Tag Archives: cycling

The Week That Was—8/31-9/6

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M—8/31 T W R F SA SU Total
S 4,000

2k-30:55

200×8 p/b

2:55493:10

 2,000 Ward Lake

wetsuit

6+, 9:35, 9:25, 6+

 6,000 √
C 56 2k’ 20.2

peak

 40 solo 1,200’ 18.3 20 indoors

1:08

:30racepace

 116 √+
R 7.3 6.7 9.7 24 √

S: p/b=paddles/buoy and 2:55493:10 means I did my eight 200’s on 3:10 starting with 2:55’s and descending to 2:49’s. That’s short course yards for those scoring at home, but I record total distances in meters. Put differently, I swam 4,400 yards on Monday. Quirky I know, but my log, my rules. Lake distances are about 400m and 600m. Someday I’ll have to tuck the garmin into the swim cap to get more precise distances. Water has definitely cooled off over the last three weeks. I should have swam more in the lake this summer to work on sighting. I get lazy, don’t look up often enough, and inevitably drift to the right of my target. Probably need to have my limbs rotated and balanced. Note to self, the shortest distance between two points. . . .

C: Tuesday’s team training ride was my best of the season. Nice to be peaking right before the Cutter Battle Royale. Six days on, four off is a great formula. I felt strong all night and rode aggressively. Might have been the black jersey. Reeled in a solo break, stayed up front, and punched Lance HARD at one point. When I passed him like he was standing still, he said he turned to the other guy he was on a break with and said, “Oh that’s just an old guy showing off, don’t worry about him, he’ll come back to us.” As they say in football, more bulletin board material! Way fun. Even attacked a commuter with panniers over the final miles. In my defense, he passed me hard after I gently slid past him and said hello. I proceeded to ruin his night and his self image. I didn’t expect to see Lance cleaning his gutters as I rode past his house in the middle of Thursday nights ride. Cocky mother thinking he doesn’t have to train to beat the old man.

R: Should have ran F, but spent the morning planning for a 9a meeting. Meeting went much better than it otherwise would have so I guess I should give myself a break. Also should have ran off the bike once or twice. I did mow after Thursday’s ride. If I jog with the mower, can I can convert the time spent into running mileage?

Fitness Friday—8/21

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8/10 M T W R F SA SU to AG Total
S 

 

   3,100 14:45 1k 

pad/buoy

100son1:40

third IM

(252536)

   2,900 

15:21 1k

 

       6,000 √
C 

 

   49 hills 

el gato

   33 

quick

 30 Paradise 

3k+’

solid

     112 √
R 

 

 6.75   6.25 47     10.2 1:18   23 √

S: Build continues, but will probably stall on vacation next week. Nothing spectacular, just two standard sessions. Swimming alone, so not pushing quite as hard. Meanwhile Lance deserves props for swimming in a small hotel pool. The guy is training with a little more focus than one would expect from a Washington Husky.

C: Fell of twice T near the top of two climbs and got back on both times thanks to assists from a couple of people. Feel good, but not sure why I’m not climbing a bit better. Friday’s climb up Mount Rainier was supposed to be a 75-80 mile effort with considerable elevation, but it was socked in. Foggy, high 40’s at the top, and wet. Not a good combo. Two different rides. The climb up was great. I went hard, set the pace for large parts, and finished second by 30 meters. I was definitely on the edge, pouring sweat despite temps in the 40’s. The descent was miserable. I was cold and because I sweated through my base layer, the additional two didn’t help as much as normal. Plus, since we were riding through clouds, I couldn’t see out of my glasses, my gloves were soaked through, and I was shivering so badly I was wobbling pretty bad. Add in the occasional car and some sketchy pavement and I simply endured the return journey. Strange working so hard to build up all that elevation and then not getting to cash it in. All in all, not enough mileage, but really excellent quality, thus the √.

R: Basic week. Appreciate Dano pushing the pace a bit. In my post-Black Hills victory speech I have to remember to thank him for helping me hold Lance off. Here’s an excerpt from today’s dialogue. Dano is 52, I’m 47. Me, “In five years I don’t think I’ll be running this fast, pause, but then again, you won’t either.” Dano, “Right, I’ll be faster!”

