Fun & Fitness over 50

Today I did an anaerobic workout from David Ertl's Training for the Busy Cyclist.

I enjoyed it.

With these different types of workouts, aerobic, anaerobic and hill/leg strength, I am learning to pace myself differently depending on the workout.

Here is the program for this workout. It mimics standing and blasting out of a corner on a crit.

1) Warm up for 10 minutes
2) stand and accelerate out of the saddle. then sit and continue to accelerate for 30 sec.
3) back off for 30 sec.
4) repeat 10 of these intervals (10 minutes)
5) rest easy pedal for 5 minutes
6) repeat 2 more of the 10 minute interval segments
7) spin easy for 5 minutes

I found that I could ride hardest of all during these 30 sec intervals because of the more generous rest times.

This is pretty fun finding out the various pacing techniques for the different types of riding. Learning more about my own body directly, by experience. Different from intellectual learning.

I averaged 130 bpm heart rate and hit a max of 159, seems to be a frequent number.

Hope to get a longer, 2+ hour ride in on Sunday AM.

The last 2 high intensity workouts on the bike, I felt pretty wiped for the rest of the day. Monday, in fact, I didn't feel well at all.

I was therefore wondering if I was pushing it too hard. You're supposed to go as hard as you can during the hard interval portions of the workout but I'm just wondering about the age factor (I'm 62) and the weight factor (ahem ... well, let's just say I'm not at my optimal weight). Dave Ertl who wrote the eBook "Training for the Busy Cyclist" is a "masters athlete" himself. Love that term "masters" instead of "senior". So it implies he's older but it doesn't say how old he is. Of course, every single person that writes on fitness says see your doctor first, i.e. don't sue me if you drop dead.

So, anyway, should I work so hard I throw up, keel over, hit a tree? Or less than that. There's working as hard as you can really, i.e. can't physically do no mo' and there's working until you decide you aren't willing to endure any more pain. 2 different levels really.

Even if I choose the latter of the 2, I guess if I feel sick afterwards, that's too much. Of if that's a consistent problem, check it out with the doc.

For today, I debated just riding for fun, no training objective or doing intervals but just not working so hard. I opted for the latter but I wound up training hard anyway. I guess I felt good enough. Not throw-up level but hard nevertheless. As a matter of fact, I rode harder in the second half than in the first. I guess I got warmed up. :-)

This was one of Ertl's 1 hour aerobic workouts and it went like this:
- warm up 10 minutes
- ride as hard as you can for 15 seconds
- "rest" by spinning easy for 15 seconds
- slam 15, chill 15 for 20 minutes!
- rest (spin easy) for 5 minutes
- slam 15 and chill 15 again for 20 minutes
- cooldown and home: 5 minutes

Needless to say, you don't recover completely in 15 seconds and your heart rate gradually works up to 85-90%MHR. But it's doable. It's a little tricky keeping track of the time. Those 15 second segments go by pretty fast. Especially the rest ones! ;-)

Also, on this route you have to deal with intersections, corners, stop signs, traffic, etc. so those don't always line up with 15 second intervals. Usually it means the "rest" portions are a few seconds longer (oh, darn!).

You know what? I really enjoy these training workouts. It makes the ride interesting otherwise I get pretty bored riding Dunkin' Donut every day. I felt pretty good today so I don't know what happened Monday. Maybe something I ate (or didn't eat).

And oh that sweet, sweet pavement on Game Farm Road! MMM-MMM-MMM! Zip right across that concrete bridge with nary a blip either direction.

Tomorrow: rest or easy ride and then for Friday, an anerobic or hill/leg strength training ride.

Here are my numbers for today:
cadence: 69RPM
average speed: 14.9mph
Distance: 14.7 mi
average HR: 137
max HR: 159
calories burned: 902

Also, I spent 40 minutes in Zone 3 (138-173bpm or 80 to 100%MHR). I'm quite pleased about that!

Today was another intensity workout from David Ertl's eBook "Training for the Busy Cyclist" from roadbikerider.com.

