excuse to turn around and go home.

Instead, I pulled my phone out of my Spibelt and downloaded MapMyRide.  Now, I’d had this app on my phone previously, so I had an account already, but I’d never used it so I deleted it a while back.  Now, I put it back on my phone, logged in and for the first time ever I used it to track a workout.  Boom.  Excuse eliminated.

So I put my phone away, fired up my bluetooth headphones and took off with MapMyRide running.  Aaaannnnnd before going 600m I promptly found that my planned run route was flooded.  Four to six inches of water covering a good 50m of road.  Boom.  Excuse to turn around and go home.

Instead I turned around, ran down a road I’d never run down before and connected up to my planned route a little further down where there was no water.  Boom.  Excuse eliminated.

Right around that point is when my bluetooth headphones and phone music playlist combined to a) be uncomfortable and unstable [the headphones] and b) play crappy music, not follow the playlist and generally avoid effective user interface (phone).  Boom.  Excuse to turn around and go home.

Instead I shut off the music, put the headphones in my pocket and agreed with myself to run without musical accompaniment.  Boom.  Excuse eliminated.

Now, let’s face it.  On a badass scale of 1 to 10, overcoming these “obstacles” and doing a 5K run is probably somewhere between 0.5 and 0.8.  But you know what?  I don’t care.  I did a workout in the face of numerous easy outs and did the right thing when it would have been easy to wuss out and do nothing.  That’s enough badassery to celebrate.

Here are some screenshots from MapMyRide.  I am considering using this a little more to see what kind of functionality it has.  Especially since I routinely leave my Garmin turned on when I come home and don’t find out until I try to turn it on before I start running.  It does have more adds and falderal than Garmin Connect but it might be worth trying.  It’s clearly worth having around as a back-up data collection method.

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