Fitness Friday—August 14th

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8/3 M T W R F SA SU Total
S 

 

   2,500   2,500 

14:55-1k

paddles/

buoy

       5,000 √
C 

 

   50 

no Garmin

relentless

   55 

no Garmin

tough

     38 

sane

 143 √
R

6

   6+   rested 10.7   23 √ 

 

Don’t you think, given the increasing intensity of the Cutter Battle Royale (CBR), I should probably curtail FF until after race day, September 12th? Why let Lance know what he’s up against? Right now, kid you not, Lance is hanging with two ex-presidents of the U.S. in Kennebunkport, Maine. Between cycling and fishing expeditions, I suspect he’s firing up his Crackberry to keep tabs on the old man. If this favorite feature of yours goes dark sometime soon, you’ll know why.

S: Gradually building. I should probably swim three days a week, but I should probably floss every day too. Two days works pretty well. I maintain a decent attitude and probably swim 90% as well as if I doubled my volume. I dislike my work commute, but it’s much more tolerable after a good swim. It also helps to suckle the nectar of the gods, 24 ounces of half dairygold chocolate milk mixed with half skim during the drive. I feel pretty good shortly after a good run or bike ride, but I feel great after a solid swim workout. Times are still off a bit. 2-4 seconds/100.

C: The Garmin broke during RAMROD when I hit a rumble strip and it popped off the bracket. I looped back and found it, but it was scratched to hell and wouldn’t take a charge. I’m getting it replaced and it should arrive any day. The T/R team training rides were both very hard efforts. Consequently, it would have been very easy to have bagged W’s run. Sunday’s 38 miler was a relatively easy small group effort. Lance was going long on Mount Saint Helens, so I definitely lost ground despite a solid week. Felt good, not great.

R: Lying in bed W morn, I thought Lance is probably running right now so I gutted it out. Friday though, I listened to my body which said, “Alert. Fatigued. Danger Zone. Take the morning off. In fact take the whole day off.” I obeyed my body. It was nice to have Double S back in the fold on Saturday’s 10-miler. He blamed his new yellow lab puppy for his poor attendance lately. Sad really, blaming a cute, defenseless animal for his lack of commitment to the team. Trails, hills, Ward Lake finish. Notice I left the time off. Don’t want to scare Lance. Bahahahahaha.

Fitness Friday-7/17

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7/6 M T W R F SA SU Total
S     2,800         2,800 √-
C             17 (rain) 17 √-
R

6.3 47+

Yak

 6.3 46:23Yak 6.3 52Pasco 6.3 48:30Pasco   10.3 1:19+   35.5 √+

 

Light week because I was making the big bucks as an itinerant teacher educator last Monday through Thursday in warm, sunny, eastern WA.

S. A student turned me on to a aging, outdoor 50m pool in Pasco. Hour lap swim, $1. No lane lines and a serious side current in the middle made it feel like an open water swim. Also had to keep looking forward to avoid a head on collision. I was planning to make up yardage Friday through Sunday, but wasn’t feeling 100% and haven’t been terribly motivated to swim lately.

C. Same thing applies to the bike. Plan was to make up some ground Friday through Sunday, but procrastinated until Sunday when the weather turned nasty. I just read an Outside Magazine article on Armstrong. He talked about the terrible weather during his most critical training period back in the day in Boone, NC. He said the weather was awful, “but we nutted up and rode.” I failed to “nut up” on Sunday when the skies opened up. I was more Sarah Palin than Lance Pharmstrong, I mean Armstrong.

R. No bike, no pool, but one always has running shoes. Good four day stretch that made Saturday’s 10+ miler easier than normal. Cooled down in Ward Lake.

Next week I’m home and not busy, then back over the mountains.

Fitness Friday—7/10

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6/29 M T W R F SA SU Total
S       

 

 350       

strokework

 x   3,650       4,000 √-
C       

 

   54 900’       

20.8

[surging]

   59+ 1,606’       

20.3

Bourdeaux

strong

     37 1,578’       

18.4 solo

FishTrap

 150 √+
R       

 

 6.2   7.1       

54:42

   9 hills/trails       

Ward Lake

 8.7       

 

   31 √

 

S. Chose not to swim T so came up short on yardage. My excuse? Phelps returned to competition and I didn’t want to steal any of his limelight. 

C. The best I’ve felt and the strongest I’ve ridden all year. Too bad I peaked right after the Astana Tour de France team roster was finalized. Highlight was bridging up from no man’s land to the lead group on the second climb in Capital Forest and then being in the middle of things all the way home. 

R. Fair amount of trail running. The team is in pretty solid shape. Cooled down at the end of both F’s and SA’s runs in Ward Lake. A favorite summer tradition.

