Sufferfest - A Very Dark Place...

Went to my brother Nick's 'Barn' yesterday to do an indoor ride.  I wanted to do "A Very Dark Place" I call "The Dark Side".  We set up the "Torture Chamber" upstairs, here is the picture:

Nick's Torture Chamber

This was only the beginning of the pain to come.  As this was our last indoor ride of 2011 together, I thought I would mark it with a photo.  As you can see the Sufferfest flag flies to remind ourselves why we punish our bodies so...IWBMATTKYT...The Dark Side as I call it, has 4 X 4 minute intervals of intense agony at or above threshold.  Working out with Nick always gets me motivated to work at a higher level, add to that the sufferfest challenge, and bam....PAIN!
Well here is my Gamin file to prove my pain...

Year's End...Time to start a new...

Well this year is about to be over, and last night's ride at Nick's was the final ride of the year for me.  Nick and I did a Sufferfest video - The Dark Side, which was a very HARD workout indeed.  I nearly reached my personal best MaxHR of 167 bt/min with a 166 bt/min burst in the second interval.  My goal for this years indoor rides is to build a tolerance for both higher heart rates and higher riding cadences.  I tried very hard yesterday to stay at the recommended cadence, but by doing so worked a bit harder than the recommended perceived exertion.  Here is my Garmin File:



This ride capped off a very tough year for me, and I look forward to a new one.  I am not going to dwell on the difficulties of the past, but set goals for the new.  Here are my stats from last year:

My Goals for 2012

1. To get over 3000 total mile for 2012 by doing over 200 activities.  
2. To average over 14 mph for 2012
3. To beat my Personal Best Max Avg Speed by 1 mph to 18.5 mph
4. To improve my average cadence from 70 rpm to 80 rpm.

To achieve these goals I need to have good luck with the weather, but ride indoors even on inclement weather days.  Also to improve my average cadence from 70 rpm to 80 rpm I will need to gear up a bit using larger rear cogs or the small front cog more often.  This will also take a higher tolerance for higher average HR as push my pedals faster is harder for me to maintain.

To achieve a higher tolerance for both HR and Cadence is going to require a concerted effort during this years indoor training season to keep my cadence over 90.  I must be diligent when working on the trainer to work at or above my threshold for sustained period of time to change my fitness level and tolerance.  

In addition, I need to watch more carefully what I eat and cannot eat pizza with my son Ben.  I need to pre-make my meals ahead of time for the evenings during the week, so temptation is not as likely to overcome my will power.  

I will also have to work a bit harder on my recovery rides and make sure to average at least 14 mph on all rides outdoors.  I will need to work a bit harder during rest intervals indoors to keep my avg speed higher for indoor rides.

I must also start keeping track of my weight again on the WiScale.  This helped a great deal this summer, and I should begin again a new.

So basic strategy:

• Work at higher cadences (90+ rpm) at or above my anaerobic threshold (150+ bt/min).
• Ride on all scheduled dates weather permitting or not.
• Track my Weight and prepare my meals ahead of time on workout nights.

This will hopefully yield better results in 2012 so I can reach my goals.

Wish me luck!

2 Hours Indoors at Newington Bike...

2 hours indooors at Newington Bike...Garmin File > by scott_t_ct at Garmin Connect - Details

So I went to Newington Bike this Sunday Morning at 8:30 am for a 2 hour ride while watching the A-Team...Nice! I road real easy, and just wanted to get the time on the bike. 2 hours is a long time in the saddle indoors...Ouch! My legs felt great, but coming of a resent illness I was somewhat uneasy about pushing it, so I went for a light spin and mixing the ride up when I got board. The movie kept my interenst for most of the ride, and kept me focused off of how miserable my behind felt.

I do feel I could have road harder, but wasn't sure whether I could do the 2 hours if I road hard in the 1st hour. Now that I have done a 2 hour indoor ride, I know what my body can handle, and will try to work at an avg HR of 130 bt/min on the next Sunday Ride. That is well below my anaerobic threshold (some 20 bt/min) and within tolerance for a long ride indoor for me.

Tomorrow is an active rest day with some weight training and abs mixed into the workout.

