Yes, you heard it right. The plan for the week?.....Their is no plan. After a couple of weeks of hard training, I am in the middle of a recovery week. That means no set amount of miles, no specific heart rate, no specific speed and no specific amount of climbing! The only thing I am doing is trying to spend 20 hours on the bike at a more relaxed pace. That means PLAY TIME!!!!! I am just getting out and seeing where the road takes me.
I am trying to get in about 4 hours a day, for 5 days. It has been really fun. The first couple of days I did some trail riding. I started out a camp Alexander, I would ride at a fun pace and goof around, then when I started to feel like I was getting a little tire, I would take a little gravel Cruise across town to the campus trails! They are easier and pretty fun to flow through. I have been getting out about 8:00am, and riding until noon.
Today I took a little gravel grinder south of town and enjoyed a 65 degree morning. I really like the recovery weeks. They help to remind me of the reason that I am out their, to enjoy spending time playing on my bike outside, playing around in the dirt, rolling over, through around up and around all kinds of cool stuff. It is really easy to get wrapped up in all of the hammer, hammer, hammer.....crush, crush, crush of training and racing.... To place the little soldiers up against the wall and see who can whizz the highest. Sure, I am just as competitive as the next guy, but it is important to enjoy spending your time on the bike, or why are we doing it? Right? Sure, soon I will be back to the hammer, hammer, hammer, crush, crush, crush of training, but I will really enjoy this week, and enjoy the other s that are to come.
On another note, Matt, Lelan and Garret got out today and started to add onto the trail system out at Randy's place. A bunch of us are going to go out their on Saturday, and work on it some more. When this phase is done it will give us close to six miles of trail out their! I can see some fun group ride/cookouts out their this summer! Good times to come. And don't forget......Bone Bender in about 2 1/2 weeks!!!!! Stay tuned for the latest news next week.
peace out!
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Zone 4 X 4 = 200 miles
Training has went well in the past couple of weeks! Last week I concentrated on a lot of climbing to up the intensity in preparation for the quickly approaching season. In a 7 day stretch I went 230 miles and over 12,000 feet of climbing! Not bad for the middle of February. After the week was completed, the legs felt OK, but were REALLY heavy. I decided to give them a little tread and take a second day of rest to give them a Little more time for recovery.
After a two day rest period I thought that I would change it up a little bit this week but keep up some intensity in a different fashion. I decided that I needed to concentrate on some quality miles at the same time since the first two races will be of a decent distance. The plan for the week? Do 50 miles every time I get on the bike, and ride so that at the end of the day the average heart rate would be in zone 4 ( 80-90% ). This has made for an awesome training week for February. In a 4 day period I have went 200 miles at an average of zone 4.2, and am feeling pretty good. I would like to get in another day or two this week before changing things up a little for a couple of weeks leading up to the Bone Bender.
The next couple of weeks I would like to attempt to get in four hour rides each time I throw my leg over the bike, then back it off for the week leading into the race on March 14. Wow time if flying.
On another note, I have really been enjoying the Tour of California on TV this week. On Sunday Shelley has agreed to allow me to have my riding buddies over to watch the final stage, and have the first pasta feed of the new season. A good time should be had by all. That pretty much does it for now, check back next week for the latest news!
Peace, Out!
After a two day rest period I thought that I would change it up a little bit this week but keep up some intensity in a different fashion. I decided that I needed to concentrate on some quality miles at the same time since the first two races will be of a decent distance. The plan for the week? Do 50 miles every time I get on the bike, and ride so that at the end of the day the average heart rate would be in zone 4 ( 80-90% ). This has made for an awesome training week for February. In a 4 day period I have went 200 miles at an average of zone 4.2, and am feeling pretty good. I would like to get in another day or two this week before changing things up a little for a couple of weeks leading up to the Bone Bender.
The next couple of weeks I would like to attempt to get in four hour rides each time I throw my leg over the bike, then back it off for the week leading into the race on March 14. Wow time if flying.
On another note, I have really been enjoying the Tour of California on TV this week. On Sunday Shelley has agreed to allow me to have my riding buddies over to watch the final stage, and have the first pasta feed of the new season. A good time should be had by all. That pretty much does it for now, check back next week for the latest news!