Fitness Friday—7/3

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6/22 M T W R F SA SU Total
S        

3,650   slow

   3,650 better       7,300 √
C        50 

2,000’  19.6

strongchase

   54 

1,180’   20.6

very solid

     100 

2k+’     18.9

faded

 204 √+
R       6.6   6.6   5.8 10.5     1:20:46   29.5 √

 

Very light teaching week so better than average numbers. Also got more sleep. Next week should be decent, but then I’m teaching on the other side of the mountains (SU-R) and swimming and cycling will suffer big time.

S. Surprised and a bit disappointed I’m swimming slower since backing off after the build to the 2/4k races. I’m concentrating on entering wider and pulling straight back, or put differently, not crossing over, but that will remain a work in progress. I think my technique is improving, but my times aren’t reflecting that yet. Maybe I’m not rotating my hips enough? Anyways, I was disappointed I had to adjust my intervals, for example, 3:15’s/200 instead of 3:10’s. Another theory, swimming alone versus working harder to keep up with other people faster than me. Got the meters in though despite being unmotivated R morn.

C. Much improved week with near record level distance. Felt positive about both T/R race team training rides. T the group shattered into (at least) thirds at the top of Waddel and Travis and I were in no-man’s land between groups one and two. After the descent we were joined by two others and the four of us did a very admirable job chasing for a long time. R was flat and very fast and I felt good. Instead of my normal dangling on the back, I was in the mix. I’ll feel better about SU’s ride once I absorb it. Quite different than my normal long distance solo efforts. Rode 1om to the start, waited for the everyone to gather, rode hard to a food stop at 48, rode hard to another food stop at 73, rode hard to the start at 90 and then soloed home slowly. I’m more of a continuous steady effort guy than a go hard and stop and go hard again guy. But it’s fun to ride with others, so I adapt. I faded over the final 30-40 which was disappointing. The first 60-70 were probably too fast (Gordon effect). One footnote to the 100 miler you’ll no doubt enjoy. I was starting to cramp around mile 93 so I took out and opened my tic-tac salt tablet holder and two came out. Instead of putting one back in, I popped both with just enough liquid to get them down. Around mile 97, I suddenly felt dizzy and nauseous to the point of having to stop immediately. Felt better after tossing my (oatmeal and raison) cookies. Note to self, small sporadic doses of salt with lots of water. 

R. Standard week except for the bevy of selfish excuses Saturday morning. “My family and I will be on vacation in Hawaii.” “My family and I will be at Hoopfest in Spokane.” “My family and I will be at a soccer tourney in Burlington.” I’m sick and tired of team members putting their families first. I had to go to the bench and get L to cycle with Arnis and me. Let’s hope they re-examine their priorities before next Saturday.

Fitness Friday—6/12

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6/1 M T W R F SA SU Total
S       

 

     1,800         1,800
C       

 

   55 20.7       

raceteam38

   60solo a.m.       

3:23

17.7 2,188’

3,586c

   20   135
R       

 

 walked—sore calf from swim   8.5   6.35   5 20

 

Swim—Lazy, lowest weekly total of the year.  My excuse is I’m a bit burnt from 6k of open water racing. Not terribly convincing, but I’m sticking with it.  W’s swim was in Ward Lake with the wife. Nice, inaugural, short, wetsuit free swim of the year. 

Cycling—Solid T/R rides, but Saturday’s was disappointing. I had planned to do 35 for a weekly total of 150, but it was raining, and after fixing a flat, decided to return to base. Got buzzed in Cap Forest R morning. Remote setting, totally alone, passed by a van that decided to cross over the bike lane line right in front of me. I thought he could have very easily driven me into the side of the road and left me for dead. A little later got chased by a dog in Delphi Heights. I wasn’t feeling much snap in my legs on the ride until that point. Turns out, all I need to accelerate quickly is a snarling speeding dog.

Run—Sunday’s 5 miler was fast and fun in Eugene before the Pre-Classic track meet. Three youngsters and seven-eight grizzled veterans. For some mysterious reason, the grizzled veterans tried to keep up with the youngsters. That didn’t last long. Destination was Pre’s Rock, a commemorative rock on the top of a roadside hill where Steve Prefontaine died in a car accident in the mid-70’s. Steep climb! Then we hit some great single track that apparently stretches for 20 miles. I could have lived in Eugene for a year and probably never have found the trails we were on.