This was a hill/leg strength workout for 45 minutes and it goes like this:

1. 10 min: warm up
2. Find a hill about 1/4 mile long and 6% grade. Choose a big gear that you can push no faster than 60 RPMs and slam it up the hill!
3. Chill for 3 minutes (i.e. recover with easy spinning, mostly back down the hill)
4. Do it again.
5. Do it as many times as you can for 30 minutes
6. Cool down for 5 minutes.

The problem with this around here is finding a hill that's 1/4 mile long, 6% grade and within 10 minutes ride of my house.

The best I could do, which I don't think was too bad, was a 1/4 mile of hill about 12 minutes from the house (I think I can cut this down by doing a different route). The grade, however, rather than 6% ranged from flat to 15%. Best I can do. If I have to drive somewhere, well that blows the 45 minutes to 1 hr that I have available after work out the window. Tricky.

My average HR was 124 bpm and my max was 158. Not as hard of a workout as the aerobic and anerobic hours that I did the last 2 times.

If I get to workout tomorrow, I will do some upper body strength training at home or at the gym.

How could I have forgotten about this?! They paved the rest of Game Farm Road! Halleluiah!

I am a connoisseur of pavement!

Last year, the town paved a lot of rural roads around here. One of them, Game Farm Road, which is on my regular "Dunkin' Donut" route was partially paved. The part that they didn't pave was just terrible. One of the roughest in the county. Not potholes but it was that old style macadam that was a good percentage stones. Every year more and more of the asphalt was leached out of the surface leaving more and more stones until it was like a cobblestone road. Bad for bikes, rollerbladers and skateboarders.

After this winter it was really bad. Then, one time when I was going back down the road, it's a pretty quick downhill, there is a bridge over a pond that is surfaced with concrete. The transition from the asphalt to the concrete is abrupt and I had found a spot on the lefthand side that was worn down enough to ride over at speed without much of a jolt.

This time over, when I hit that spot I nearly broke my wrists! I was sure my front wheel was going to be destroyed too. The asphalt had been gouged out right alongside the lip of the concrete so you almost had to stop to go over it. !#$!#$!# WHO DID THAT!!! WHY DON'T THEY FIX THAT PAVEMENT!!!

Everytime I hit that section afterwards I grumbled about it. Then I noticed a small dashed white line newly painted in the middle of the road. And then I noticed that the asphalt next to the railroad crossing was deliberately gouged out too. Hmmmm. Maybe they're going to pave the road? Almost too much to hope for!

On Tuesday's training ride, they patched the bumps on the bridge and the tracks. Better but ....

Then on yesterday's ride, hooray! That has made my year! I will now be happy for a long time. Weeks. Maybe months!

Now, if I find they've paved Hurst road, I will go into a euphoric trance forever. That must be the absolute bone-shakingest , bike breakingest worst road in the county. It's a fast downhill and so rough and inconsistent it's impossible to find a reasonable track through it. The last time I went on it I thought boy if there's anything loose on this bike this will be when it shakes loose and sure enough my computer transmitter came loose and slid down my fork.

There's this other road, Tygert, out in Voorheesville that is a rougher surface but at least it's consistent. I think it was just poured that way with a lot of stones of a particular size.

Anyhow, I love that stretch of Game farm road. Either way there is this "S" curve on a hill that is so much fun to do fast and now it'll be even funner!

I started doing my training based on the eBook from Roadbikerider.com by David Ertl entitled "Training for the Busy Cyclist". Tuesday I did a hard ride, a one hour aerobic workout. Wednesday I was feeling it, Thursday I was feeling it, and today I was still feeling it!

You're supposed to rest after a hard workout until the soreness goes away completely. I'm not sure if I was really sore today. I mean, I was definitely feelin' it in the quads especially. If I actually wait until I'm not feeling the results of the hard workout, it'll be a week! I guess that's the old person effect. It takes us older folks longer to recover.

Anyhow, it was a real nice day. Too nice not to ride. I debated doing another training ride or just take it easy. I did the training ride.

This one is from the eBook and it's called an anerobic ride. It was for one hour. Here's how it goes: warm up-10 min, ride hard as you can-2min, ride not-so-hard-but-not-easy-1min, repeat 3 times, chill for 5 minutes, repeat the whole sequence 3 times.