Peace, Out!
Thursday, February 12, 2009
All systems A OK!
This week has been a good one. I started it off on Sunday with some hill intervals up Highland hill. I was wanting to see how the legs were feeling after the easy week, and to get an idea as to where I was as far as training goes. The plan......do hill repeats at a decent pace for two hours. The results are as follows: 1 hour 59 minutes, 46 times up the hill, 20 miles, 3,768 feet for climbing. After I was done the legs still felt pretty good! I could have went longer, but I got the idea.
With the good report I decided that the training schedule has back in action. I have pushed the legs pretty hard this week, and they have done well, but are starting to get a little tired. As for the rest of the week, I have done 2 days on the hills of old highway 50, one trip out through the beginning section of the Dirty Kanza 200, and another day going north, in the high wind, snow, and 20 degree temperatures! So far I have racked up about 180+ miles and over 9,500 feet of climbing! Pretty good for the middle of February! I sill am going to get a little ride in tomorrow. I think that since Saturday is valentines day, I will take it off, rest the legs a little and spend some quality time with the wifey.
Since this week went well, I will probably do something similar next week. After that, I think that I will put in a couple of weeks where I will spend a little more time in the saddle. I was thinking of something like, a couple of weeks of 4 hours a day, 6 days a week to try to get the body getting use to the LONGER rides. This should get me within a week of the Bone Bender. Boy, Race season is really sneaking up fast. Well, check back next week for more updates! As they say, same Bat Time, Same Bat Channel
Peace Out!
With the good report I decided that the training schedule has back in action. I have pushed the legs pretty hard this week, and they have done well, but are starting to get a little tired. As for the rest of the week, I have done 2 days on the hills of old highway 50, one trip out through the beginning section of the Dirty Kanza 200, and another day going north, in the high wind, snow, and 20 degree temperatures! So far I have racked up about 180+ miles and over 9,500 feet of climbing! Pretty good for the middle of February! I sill am going to get a little ride in tomorrow. I think that since Saturday is valentines day, I will take it off, rest the legs a little and spend some quality time with the wifey.
Since this week went well, I will probably do something similar next week. After that, I think that I will put in a couple of weeks where I will spend a little more time in the saddle. I was thinking of something like, a couple of weeks of 4 hours a day, 6 days a week to try to get the body getting use to the LONGER rides. This should get me within a week of the Bone Bender. Boy, Race season is really sneaking up fast. Well, check back next week for more updates! As they say, same Bat Time, Same Bat Channel
Peace Out!
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Bent, but not broken....yet!
The past couple of weeks have been brutal! I am still getting in my 2 workouts a day. the 5:30am lift, or run, and then my daily 3 hour ride. About 2 weeks ago I decided it was time to dust off the old war pony, the old Zaskar LE, and begin to increase the intensity in preparation for the upcoming race season. For the past couple of weeks I have been going out to camp Alexander a couple of days a week, and doing laps out at the trails. Doing the steep technical climbs out their is the first attempts of high intensity training for the year. All I have to say is WOW.....it is really kicking my butt! The intensity has been great, but after two weeks of this, I have come to the conclusion that I am in need of rethinking the game plan a little.
The day's that I have been going out to camp, I am riding the zaskar, and several other day's a week I have been taking the cyclocross bike out on the gravel hills for some good old zone 4 training. The problem was this..... the body is not quite use to the zaskar yet, and because it puts you in a different riding position, the intensity felt like it was about to rip my legs off. To end last weeks training, after my weight training session I went out on Friday and did a 2 hour zone 4.4 cyclocross ride that had about 2,000 feet of climbing. The ride was super fast, and I was quite pleased, but the kicker was Saturday! On Saturday me, Lelan, Andrew and Chris went out to camp and laid down some laps for 4 hours non stop! WOW did that kick my butt, I rode well but the legs felt like they were about to fall off, then when we were finished I had to ride the 5 miles home into a 30-40 mile headwind. By time I got home I had crawled so deep into the pain cave that I felt like rolling up into a ball and crying like a little baby.