Lake swimming is to lap swimming as trail running is to street running as outdoor cycling is to indoor spinning.

On the left, the world recorder holder. On the right, the author trying to hang.

On the left, the world record holder. On the right, yours truly trying to hang. (photo credit: T)

What’s Wrong With Me?

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Here’s an email I sent two friends Monday evening after climbing Mount St. Helens on two wheels. 

74 miles, 6,590′, 4,562 cals, 17.2avg, 4:18:32. The only thing that would have made it better would have been watching the two of you pull away from me somewhere along the way. I can’t imagine better conditions, perfectly clear, 60’s, light wind. Large group, 18 I think. A group of 10 went first, then a group of 8 about 15m later. I was in the first group and we stayed together for 15-16 miles when I ATTACKED. Those capitals were meant to be a joke because I went from 8 mph to 10, but did pull away. I felt badly for the first two miles, dipping into Zone-OppsIwent toohardandnowtheresnowayIcanmaintainthis, but I did create separation and after two miles managed to find a sustainable rhythm. My advantage was having ridden 50 miles Friday-Sunday versus 200+ for alot of the maniacs in the group (J, G, R, J, KD, B, M, a few others). I glanced back on occasion and saw two people at a couple hundred meters and then no one. KD caught me somewhere around 25 in and we worked together downhill and at the start of the steep stuff near the top. I was losing a little touch, 20m, when my seat bag came undone. Took a minute to fix and that was it. She probably put another minute into me from there. So I won the men’s division and finished second overall. J and R were next, D, R, M shortly thereafter, in less than 15m, so I probably got 5th. J and M were further back, not sure why. Silly to think in terms of place, it was just nice to be alive and healthy in nature. 

Ron

The last sentence is my attempt to snap out of my western, hyper-competitive frame of mind. I’m 47, riding with friends on a beautiful Memorial day and I’m thinking more like a 27 or 37 year old in the Giro d’Italia. I want to adopt a more eastern, process oriented approach to competition, but I feel captive to my gender, peers, and history. 

Friday’s Fitness Footnote 09.2

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Turns out I jinxed myself with my “injury free” reference in my 2008 fitness wrap up. PC and I weren’t even out of the hood last week when I pulled up with an invisible knife in my right calf. I’m guessing soleus micro tear. Didn’t run for five todays until W morn when I didn’t even make it 50 yards. That was depressing. I didn’t think cycling was having any effect because I couldn’t feel anything while riding, but even though I haven’t been going hard, it must have been making matters worse. I’ve been stretching the heck out of it all to no avail. 

In the meantime I’ve been enjoying cycling and swimming. I got invited to swim with the Masters regulars M morn and enjoyed being the slowest person in my lane. Brian and Geraldine swam in college, I on the other hand, played pick up basketball. One day in 1983, the college player of the year walked into the gym. He was in town to receive the Wooden award as the best player in college. MJ up close. Despite my obvious availability, I wasn’t invited into his game. No surprise I guess that he didn’t want any piece of me.

Tangent. In my fifth year, while working on my MA, I got a job tutoring athletes. After my first session, bossman asked if Reggie Miller showed. I said no so he told me to call him up in the dorms and ask him where he was. “Reggie, this is Ron. . .” “Oh man,” he interrupted, “I thought you were a woman!” I told him there wasn’t much I could do about that and he never showed. Not sure if he passed Western Civ, but he’s done okay for himself.

Normally I’m running during Masters swimming which is too bad because I enjoy it. I swim a bit harder and the time flies. I talked to a friend in the locker room who said they did 30 100’s (short course yards) in Masters the day before in honor of a 30 year old teammate. They did them on 1:45, every third IM. I decided to try a revised version, 18 on 1:40, and really liked it. I do the free in 1:21-1:23 which provides a lot of rest, but I do the IM in 1:32-1:36 which obviously doesn’t allow for hardly any recovery.

Cycling has been a mix of spinning indoors and chilly outdoor riding. Travis and I got in a very nice 33 miler last Sunday with temps in the high 30’s. I recently read a blog written by a Hawaiian triathlete and she bagged a ride because it was 64 out. 

Ready for the product recommendation? I can’t wait for the CEO to write and offer free product!

The endurance crowd must be particularly gullible because there are about as many recovery drinks on the market as there are endurance athletes. 

Call me old school, but this recovery drink will change your life. Drive straight to Costco and buy one, two, or twelve half gallons. Don’t forget to dilute it with equal parts skim milk otherwise, no matter how hard you work out, you’ll end up looking more like Oprah than you probably want.