Are you ready for some football...getting my ride in and a shower before the Sunday games is awesome! Now I can sit back and enjoy the afternoon knowing my work is done for the day...

Just keepin'em turnin'!

Washing Machine...Fixed!

I love the internet!  You can learn just about anything on the internet these days.  Last weekend while working on my new Mobile ready web application, I looked into the laundry room and found that the washing machine was spitting out water from the laundry detergent fill drawer.  Panic immediately set in, but after a minute I went upstairs and got on my Media Center Computer and looked up my washer.  Low and behold on one of the websites that caters to DIYers I found the exact problem I had, and was provided the Manual on how to fix it.  Thank you fixitnow.com and the Samurai Repair Man.  I did not have time all week to get to it, and figured I do it Saturday morning. 

Well Saturday came, and was a bit sick still, so I did not get to it until noon, and will my trusty pdf displayed on my iPad, I got the job done in about 1 1/2 hours.  Had to take the top off the washer, then the control panel, and the door gasket, and finally the front panel to get at the fill tube.  Took of the fill tube and found 2, yes 2 silver coins from Big Y stuck in the tube...Big Y strikes again.  I was wondering were they went!

I am now washing the dirty towels from  the mess from last weekend..Sanitary Cycle!  I am hoping this will get rid of the stink, but most likely I will have to wash them twice.

Job done with no COST to ME!  Ya buddy!

New Mobile Enhanced Web Application Online...

I have been writing web applications for years using asp.net, along with other earlier technologies.  This time around I thought I would tackle new languages and strategies for optimizing web applications for multiple scenerios including mobile devices, asp.net's mvc 4 with jquery mobile. 

There was a bit of a learning curve, as I also switched languages from vb.net to c#.  In addition there were other language syntax that needed to be learned, like; jquery, javascript and razor.  Not to mention having to learn the whole MVC strategy for seperation of concerns without the application itself.  Since MVC is a code driven language instead of controls, more code meant more time upfront in development, but less in actual page creation.  However, enhancing sites through code was more difficult, the MVC templates and available documentation made it tolerable. 

I also took my time to view many web casts and tutorial on the require technologies.  The research took time to learn but I think the end product will be worth the wait. 

The first mobile enabled web application is a "Test Bed" for the technology to demostrate its usefulness to the final product.  Activities, as it is called, is simply a web application that displays physical activities from the compedium of physical activity numbering more than 800 entries.  Right now the application list them both as a whole, and by type.  Both application have CRUD functions, (create, read, update and delete), while the mobile application has the ability to search dynamically the various activities and types.  The jquery Mobile environment is only an extention of the regular browser app instead of having to be its own application.  Thanks to MVC I did not have to recreate the logic for the pages data, but just the view for the page in HTML 5.

Next steps will be create a "My Favorite Activities" app where users can create a list of their own favorite activities from the compedium.  This will be useful in the first stages of create an activity plan later on in Fitness 1st.

As of 12/7/2011 you can view the application at :  http://fitness1st.net/activities

On the Dark Side - Sufferfest!

Tonight Dave and I did the Sufferfest's On The Dark Side training video, and it Rocked!  But literally the sound track had some pretty great rock tunes, and it was a great workout at the same time.  I love the sufferfest videos (http://www.thesufferfest.com/).  They are all great, one workout at a time, making new art of suffering on the trainer.  The great thing about Sufferfest video's is that they keep you entertained while maximizing your effort, check out my garmin file:


If you view the details, the ride was a great interval training session with enough rest to allow me to maximize my work intervals.  My Anaerobic Threshold is about 148, and if you look at my Heart Rate Graph, you will see HR's in the 150's peaking out at 160 during most intervals.  What this means is that my legs were butter when I got off the bike!  But it also means I might gain some power on those hills I dread so much in the spring when I reamerge on the road again...
I have done most of the sufferfest video, and have equally enjoyed all of them.  You can arrange their use by interval types in if you want.  Some are shorter bouts with pyramid type workouts, while others have longer sustained intervals.  Check them out for yourself, you will never go back to instructor lead video again.
Thank you sufferfest!