Frequency 650

Was a pretty good year for us. Sufferfest 2.0, went snowboarding, road in snow storm, go a TT bike, joined Colavita, raced from a Cat 5 to a Cat 3, raced a 5 day stage race, Georgia Road Race Champion, moved over to Aaron’s team, Aidan moved to 5 days of school, played soccer in 2 leagues, went to Chattanooga for the first time, ran another Peachtree, watched the Olympics, landscaped the yard, ran 2 successful businesses, economy went into the toilet and we elected a new president… well maybe not everything was good.

Notable deaths of 2008 – Heath Ledger, Charlton Heston, Harvey Korman, George Carlin, Bo Diddley, Isaac Hayes, Bernie Mac, Paul Newman, Bettie Page.

See you next year.

Re-Test of 5 min effort to see if we are improving. (ouch… still recovering from being sick last week)

30 min warm up
#1 – 330 avg watts (188 hr)
5 min recovery
#2 - 315 avg watts (188 hr)
recover
20 min in zone 2 (above 200 watts for me), variable cadence
cool down

That’s about a 15 watt avg increase in 1 month. So far the class has been working on steady efforts below threshold increasing sustainable power. This month we’ll be working on power near threshold and next month over it so in theory, my 5 min effort will continue to go up as we work at the harder efforts. Also, these tests are on a spin type bicycle and it’s expected that we would be pushing more power on our bikes on the road than on these things.

This is my first week of Base 2 (12.5 hours planned). We’ll see.

Aidan is happy. Popie is here to play legos… and grandma gets to play hungry hippos.

A repeat of class 3. Well rested and felt strong. Today’s class look like:

10 min warm-up spin
18 min interval slowly increasing the watts from 65% to 85% of my 5 min LT (308) – 200,215,231,246,261
We spent 2 min at each level from easier to hard and then back down at 85 cadence
5 min at 200 watts (this was recovery time but this felt easy enough)
Repeat 18 min interval with variable cadence
Some cadence changes and watt changes to finish out the class
cool down

My first experience on rollers. I had a death grip on the back door handle for about 8 min then moved on to another 5 min of one hand hovering over the door handle or over a chair on the other side of me. It’s a strange feeling floating around. I finally put both hands on the bars and for another 5 min or so was very tense but then… lots of fun and relaxed for next hour. Great workout.

I don’t expect to be as good as these guys any time soon though. No hands and one foot. (go fabio) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wME5NTriTco&NR=1 or this guy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiCdm5FsJpg&NR=1

Great wedding. Lots of fun. Congratulations.

…Epic… maybe. Weather changed the plans from a 75 mile, 3 hour 45 min ride north to a 90 mile, 4.5 hour ride south. Ended up with 86.83 miles, 4 hours, 21.5 avg mph BUT I have a 2.5 hour lap in the middle of the ride that was 23.1 avg mph which was closer to being accurate since the ride out of town was long and slow. Lots of pro talent on the ride. It’s nice being in good company. Started with over 100, ended with around 30 people. After a store stop at 2 hours the pace became very steady. Long stretches of time at 25 mph. Got rain for the last 35 minutes. Cold and heavy at first but lightened up. Pace didn’t slow up. 149 avg hr and stayed in zone 1/2 for 2.5 hours of the ride which was a goal to try and keep a steady lower hr. Reger spent all day on the front, literally, pulling for hours. Uncalled for.

Usual -still in the Maximum Strength Phase
10 min. elliptical warm-up
Step ups 100,160,160,160 lbs
seated rows 140 lbs
abs
Lat pull downs
calves
standing rows
10 min. spin cool down

Note: I rode 1.5 hours yesterday, house to STN MTN yesterday. Got a flat, no bike bag. Called Leslie, somebody gave me a tube and cartridge just as Les was getting to the gate. I rode home. Nobody was happy.

Power Class – much better today with no weights the day before. Felt good.

