Indoor riding...Sunday coming down..

Well I tried to do an indoor session on Sunday at Newington Bike while watching the Raven's defeat the Texans, but I had nothing in the tank:



After Wednesday's all out Threshold Test (Spinervals: Threshold Test and Sufferfest) I really didn't know what to expect, and as it turned out I had nothing.  I couldn't spin, and couldn't get my heart rate up.  I expected to at least be able to maintain my HR in the 130's but to no avail.  I hope I can get it back by tomorrow indoor session.
After 2 week, and looking at my goals of 14mph and an avg cadence of 80, I am on track for the MPH but not the cadence.  I need to be more diligent on that but have seen an increase of 2-3 rpms over last year, which is an improvement.  It is really hard for me to maintain a higher cadence, but have to let my body accommodate to it over time...Smaller gears, higher cadence, and higher cadence during rest intervals are needed.

Winter Indoor Training Schedule for Cycling Concepts
I have create and modified a schedule for indoor training at Cycling Concepts mainly utilizing the Sufferfest Video series.  It can be found at:
Google Docs: CC Winter Indoor Sessions
I have added ride at both shops, and mixed them up a bit so they do not overlap, and tried to make it so that both shop rides make sense as training regimes.  The Rocky Hill regime is a step up routine over a 3 week period culminating in a Threshold test in March.   The Glastonbury regime is a step down routine over 3 weeks also culminating in a Threshold test in March.  I did this so someone can attent both shop rides a get maximal increase in power output by the end of the 8 week period, or attend each ride independently without loosing any fitness over the winter.
It requires that I create disks for Glastonbury, but I have to get DVD's for that so off to office Depot I go...

Indoor Training Update...

After three hard indoor training sessions this week, my legs still feel pretty good.  Last night I went to my Brother Nick's and road in the barn.  I didn't think after two hard rides the prior two nights that I would have much left in the tank, but I still managed to ride strong.

Nick and I did a sufferfest video - Revolver that consists of 15 + 1 - 1 minute intervals with 1 minute rest.  The 1 to 1 ratio kept my Heart Rate in the 150 range, so at about interval 12 I decided to stand for a whole interval.  Then I challenged Nick to do the same, which he courageously did.  We then followed that with two more standing intervals for the last 2 regular intervals, making the nights efforts worth while.  Then Sufferfest added an extra interval at the end that I sprinted as hard as I could until I blew up.  Nice ride! ( http://connect.garmin.com/activity/139434567 )

After the ride, Nick kicked up this new Polk speaker, and we listened to the best sound system I have ever heard while having a couple of cold ones and a cheese-less pizza. NICE!

Now tomorrow with the temps in the high 40's we will be outside, with Sunday indoor while watching the Giants.  Awesome!

Have to keep the hard work up as long as I can, as I do not want a repeat of last spring...Need to also keep working on increasing my work avg cadence.  This will hopefully translate into higher cadences on the hills...Just keep'em turn'n!

Week 1 down...11 more to go...

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...

Riding with no data is better....What?

Funny how you get used to having Data when you ride indoors, or even outside.  Last night I did my usual indoor ride at Newington Bike without my trusty Garmin at my side, I left it attached to the computer.  The upside is that I found myself riding by feel, as I always used to, and liked it.  I just wish I had the data to analyze the difference between knowing my HR, and not knowing during indoor workouts.  I am curious to know whether I road harder with data or without. 
When I ride with the Garmin, I feel I watch my HR and regulate my effort to reach certain HR's zones, which as an old fart I do liberally. When I ride without the Garmin I ride by effort and fatigue.  When I get tired I slow down, (Dah).  However last night I did not get tired often, so I just kept raising the bar a bit. 
The problem now is that I don't have any data to compare to show how I felt translates into reality.  I would love to compare HR's on Garmin's Training Center software.  This would provide me with real information about whether I bumb down my rides based on my HR and that Data watching is not always a good thing. 
I also loose the miles on my yearly goal of 2500 total miles for the year.  This year I have only not had my Garmin twice on rides of 10 and 15 miles for a total of 25 miles.  This is insignificant now, but last year I lost a bunch more, as I did not ride with the Garmin on all my commutes, loosing 10 miles a day 3 times a week for about 3 months, (A guestimation).  Since this year I do not commute, as I change job locations, and am now too far to commute regularly, this loss will not be significant.  The answer may lie in placing my Garmin in a rear pocket during 1 ride per week, and comparing the results...A sort of lab experiment on myself...KEWL. 
Stay tuned for the results of this experiment to be posted sometime later this summer.