I used my old faithful 1 hour training route, Dunkin' Donut. It's not perfect but it's familiar. I know what's coming. That's important because I'm working so hard physically that it's hard to think or make decisions.

I'm glad I did the training rather than the easy ride. I usually am. It's not only physically good but there's the sense of accomplishment and the fact that you're getting better.

I may not get an endurance ride in this weekend but the next training ride will probably be hill climbing/leg strength.

I recently downloaded this eBook from roadbikerider.com by David Ertl titled, "Training for Busy Cyclists". This is right up my alley. While I don't particularly consider myself an overly "busy" person, I am frustrated by my limited amount of time that I have to ride.

The premise of this eBook is that especially with limited riding time you have make every ride count. Every ride must have a training objective. While this is no revelation for those of us who have been riding for awhile and are literate and aware of the cycling literature available both in traditional print media and on the web, it does help me to have a "coach" even if that coach communicates somewhat generically to the cycling masses through electronic text.

I also find it useful that David Ertl supplies examples of training regimens depending on how much time you have for each ride. The idea, again pretty standard, is that you workout really hard 2 or 3 times a week followed by days of rest and then, if you can, do an endurance ride of at least 2 hours on the weekend.

You can say I started this on Sunday with an almost exactly 2 hour ride amongst the hills and rollers of south Bethlehem (NY).

Yesterday, after work, I squeezed in a 1 hour hard ride after work and before dinner which pushed my limits.

The plan was this: 10 minute warm-up, 10 minutes of slamming it, 5 minutes rest, 10 min slam, 5 rest, 10 slam, 10 minute cool-down and end. Total, 1 hour.

I was able to ride harder for the 10 minute intervals than I expected. As you may remember, I have recently been riding the 2 miles of Meads Lane up around 85-87% of maximum heart rate and thinking that was pretty hard. I don't know how long that takes but it's not 10 minutes. Yesterday I was hitting around 155 to 166 bpm, 89 to 96% MHR over the 10 minute interval. Harder than I thought I could sustain. It wasn't easy. I was really panting hard and by the third interval almost whining with every breath. It's not at the level where you can't do anymore but you don't want the pain anymore. And I don't mean any bad pain like chest pain or joint pain but leg muscle burn!

I rode "Dunkin' Donut" for this training venture and it's not the best route for it. There are stops, intersections and traffic during each 10 minute segment but it's hard to find straight unbroken stretches of road outside of the state thruway where you can ride uninterrupted for 10 minutes.

Today I was somewhat sore. Not terribly so but enough. The next 1 hour workout in David Ertl's book (you don't have to do them in order) consists of 15 second intervals followed by 15 seconds of rest over a period of 20 minute segments! Sounds like that may be a hard one to do on the road because of the need to frequently check the time. I may do that one in the gym on the stationary.

Indicators that I've gained a few pounds, that is!

I don't need to weigh myself. Or even look in the mirror.

1. pants fit too tight
2. geezer neck is gone
3. can't breath and clip toenails at the same time

Today I have a new one: when pedaling in the drops, my thighs are contacting my abdomen!

Sigh.

At least I'm riding.

Took a 2 hour ride today. I was going to go with Charles but he couldn't go until later. Too late for me. So I went on my own at about 3 o'clock.

It was an iffy day, weather-wise. When I started out it was just misting lightly. Soon it stopped altogether although it started misting again a couple of times but for the most part, it was a dry if gloomy ride. That's OK. I like it gloomy. :-)

Rode 28 miles on all country roads. As I've said elsewhere, Sunday morning is the best ride as far as quiet and minimal traffic and Sunday afternoon is 2nd best.

Here are my numbers for this ride:

Cycle - 2.1 hours - 06/13/2010

Workout:

• Type: Cycle
• Date: 06/13/2010
• Time: 15:00:00
• Total Time: 2:04:39.00
• Average Heart rate: 126
• Max Heart rate: 158
• Calories: 1508
• Distance: 28.5 miles
• Average Speed: 13.72 mph
• Max Speed: 33.7 mph
• Ascent: 2,041 ft
• Descent: 2,044 ft
• Average Cadence: 71

cycle June 13th 2010