Well, on Super Bowl Sunday, while I was enjoying the first day off of the bike in 6 days, I was rethinking the game plan. I remembered one important thing that I had not taken into consideration..... GET USE TO BEING ON THE WAR PONY BEFORE THE TORTURE SESSIONS!!! Well, this week, since my legs were trashed from the last 2 weeks of repeated torture sessions, I was going to spread the love around a little more than originally planed. You know how the old saying goes, you dance with the one that brought you, well me and the Zaskar have some pretty big dances coming up this year, so her dance card has filled up for a while! Now that we are so close to the season the cyclocross bike is going to be hung up for a while.
This week is a well deserved easy week, so I spent the first 3 days riding an easy zone 3 on gravel hills on the war pony, and today I picked up the pace a little bit. The legs are just now coming around and I am feeling much more comfortable on the bike. I am going to take it easy one more day, and then I think that one of the days this weekend I am going to do a 6 hour gravel grinder to get some quality saddle time. By the end of next week, I think that I can pick up the pace again without tearing myself to pieces. Hopefully next weekend we can have a rematch with camp Alexander with better results, after all the first race is a 6 hour event March 14! TIME TO ROCK AND ROLL!!!
On another note, I have "Officially" add another race onto the calendar! The condo has been rented in Breckenridge for July 1-5, for the Firecracker 50. The "for sure" races for the year are the Bone Bender, Ouchita Challenge, Dirty Kanza 200, Firecracker 50, Rapture in Misery, and the Kansas City Cup. The other possibilities, Hills of Hell, Wilson Lake Fat Tire Festival, Cruise the Blues, Tour De Lizard, and maybe some others down in Oklahoma! Just have to wait ans see. Well, I am kind of tired of doing this for today, so stay tuned next week.
Peace out!
The day's that I have been going out to camp, I am riding the zaskar, and several other day's a week I have been taking the cyclocross bike out on the gravel hills for some good old zone 4 training. The problem was this..... the body is not quite use to the zaskar yet, and because it puts you in a different riding position, the intensity felt like it was about to rip my legs off. To end last weeks training, after my weight training session I went out on Friday and did a 2 hour zone 4.4 cyclocross ride that had about 2,000 feet of climbing. The ride was super fast, and I was quite pleased, but the kicker was Saturday! On Saturday me, Lelan, Andrew and Chris went out to camp and laid down some laps for 4 hours non stop! WOW did that kick my butt, I rode well but the legs felt like they were about to fall off, then when we were finished I had to ride the 5 miles home into a 30-40 mile headwind. By time I got home I had crawled so deep into the pain cave that I felt like rolling up into a ball and crying like a little baby.
Well, on Super Bowl Sunday, while I was enjoying the first day off of the bike in 6 days, I was rethinking the game plan. I remembered one important thing that I had not taken into consideration..... GET USE TO BEING ON THE WAR PONY BEFORE THE TORTURE SESSIONS!!! Well, this week, since my legs were trashed from the last 2 weeks of repeated torture sessions, I was going to spread the love around a little more than originally planed. You know how the old saying goes, you dance with the one that brought you, well me and the Zaskar have some pretty big dances coming up this year, so her dance card has filled up for a while! Now that we are so close to the season the cyclocross bike is going to be hung up for a while.
This week is a well deserved easy week, so I spent the first 3 days riding an easy zone 3 on gravel hills on the war pony, and today I picked up the pace a little bit. The legs are just now coming around and I am feeling much more comfortable on the bike. I am going to take it easy one more day, and then I think that one of the days this weekend I am going to do a 6 hour gravel grinder to get some quality saddle time. By the end of next week, I think that I can pick up the pace again without tearing myself to pieces. Hopefully next weekend we can have a rematch with camp Alexander with better results, after all the first race is a 6 hour event March 14! TIME TO ROCK AND ROLL!!!
On another note, I have "Officially" add another race onto the calendar! The condo has been rented in Breckenridge for July 1-5, for the Firecracker 50. The "for sure" races for the year are the Bone Bender, Ouchita Challenge, Dirty Kanza 200, Firecracker 50, Rapture in Misery, and the Kansas City Cup. The other possibilities, Hills of Hell, Wilson Lake Fat Tire Festival, Cruise the Blues, Tour De Lizard, and maybe some others down in Oklahoma! Just have to wait ans see. Well, I am kind of tired of doing this for today, so stay tuned next week.
Peace out!
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