Sufferfest's Fight Club Indoor Cycling Workout!

thesufferfest.com 's Fight Club Garmin Details
Nick and I did another one of www.thesufferfest.com 's ultra hard indoor cycling videos in the barn yesterday. These video's are extremely difficult, but will definitely help with longer sustain hill efforts later this spring and summer. Although each of the sufferfest videos matches a training technique used in Spinervals, sufferfest goes that one degree farther with attacks and increases in intensity over the course of each interval in a set. For example, Spinerval "Putting the Hammer Down", which we did at CC on Wednesday, compares to the Sufferfest video "The Fight Club". Both had 6 minute long intervals with longer rest intervals, but where The Hammer was a hard sustained effort the the entire 6 minutes, Fight Club was 4 minutes of TT training at 75 to 80 % with a cadence of 90 - 100, with a 2:00 hill climb at the end of 80-100 % with a cadence of 75-80 with attacks of 100% mixed in and a sprint at the end....Man. IWKMATTKYT! This changing interval keeps you alert and in the moment working harder than you thought you could otherwise on a trainer.
I think I will do a recovery ride today watching another one the sufferfest videos - Revolver...

Sufferfest - Downward Spiral ...

No training at CC tonight due to weather, so I road at home to a new Sufferfest ( http://www.thesufferfest.com/) video - Downward Spiral...start at 2:00 and work your way down to 15 seconds by subtracting 15 seconds each interval.  Rest and work intervals were equal.  There are two sets of these and I did but one, as I shoveled twice today.  Not as good as the Angels video, as I like longer intervals with bursts in them.  Felt good to get a ride in even though it be a short one.

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!

Three more down...

Three more workouts down this week.  Tuesday's workout was a short easy spin of 45 minutes or so doing Spinerval Recovery and Technique. Most of the ride was a one pedal bonanza. I choose to spin my way through the whole workout in Big Ring/19 or so for the whole 45 minutes keeping my exercise HR at around 127 or so.  Wednesday was a longer aerobic base builder for 80 minutes with my heart rate in the 130's to 140's depending upon the interval.  Tonight was again an aerobic base building of 85 minutes where I kept my HR at around 120 or so.  I quit at the 1 hr mark, as I was just not into the workout much.  That was probably from running around Christmas shopping after school. 
Awaiting my Chicken in Garlic Sause combo with white rice....how nice!

Three days in a row...ouch!

OK I had forgotten how much three indoor rides in a row hurt the behind, but man!  Tuesday was a short 45 minute intense workout with big gears and high cadences in and out of the saddle.  Wednesday at CC was 2 hour Spinerval: Aerobic Basebuilder Compelation, ouch!  Today when I was sitting in my chair, I had a tough time just getting out of the chair, my sit bones hurt!  Glad I already had kids, man!  Today was a guest trainer session with Ron Mizzino at Newington Bicycle for about 1 hour 10 minutes of hill climbing sessions which I sluffed through.  I am going to be hurting tomorrow!  Hot tub in the AM again!
For now Celtics and Whole wheat Pasta with Chicken Sausage.

Abs, circuit training and a hot tub stretch...

An active day of rest consisted of a quick ab workout, 1 circuit of upper body weights on the nautilus machines, and then a hot tub stretch.  The best part of course was the hot tub.  Since it was not working last week after my indoor training session, it felt awesome to finally get a good stretch in. Now I should be ready to go hard again tomorrow night! Bring it on!

