Bill's Training Log

On Monday I rode for 25 minutes on the trainer and it felt wonderful. I was just loosening the legs a bit. On Tuesday I received a portentous announcement about the antibiotic I am currently on. It can cause massive tendon damage. What the HECK!!! Ken said he had this one as well. At any rate, I choose to spin for a few minutes last night and decided to do some MT work. It felt good to work up a bit of a sweat and I accomplished 3x5min of PE1s without much difficulty, but pulled the plug even though I could have done much more. I'll take it slowly. One month off and I'm totally in uncharted waters, yet again. I Look forward to a nice E ride, even as soon as Sunday(weather???)

11/6
Today I took the entire 4th grade hiking and it was fantastic. My head got congested with the wind, but my body felt fine. Looking forward to some outdoor riding this weekend.

11/8
I was able to get outside for the 1st time in a month. Joining me were five other team buddies for a nice 2.5 hours. The pace was nice and the weather even better. We did throw in several fun sprints. I was shocked that I had even an once of fast-twitch left. Both times I've used that crank, my hip-flexors ached something huge. The length and the compact nature just is not my forte. The things that the bike does, however, are just amazing. Pushing a hard gear in TT mode is simple. Sprinting/climbing is a dream. I Have great faith in the training program to help make this bike do the things it wants to do. Back to the program!

11/10
Got up this AM at a nice 5:00 hour. I decided not to eat before I spun on the rollers for an hour in the E zone. I was quite hungry and scarfed down my breakfast when I returned out from the dungeon.(old fash. oatmeal w/ whey powder and a touch of unsweetened applesauce for flavor) I have dramatically cut back on caloric intake so I can get to an appropriate weight(8 fruits and veggies and smaller portions-less homebrew). This afternoon I will hit the gym for 4 circuits full body. Finally, I will do 1 hour of PE1s (5min on 4 off) to build up the connective tissue, fast-twitch, and muscle endurance. Just downloaded a new band called Amber Pacific to help get the most out of me!

11/11
I woke up at 5:00 to the sound of steady rain. Hamstrings had recovered nicely. I opted for an intense ab/core workout. I found this site that has a million videos by this amazing woman. Don't think that because she is incredibly beautiful she can't tow the line. I could only do half of what she does. http://www.bodyrock.tv/category/workout-routines/ Tonight I am doing 1 hour 15 min on the rollers. I'll be doing one-leg pedals to TRY to smooth out what years of MTB have done to me. As to diet, If someone didn't kill it or grew it, I'm trying not to eat it! (Perhaps brew it!)

11/12
I slept in today until 5:30, got up and did a bodyrock.tv workout. I did a variance of the upper-body and core videos. The balance component is great for full body strength. You need dumbbells, ball, and serious motivation. In 35 minutes, I could not lift my fork to eat the egg. Tonight it looks like the Belgium weather will continue, driving me indoors for a near PS workout on the trainer. 10 reps of 8 sec. with 5 min recovery. With the resistance knob on full, I'll never actually pick up any speed. Looks like it's ipod night and I'll be strutting some Future of Forestry! Tomorrow is complete rest.

11/14
I had a good day recovering yesterday. Today I met YoungGun for a 2 hour slugfest. I totally relied on my PE1 training to get me through the winds and rain on an otherwise crappy day. We did average over 20 in spite of it all. The resistance training really is paying off and I'm still in uncharted territory. Who'd have thought that I was able to go hard just two weeks ago. Not a single cough in the hard parts of the ride. It was quite a lot of fun. I earned these Bell's Two-Hearted Ales!

11/15
The team ride today was fantastic, plain and simple. We did more than 3 hours or so of good high E zone. The weather took its time warming up, but finally the 60 degrees came. We had a few sprints to enact the muscle memory. There were 5 of us who just pulled a strong rotating paceline for the bulk of the ride. We finished just under 50 miles. After the ride I got a bit of healthy chow and got on with the bodyrock.tv workout. I worked upper body, core and lower cardio. Here's how the work went. High-knee jump rope, Burpees, jumping lunges, ball ab curl, etc and BOY was I Cracking!!!! I will certainly be cut by the end of the year! Looking forward to total recovery tomorrow(except the bottle dance-Fiddler on the Roof). Almost 5.5 hours the weekend.