Sorry O, that was uncalled for.

Fitness Year in Review

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I pity my running homies who don’t keep training logs because they don’t get to slice and dice the numbers. Hard to believe they’re content to maintain their physical and mental health with no clue about how this year compares to any other. I suppose they’re still good peeps. And my handy dandy GPS and I are happy to pick up the slack. Truth be told, they like my post run reports where I reveal how far we ran and sometimes even provide mile splits.

On the fitness front, 2008 was an excellent year, most notably because I was injury free and had a lot of fun. I’ve struggled with a balky lower back in the past so I don’t know if I’ve ever had as injury free a 12 month run. I even managed some decent workouts during last week’s bronchitis battle which was probably as sick as I got all year. I attribute my health to three things. First, living in icy Norway in February meant an unusually light second month with several off days. In hindsight, that forced rest was probably needed. Second, I didn’t make time to lift weights this year. I have decent weight lifting form, and lord knows I keep things very light and easy, but I still often accumulate aches and pains as a result of lifting. Third, I’ve done more push ups than normal which have strengthened my core. I need to get more consistent with push ups and planking in 09.

SWIMMING—241,600 meters.

A solid year highlighted by the recent PR in the 500 free. I’ve enjoyed doing more stroke work than ever before. It’s neat to see a little bit of improvement in the fly, breast, and back. The Black Hills triathlon swim was another highlight, but for the sake of kharma, I need to make a correction related to that race report. If you remember it, I talked about setting records for each split. I had an excellent swim, but upon further review, the swim and run were short. 

CYCLING—2,318 miles.

I was most surprised by how well I rode in the summer/fall without any real spring build. How to explain that? I guess I’d credit the bit of base I’ve built over the past four summers. Turns out there was some money in the account when I went to make withdrawals. It was fun mixing it up in the front of the club and riding nearly as well as friends who had more miles in their legs. My cycling season is in two parts, pre-RAMROD and post-RAMROD. I ride much better in August and September because of the spike in fitness I get from drilling myself on Mount Rainier in late-July. It serves as a booster shot. This year my 100 mile solo tune-up before Ramrod was THE single most important outing of the year. Thanks to that effort, RAMROD wasn’t a complete sufferfest. After RAMROD I enjoyed hanging on club rides without completely shelling myself and pushing the pace on occasion. 

RUNNING—1,489 miles.

I was privileged to run in new locales abroad including Norway, Berlin, Munich, through a Tuscany vineyard, and even a hotel dreadmill in Tallin, Estonia. I also enjoyed training with PC, The Malamute, and Double S. I did my best to elevate our Saturday morning conversations, but can’t say I was too successful. The Portland Marathon and Seattle Half both went well and were fun in a “that was painful, glad it’s over” kind of way. I most enjoy trail running and one silver lining of the recession is all of the development that was planned in our area is on hold; as a result, our trails are still intact. One difference this year was the utter lack of speed/track work. Just didn’t make it a priority. 

2009

After years of slight increases in volume, I don’t plan on committing any more time to physical activity in 2009. Now the question is what’s the best swimming/cycling/running balance? This year I anticipate swimming a similar distance, but borrowing some from running in order to add to cycling. Beyond that my frame of mind will be similar—remember life is fragile and appreciate and celebrate good health.

Postscript

Three favorite memories from the year. The first was a spontaneous March day of cross country skiing with Tore in Norway. Tore was patient and encouraging and the conditions and scenery were off the charts. Epic in the truest sense of the word. The second was a very tough, very steep May run/hike up a fog-covered side of the Swiss Alps in Grindenwald, Switzerland. I was serenaded by cow bells in absolutely beautiful scenery. Third, the final bike ride on a few different Mount Rainier passes on an unusually nice October day. After a maximum effort to bridge up to a strong group of climbers, I pushed the pace on one of the final segments just short of the top. Once we got to the top, and were able to talk, an amateur racing friend turned to T and me and said, “You guys should be racing. Why aren’t you racing?” I thought to myself, it doesn’t get better than this. Five friends taking turns inflicting pain on one another surrounded by unrivaled beauty. My answer is, as long as I have my health, good friends to push me, and relatively safe natural settings to train in, I’m good.

T’s persistence has paid off in that this year I will post a much shorter fitness update or random thought every other Friday. Look for the first “Friday’s Fitness Footnote” next Friday. Yes, I like alliteration.