Wanted to get another workout in this week, so I put my Tommaso on the trainer and reach for Cyclo-Core's Cyclo-Climb Tuscan DVD (http://www.cyclo-core.com/ ).  Graeme or whatever, used echo on the voice track...not needed, but the workout was about 30 minutes total with warm-up and cool-down.  The climb was 21 minutes and used his Shoe scraper, knee trusts and scissors in sets to get you through the total time at big chain 15....I used 17-21 to keep my avgHR at 140.  Maxed out at 152 for the last 3 minutes of the ride at Big chain 15, felt like going up the Marlborough hills for sure at the end.  Maintained nearly 80 rpm avg during the climb, now my legs are rubber.  Great workout, but need a bit more, it's feels too short a time, might do it again after a 1/2 rest, but "I doubt it". 
Going to put on Football and eat homemade chicken soup with grilled ham and cheese...Yummy!

Spin Class...

Well after two days off, I went to spin class with Kathy at HealthTrax this morning, and it felt great!  I had big energy in my legs, and was able to power through most hill intervals, nice!  That makes it three indoor rides this week with next week hopefully being 4 or 5.  I need to make sure I maintain a moderate pace this winter through my workouts, and just be consistant.
Yesterday I stopped by Newington Cycle and found out they had started their indoor training two weeks ago.  Wish I had known, could have used that extra week, OH WELL.  This week will be Newington Tuesday and Thursday, and CC on Wednesday.  Thursdays training will be with a live trainer, always a great workout.  I love the live training sessions, as they motivate me to work a bit harder. 
Tomorrow will be a recovery ride while watching football.  Maybe a long slow ride of over an hour.  Burn those KCals.
Well the C's are on now, so cioa for now.

2nd indoor ride...

2nd day in a row of indoor training at Cycling Concepts was again terrific.  Felt much better during this ride than yesterdays, as I readjusted the fit to be similar to that of my Cervelo.  I still did not have my knee shaver pedal extenders on, so the was still some knees flying about the shop last night.  No pain in the knee or calf last night though, which is great! 
Tonight is the Christmas party at CC in Rocky Hill, so I won't be going to Newington Bike to train. I have mixed feelings about this, as I am tired, but am beginning to feel the positive effects of training on my body.  My legs feel great, as we are still aerobic base building.  Last night we did Spinerval Base Building 3.  Nice an mellow long sets of 20-15-10-5 minutes to 1:30 rest between.  Each set was about 70% HRMax, or below anaerobic threshold. Love to ride this way, although I know it will not really make me faster, or increase my Fitness as quickly, it just feels good to my body and legs. 
This begs the question: Why do I ride and train?  Do I train to improve, and punish my body?  or Do I train to enjoy the workouts and make my body feel good knowing I will not improve nearly as much or as quickly?  Hmmmm.  I think I will try to do a bit of both.  On days my body can work out hard I will do high intensity intervals, on days I feel tired I will work less hard and more aerobically.  A plan emerges.  Not sure if this is effective training, but at my age, any training is effective.
Well, I need a nap before going to the party...Night Night!

Indoor Training Begins...

Well, I went to Cycling Concepts in Glastonbury for my first indoor ride of the year, and it was great!  Felt some lag in my legs because I had to revert to spd pedals and my mountain shoes on my Tommaso, but I am changing that today.  I am replacing the SPD pedals with my Ultegra pedals with knee savers that will enable my knees to work better.  It also give me a better stiffer planform to push on.  The SPD's give me a hot spot under my arch, not good when indoors because you cannot stand and pedal as long.  I must also reposition the saddle to put me back in the correct riding position.  I plan to do this at the shop in Rocky Hill tonight prior to riding.
Felt awesome this morning upon waking up.  My legs feel good and strong as we did an aerobic base building workout with coach Troy and Spinervals.  I think I am going to buy the series for my brother for Christmas so we can ride in the barn on the weekends.  More base building till January, which suits me fine, as I have gained a few and need the longer sessons to burn more FAT!
After the workout last night, I wanted to go the HealthTrax to hit the hot tub for my usual stretch, but it was down til NEXT WEEK!  Man!   I hope this is not a trend for the rest of the year.  I need that hot tub!
C's are playing tonight, so I will go right home after the training session.  No Rondo or Shaq, and maybe no Nate either...GO Cs.