concrete run...

Thursday morning:

Decided to go out for a recovery 3.1 mile mile run this morning after the repeats last night and my legs were absolutely shot...more like filled with lead. They just didn't want to move at all so I recongnized this immediately and just focused on getting the run over with no matter what my pace was to be. Finished in 29:09 with and average HR of 117bpm...

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a bit of a wind today...

as I went out at lunchtime today...

400's...

Wednesday evening:

My running scheduled called for 8 by 400 meters at 5k pace with 90 second recovery between each for Tuesday but I push that back a day as I had the stomach flu that day. Once again I ran these in our neighborhood as I have the distance tracked out perfectly for accuracy so I ran a 2.4 mile warm-up as I leapt into the first 400 after my body was properly at temperature…below are my repeats time with average & max HR per each:

1:40 – AHR 143bpm – MHR 151bpm
1:38 – AHR 143bpm – MHR 152bpm
1:40 – AHR 146bpm – MHR 154bpm
1:37 – AHR 144bpm – MHR 154bpm

…then a jog home for hydration for recovery time of 2:30…

1:44 – AHR 139bpm – MHR 149bpm
1:39 – AHR 141bpm – MHR 152bpm
1:43 – AHR 145bpm – MHR 153bpm
1:41 – AHR 143bpm – MHR 155bpm

Ran a cool-down 1.2 miles afterwards so I covered a total of 6.4 miles in 59:01 with an average HR of 128bpm. My time weren’t where they needed to be for a proper workout towards my goal race but acceptable given the illness I just went thru on Monday evening and into Tuesday. You can see my performance fall-off in the second set of 4 by 400 meter repeats but at least I got the workout in the books.

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bugger...

Monday evening:

Off to the bike shop after work to start the second class of the 2nd six week Computrainer 90 minute class winter session. I started with my average wattage which now set at 263 which would be training myself now for the next level performance. As my legs felt good my body was fighting something over the last 24 hours I did my best to attempt to train this night at my 263 watt setting for class but at about 43 minutes into class I had to have the coach turn my training down to 240 watts if I was going to survive the night.

My max wattage for a standing stomp came in at 711 watts…once again that’s down from the previous 2 week’s wattage but I did the best I could. My average HR for the 90 minute class came in at 130bpm with a max of 151bpm. My average cadence was low once again low for me during the class at 84rpm and a max cadence during the last spin-up drill of 144rpm as my average pace for the ride was at 17.1mph and max of 38.4mph during a leg spin burst on a recovery cycle early on.

Below is my techy Polar chart which shows the workout numbers:

http://www.twodogzdesign.com/cycle09/030209.JPG

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ps...turns out about an hour after class and through the night into Tuesday morning I had the stomach flu/bug…yuck!

time...

Time moves by to quickly...we miss you our Kirin

a fraction of exercise time...

Sunday afternoon:

After an unproductive Friday & Saturday on the exercising front due to more important things in life I had a sliver of exercise time mid-afternoon Sunday to get in a 1 hour bike ride via the Cannondale on the Kinetic rear wheel trainer. After adjusting the seatpost saddle height just 5mm taller to help get the proper leg extension during pedaling I hopped on the bike with two fans going along with the dvd of the mtn Stage 15 of 2005 TdF for inspiration and anyway I went on a biking endurance workout. After the first ten minutes of proper warm-up spinning I started the endurance burn by selecting smaller gears on the rear cassette till at about minute 15 I found the right selection of proper gears to get me into the proper endurance burn HR zone. I worked it like this until minute 55 when I use the last 5 minutes for cool-down.

The stat’s for ride looked like this; 60 minutes of ride time for 16.5 miles covered which works out to an easy calculated 16.5mph average speed with a max speed around minute 50 of 20.8mph. Average HR worked out to be 115bpm but a lot to the riding was in the 120/130bpm zone with a max of 139bpm at about minute fifty-five. My average cadence was back to being nice again at 91rpm with a max spin-up during warm-up being at 100rpm.

Now that’s the kind of training ride I needed :-)

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much better...

Thursday evening:

After two complete recovery/rest days from any training I was ready to get on with the next routine on the training schedule - a recovery week 30 minute tempo run but I modified that slightly to run 4 miles instead in the health club. Warmed up by running 2 miles on the track then jumping treadmill for a mile in 7:26 with then a cool-down one mile run. Total time was 34:32 with an average HR of 128bpm and max HR at the end of the flying tempo mile of 148bpm...felt much better both during & after this run :-)

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Obi and Dean earlier this month...

puppy checkin' in

short-term burnt out...

Monday evening:

Got to the bike shop after work to start the first class of the 2nd six week Computrainer 90 minute winter class session. Now that I’m back on the ‘ole Cannondale specifically for trainer purposes the good news from that is I have all my Polar telemetry back via my infamous chart; HR, distance, cadence and speed…yeah! Tonight’s class was its usual drills, intervals, stomps, etc but at a slight higher and longer intensity. Since I took my FTP test the day before and my average wattage was now set at 263 I would be training myself now for the next level of cycling performance. As my legs & body were still flogged from the previous 5 days of running/cycling training I did my best to attempt to train this night at my 263 watt setting for class but at about 25 minutes into class I had to have the coach turn my training down to 220 watts if I was going to survive the 90 minute class. As I was able to ride better at this point I recovered to the point were with 25 minutes left in class I had Coach Linda turn the wattage up slightly to 235 watts which was fine for the remaining portion of class.

