Sufferfest - Angels in the books....Ouch!

After having read about the sufferfest.com collection of indoor training videos on Cyclingnews.com, I downloaded two of them; Angels and Downward Spiral.  Today I decided to try the 60 minute Angels video, and man what a workout.  Average HR of 143bts/min with a MaxExHR of 163, this video was awesome.  The Angles video features Hills from various top level cycling events including the last climb of the Alpe D'Huez.  The video starting with a 10 minute over/under threshold with 70/80 RPE efforts.  Then 3 minutes rest before 3 X 8 minute efforts of 8+ RPE efforts with 4 minutes rest between sets.  My average HR during the climbs was over 150 and the last 4 minutes of each effort was around 157 or higher.  Wow!
This was a great workout after taking the last 3 days off.  Felt great and was one of my best max effort workouts to date.  Definitely a sufferfest!  I would recommend this video as a change to the normal spinervals workouts any day of the week.  Both are good for various reasons, but I felt this made me challenge myself more than the others when by myself.  Maybe not so much in group, but wow!

Big Gear Spinerval Workout at CC...Ouch!

Tonight at Cycling Concepts we did the Spinerval Indoor Trainer workout - Big Gear Madness...Man!  Big Chain 12 most of the night, but my bike has an 11 in the rear so when standing I did 11.  Was an extra hard workout on the thighs, but not to tough on the heart and lungs as most intervals were less than a minute long, although there were two sets of standing for 45 and 50 seconds and 10 seconds hard for 5 and 3 minutes respectfully that taxed the aerobic system a bit.  I can definitely tell the difference between this year and last years indoor training sessions.  I am working harder and longer out of the saddle, as well as working at a higher HR for longer periods without fatigue...Nice! 
Since I quit smoking cigars on a daily basis, my aerobic capacity has seen a big jump, but so has my waste line.  Have to learn to resist the temptation to pig out, but not sure I can.  I think I need a hypnotist or something.
Tomorrow should be a good day, and I hope I get to ride a recovery ride of some kind as I will need it.  I may go to the gym in the AM for a hot tub stretch, but that will depend upon how I feel then. 

Active Rest day workout...Short ride, ab workout, and lifting...

Today was my active rest day where I road for 30 minute submaximally on the trainer, and then went to the gym.  At the gym I did 10 minutes on the rowing machine before doing my usually ab workout, and circuit on the weight machines.  Feeling very strong lately, maybe it is the fact that it has been about a month since I stopped smoking cigars daily, and about 2 weeks without any.  Although I think this is keeping my weight higher, I feel much stronger, and thus working harder both on and off the bike.  Although I still have the occasional urge to light one up, I have not done so.  After working out, I hit the hot tube for an extra long stretching routine.  As I was walking to the truck from the gym, all I could think off was how great my legs felt.  Not sure if without the weight loss I can improve my cycling any during the outdoor season, but I sure feel better.
Tomorrow, I am going to do a spin class instead of workout at Newington Bike, so I can get a cynergy class in.  I feel I need the extra body workout to strengthen my core.  I have missed my once a week cynergy class.  I wish they had spin on Thursdays before cynergy, as that would be my preferred day to do it in my current routine.  This will also give me a two hour workout, as apposed to just cycling that day...nice! 

Base Building and Repacking of my open pro/ultegra wheels...

Yesterday I road indoors doing half the Spinervals Based Building Compelation CD which is 2 hrs long.  Felt good to ride somewhat easy after 3 weeks of hard indoor intervals.  I will most like do the other half this afternoon, but am not going to push it.  I can now begin to feel the workouts effecting my body, as my legs are strong and my body type is changing a bit.  I think I am going to head to the gym to get in a hot tub stretch to loosen by bones a bit.
Today while watching "I Spy" on Hulu, I repacked my Open Pro Ultegra wheels that I use on my Tommaso for training.  I have been meaning to do this for some time now, as I had a full season on them between maintenance.  Nick read on some forum somewhere that Slick 50 grease is the best stuff for hubs, so he bought us both a tube, so I decided to use that today in the ultegra hubs.  The stuff is very "slick", and is clean to the touch.  Once I got the wheels together though, I think it creates air pockets between the bearings, as a popping kind of sound was created when spinning them on the bike.  I repacked the front twice, but still made the same weird noice.  I then repacked the rear, and it did a similar thing until I removed, spun and replace the wheel on the bike.  The noice then went away, and the wheel rolled incredibly smoothly.  I will have to repack them after indoor season to see how the grease held up. 
OK headed to the gym to sit in the hot tub...