45 min warm-up
2 – 20 min steady efforts at 240 to 242 watts.
Changed cadence every 5 minutes 90,80,70,100 cadence then 100,90,80,70 cadence
Results – 241,240 watts – 165,171 avg heart rate
Cool Down

Note #2: Got my hands on some rollers (thanks Erik). Get ready for some indoor crashing.

http://www.saris.com/athletes/PermaLink,guid,c1df191a-484a-45da-8437-af85be53dc9f.aspx

With ANT+Sport to work with my Garmin 705!

Check out the video from just after the 1 min mark. Robbie jumps from the pack to catch the break.

Holy hell that hurt. I’m a genius for going to the gym last night.

The class tonight was to put an effort in at power zone 3 (measured at 266 watts or above for me)  at increasing time lengths and then decrease the time always with 2 minutes to recover. We started with a 2 min. effort, recover, then a 4 min. effort, recover, 6 min. effort, recover, 8 min effort, recover, 6 min. effort, recover, 4 min. effort, recover, 2 min. effort

30 min warm-up
271,269,269,269,266,267,300 watts (my power output for each timed effort in order)
cool down

I could hold the hard efforts but the recovery was supposed to be in zone 2 (above 200 watts for me) which I couldn’t do if I wanted to complete each set, so I just spun the legs out for each 2 min recovery after the second set. Great class but I’m toast.

1 hour at the gym with the heavy weights. Saw Kieth and Bob. 45 min easy spin on the trainer for the legs to recover for tomorrows pain.

After missing the last 2 weekends I made it back out to the Airport Ride. Joined by Dana and Joe and part of the Aaron’s team at the start. I would guess 60+ on the ride with 35 people on the long loop. First ride on the new bike. Definitely lighter and whispy. Need to get used to it. Still trying to dial it in. Didn’t get enough food today and started to bonk toward the end of the ride. We ended up with the same overall pace as about a month ago but were much slower coming back on 29 than usual so I guess we had a quicker pace in the middle sections. Wind was tough when rotating through the front.

2 weeks of no road bike has been hurting me. Test ride tomorrow. Airport Ride.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/30/sports/30genetics.html?_r=1&em - $150 will tell you if you should have been a power athlete or endurance athlete. Fast twitch, slow twitch or no twitch.

Came in yesterday. Took it to Outback to build up today. Hope to get it tomorrow.

Integrated seat post, integrated bottom bracket, 790 grams.

30 min warmup
2 – 20 min steady efforts at 235 to 240 watts.
Changed cadence every 5 minutes (80, 100, 70, 90)
Cool Down

I got worked toward the end of this one. Gallons of sweat on the floor.

Today was good. Gym earlier this morning and today’s class look like:

45 min warm-up spin
20 min intervals slowly increasing the watts from 65% to 85% of my 5 min LT (308) – 200,215,231,246,261
We spent 2 min at each level from easier to hard and then back down at 80 cadence
recovery
Repeat interval now at 90 cadence
Some cadence changes and watt changes to finish out the class
cool down

Finally reached my 4 weeks of maximum strength training. 3 to 6 reps with LOTS of weight. For some reason I was looking forward to this and started Sunday.

Leg press – 270 (warm up 10 reps 6 reps for the next 3 sets) 630,720,770 pounds + 5 other exercises

I went in this morning again and did Step Ups (like stepping up to a higher step stair with the leg at just under 90 degrees)

warm up 10 reps 6 reps for the next 4 sets – 110,150,170,190,200 pounds

After reviewing my “training bible” there is a mathematical calculation based on your weight for each of the heavy weight exercises and if you reach the high end of the range to increase the reps. Well, that means 510 pounds for the leg press and 160 pounds for the Step Up (I rounded up get slightly higher weight). Hummm, I was pushing this 20+ times earlier in the year.

I decided to send an email to Joe Friel to ask him about my dilemma. His response (very quick I might add) – “Add reps. Keep the load the same.” Email #2 “Once you achieve the body weight multiplier weight, add reps not more load.”

I guess I’ll be spending a lot of time in the gym and only going once a week or something.