My max wattage for a standing stomp came in at 740 watts…that’s down from the previous week’s wattage but I was now back on the old bike again which has 650cc wheels and they don’t make sticky trainer tires for that size wheel like I have on the 700cc Ridley…excuses ;-) My average HR for the 90 minute class came in at 115bpm with a max during a stomp of 141bpm. My average cadence was low for me during the class at 82rpm and a max cadence during the first spin-up drill of 136rpm as my average pace for the ride was at 16.8mph and max of 30.6mph during the second spin-up drill.

Below is my techy Polar chart which verifies via my average HR & max HR that I’m presently over-training and not recovering properly…stubbornness I guess but I have forced myself to take complete rest days for any sort of running and/or biking on Tuesday & Wednesday of this week to recharge my batteries :-)

http://www.twodogzdesign.com/cycle09/022309.JPG

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FTP TT testing results are in...

Sunday afternoon:

So I packed up the car with all the biking goodies and headed over to Village Cycle Sport in Arlington Heights for my scheduled FTP (functional threshold power) assessment test via the Computrainer computerized set-up. The test day consists of a 20 minute warm-up with four - 1 minute interval blasts that ramp-up from 70%, then 80%, 90% and then finally 100% wattage you expect to hold during the actual 30 minute Time Trial testing process. I noticed during my warm-up process my HR was not getting into the proper zones per effort I was riding the specific percentage effort at per warm-up interval…I wasn’t too concerned as I figured I would be in my proper HR zones during the actual test plus I was riding the old Cannondale once again.

Then you get a five minutes break time to stretch, use the rest day, nutrition & hydrate properly or anything else you might keep to due before the testing starts…that 5 minutes fly’s by…

So then the 5 riders testing (8 were registered so 3 were no shows…scared away?) hop back on our bikes for a couple minutes spin-up before the Coach starts the 30 minute Time Trial test. Within the first 60 to 90 seconds of a Time Trial I know exactly where my HR should be and in this test it take a minute or two longer since its not like outdoors. By minute 3 of today’s Computrainer FTP test I know that my legs are not listening to what my mind is requiring from them today. Then by minute ten I’m trying to push a smaller gear on the rear cassette but my legs are screaming at me but I keep pushing thru it. At the 15 minute halfway point I’m averaging 255 watts for the test so I work harder negative split this (good) torture.

I’m constantly on a minute basis looking for the right gear on my bike to push at a proper cadence for my TT style which is at about 95rpm. Every time I choose a smaller gear on the bike about 30 seconds into it my cadence drops way down to around 75rpm which is not right forcing me to select an easy gear to recover and I repeat this process through minute 25 where I through all caution to the wind and just went for it pedal to the floor. As I was gasping for air, lunges & legs on fire I finished the test with an average wattage reading of 263 (last year I tested at the small time at 283 watts on properly recovered legs)…not bad on some severally fatigued legs going into this FTP test.

Below I have provided my infamous Polar HR graph for my stat’s during this test. In 30 minutes I covered 10.9 miles with an average rate of speed of 21.7mph and a max speed near the end of 30.1mph. My average cadence for the ride was 94rpm with a max cadence of 104rpm. The true indicator here is my average HR was only 143bpm and my max HR was only 154bpm which confirms by current state of over-training & not enough proper recovery. Normally I can ride these FTP tests with an average HR of 160bpm and a max HR of about 170bpm…my heart just didn’t want to do it this day…oh well…live and learn plus at least I now know what I can ride on fatigued legs & body ;)

http://www.twodogzdesign.com/cycle09/022209.JPG

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back to old school...

Sunday morning:

After tweaking my old Cannondale tt/tri bike after it was re-assembled to get it ready again specifically for Computrainer class and riding it on my Kinetic trainer at home I needed to take it for a shake-down spin on the trainer in the house to make sure the shifters were working right, seat height was correct along with handlebar at the proper angle before my bike shop cycling test on this bike later in the day.

All went well on the bike during the super easy recovery ride for 30 minutes but even at this easy bike pace my legs were tired. I covered 7.4 miles with an average rate of speed of 14.7mph and a max speed of 20.6mph while testing the big 56t chainring up front. Average HR was nice and low at 94bpm with a max on the short interval of 117bpm plus an average cadence of 87rpm.

So the bike was more than ready for the biking Computrainer test but would my legs be???

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running on a belt...

Saturday morning:

As we received some snow accumulation over Friday night and continuing thru Saturday morning I opted out of driving down to the lakefront to get in my scheduled 90 minute run and drove right to our health club close to home to get the run in on the treadmill for that time duration. I didn’t have the option of running on Sunday morning as I had my scheduled 30 minute FTP TT bike test that afternoon so I needed somewhat fresher legs for that workout.

As I hopped on the HC treadmill at 7am and started out easy to build-up the pace that I needed to run at right from the get-go my legs were still very tired from the hard week of training. Even as I got the pace at where I needed to run is at my legs were exhausted the whole time…over-training with not enough recovery time! I pushed on to get in the 90 minute run which I covered 10.6 miles during that timeframe with a mile pace of 8:29. My average HR was at 132bpm which is where it should be for a run of this time indoors and I maxed my HR 148bpm with 5 minutes left in the run so I was able to negative split the last 45 minutes.

Afterwards I walked the HC track to cool down and realized that my legs felt like cooked noodles ;-)

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