11/17
I got up quite early and got in a great run. Time was my main reason, since I'm doing an evening gig this week. It was chilly and I had on an old Schwinn over-top. Shortly into the ride I began to feel the tightness of the garment and was totally thinking about how "FAT" I had truly become. It was only after doing an extra 15 minutes added on(for total fat burn) that I returned home, feeling good about myself. I noticed that the top was a size Medium not a Large(I somehow ended up with Ken's). I did not press my luck so I stayed off the scale anyway. The PE1s really are getting easier. Try to stay seated during the 5 minutes for consistent muscle tension. Pandora Radio had me listening to everything 80s. Nice!

11/21
Back on the bike! We are at the point where we should really try to get in a hard ride every week or two to keep the boredom down and the muscle memory high. Today I choose to do a race situation for 30 min. After a 15 min warm-up I decided to use Bryan Vaughn's video of the Working Man's Classic(day 1). I felt that whenever the camera went off the front, I would attack out of the saddle and boy does BV attack OFTEN. That, combined with a quick coast through the lower corner and a full-on sprint up the long-gradual hill and over the start/finish had me seeing cross-eyed for the first four laps. At about 24 min into the race, BV attacked to go after a 5 man break. He was caught in no-man's land for about three laps and I was hitting the stride just over LT, and digging a hole to boot. As soon as he got picked up we were sprinting just to get back on. "Wait, that's actually me in the video!" looking about as bad as I was now. I followed me for about 2 laps before moving back up the field. I pulled the plug at 30 min by design and cooled down for about 20. Boy, I was carrying about 10 extra beers on my torso in that race. Glad I bought Fitzgerald's book, RACING WEIGHT.

11/22
I hooked up with Steve, Ed, Joe, Dre, and YoungGun for a nice 2.5 hour E ride. The weather was a bit chilly, but we choose a route into Stafford that had a few punchy climbs at the begining to warm us right up. After about 40 min into the ride, we formed up a rolling paceline drill and rotated like clockwork for most of the rest of the day. It was fantastic to get out and burn the phat! I still need to know Steve's kjs burned to write down my expenditure. I guess it to be around 1000kjs.

11/24
I finished the book entitled RACING WEIGHT. The text is chock full of new dietary understanding and I've been looking at timing of consumption in a completely different way. Have you ever been watching your weight and lifting weights and the lbs just don't come off? or the weight even rises? I'm now completely utilizing a complex form of body-fat % and it is more relative than just weight. As to the training, I did an amazing core workout and then did 6x5min PE1s with 3 min recovery. I was viewing the Reston Grand Prix 35/45 race and I spotted Jinksy a few times early on. Nice to ride with a buddy. The legs felt tight at first and then I was able to push one gear harder than I have this year. Usually this gear gets the cadence to 40rpms and then starts to ache a bit much behind the left knee, so I bail. Today, I tested that gear on the 4th rep per usual and it felt really fine so I did the final three reps in the 11. The cadence dropped from 50rpms to about 46avg. There is no real reason to add more than 30 total minutes here, so I dropped the recovery time down over the past few months. My adaptation is alright, and the reps are starting fairly fresh, which is important! Up tomorrow early to do the first of two workouts scheduled.

11/24
I got up at 5am to get in an upper body workout. I did a balance ball weight lift that really burns while you balance. Great for the core, hip, and lower back. This evening I am doing a BodyRock cardio and hope to be able to walk afterward. This rain has kept the bulk of my PowerStarts from happening. Hope to do a few while on the Friday ride. My bodyfat % dropped for the 5th day in a row. I'm quite positive that it will climb tomorrow after the feasting. I'm such a sucker for choc/pecan pie!!!

11/27
I met up with Ben and YoungGun for a nice three-hour tour of Caroline. Because of the soreness, I did my PowerStarts in the first hour. Each of the 10 reps felt fine, but the 3rd, and 10th felt the best. Boy, can you feel the muscle usage all over the entire body. My lats were pumped, as were my abs. The wind picked up on the last hour, but we got home just as it started to shower. Quite bizarre! Thanks for a good ride!

11/28
There were five of us that wanted to purge ourselves of any remnants of Thanksgiving dinner. My teammate for the day was Joe and he really worked to get the 3rd and 4th points. On the return trip, I was forced to ride with a "cross lord", who is use to anaerobic efforts. The compact crank was quite challenging on the rollers, but gave me just enough "umph" to hit the rev master on the trips up. I really tore deeply into the muscle and will feel this on Monday. Steve gets the ride of the day for me. Mere weeks back onto his bike and he is faster by a mile than he was last year. Remind me to rip my knee open next fall!