Lean and Mean...again!

Tonight, before tomorrow's big storm, I thought I would work really hard at Newington Bike's indoor training session to make up for the lack of a ride tomorrow at Cycling Concepts.  We did Spinerval's Lean and Mean, a 60 minute interval workout on and off the bike.  Variable gears and variable interval lengths made for one tough workout.  I will definitely need a recovery ride tomorrow.  I don't usually push my Tuesday workouts as I know I have two more days to go.  I usually use it as a warm-up for Wednesday night's ride with Nick at Cycling Concepts, as I know I have to work hard with him there.  I will try to do the two hour base builder tomorrow at a seriously slow pace to burn the lactic acid from my muscles. 
Leftover pasta primavera tonight. Yummy!

Another hard week on indoor training down....

This weeks training consisted of 3 interval session with high intensity intervals.  Tuesday's ride was "No Slackers Allowed!"  Spinervals that I thought might leave me tired for what I knew was going to be a hard workout on Wednesday, but no. 
Wednesday at CC we had a big turnout for Graeme Street, as guest trainer, from Cyclo-core.com, and he did a threshold workout at or above 90% of HRMax.  I enjoyed this session a great deal because the intervals were hard and longer than normal without so many rest periods.  I feel I need this kind of training more than the shorter bouts to get me to be able to maintain a higher intensity level to get all the way over the hills on group rides without quiting.  Once a week in my 4 sessions a week plan will work with two intervals and one aerobic base session.  Graeme, as he was last year, was a great help cognitively as well.  He helps you mentally as well as physically understand the rigors of cycling.  I wish we had two or three more sessions with him.  Maybe if we talk to Dan, and all chip in for the live sessions he would come again.  Pictures of the session are on Cycling Concepts home page on Facebook.
Brian is coming up to ride indoors with Nick and I today.  I have to take Brian to get him his bike that I bought him for Christmas and Graduating fitted.  This should be fun.  Once we are done, we are planning to go to Nick's to ride in the barn, that should definitely be interesting.  Our first indoor training session in Marlborough.  Oh boy, riding in Marlborough without the hills....NICE!

Winter Outdoor Ride - Marlborough Hills...Ouch!

New Year's Day outdoor ride in Marlborough with my brother Nick.  22 miles of hellacious hills...Ouch!  After a very hard week of riding indoors, with the Threshold test my legs and body was beat.  My average exercise HR for the ride was 139 bt/min, while my max was a whopping 162 going up the hill on rt. 66 going into Hebron.  It was a very warm day for January, and nice to be outside.  Although I felt I road hard, we only managed 11.2 mph, which is the slowest pace thus far on that ride...NOT GOOD!  This may have been due to the bad road condition slowing me down on the flats and downhills as I was worried about crashing.  I felt I really held back on the most of the ride, except the hills, this may have been the reason for the slower than usual avg. speed, not going slower on the hills.  A great workout just the same at just shy of 2 hrs in the saddle. 
This morning I mounted a new Aliante saddle on both the Tommaso and the R3, as Nick gave me a new Aliante Saddle for Christmas, a nice White saddle with red trim and black letters.  I put that one on the R3, and put the saddle that was on the R3 on the Tommaso.  My old Aliante had bit the dust, the middle completely caved in, although not broken.  I bought it used, and it worked for almost a year, so I got my money's worth. 
My son Brian moved down to Groton from Maine today to start his new job at EB as an electrical engineer.  I look forward to having him around.  I bought him a bike for a Graduation/Christmas Gift hoping he will want to ride with Nick and I, but if not, it will make a great tool around bike. 
Having Chinese for Dinner tonight, as I am too whopped to cook.  My legs are so sore right now.  It feels like I have never ridden those hills at all.  Man I hope this gets better.

New Year, New Goals...

A new year brings many of us to create a new year's resolution, so hear goes:
Goal 1:  To ride at least 3-5 times per week
Goal 2:  To stop smoking cigars daily, and only when with my brother Nick
Goal 3:  To stop eating unhealthy snacks at school and home.

I think that should do it.  The above should also make me healthier and happier in the new year.