The dvd "Lactate Threshold" was 2~20 minute intervals between 3~10 minute rest periods. This was the "easy" level. This time it was 4 guys and 1 woman. There was absolutely no motivation to push yourself. Back to coach Troy I guess.
Like the old Bugs Bunny cartoon, my head turned into a jackass after realizing I spent $60 on these.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Monday, November 24, 2008
The dumbest product I've ever used
In the mail today came the two dvd's I talked about last week. So naturally with the weather being a can of shit, I tried one of the workouts on the trainer today. I opted for the pedaling strength dvd and workout 1 (the easiest). All it was was a 10 minute warm up, 10 minute interval of 50-60 cadence and heart rate zone 3, then a 5 minute recovery. Repeat the interval/recovery 3 times and that is it. THAT IS IT. On the website it has a little sample video of two guys climbing, well during the 1 hour 15 minute video, I saw two guys climbing for 15 whole seconds. Other than that, it was 5 robotic riders (all men) on trainers.
For the heck of it, I played the HARD workout on fast forward when I was done riding. Well it's 20 minutes of intervals and 5 minutes rest. Repeat. I am going to guess that the MEDIUM workout is 15 minutes of interval with 5 minutes rest.
Never, ever, consider buying Optimum Fitness Results "pedaling strength" dvd. Joe Friel should be extremely embarrassed to have his name associated with such a POOR quality product. You would think with him charging clients $1,500/month for training, he could do better than this.
The only, ONLY thing that makes this rate above ZERO on my scale is the "stretching" portion of the dvd that plays immediately after the workout. There is a very good looking woman in lycra stretching.
RATING:
0.5 out of 10
For the heck of it, I played the HARD workout on fast forward when I was done riding. Well it's 20 minutes of intervals and 5 minutes rest. Repeat. I am going to guess that the MEDIUM workout is 15 minutes of interval with 5 minutes rest.
Never, ever, consider buying Optimum Fitness Results "pedaling strength" dvd. Joe Friel should be extremely embarrassed to have his name associated with such a POOR quality product. You would think with him charging clients $1,500/month for training, he could do better than this.
The only, ONLY thing that makes this rate above ZERO on my scale is the "stretching" portion of the dvd that plays immediately after the workout. There is a very good looking woman in lycra stretching.
RATING:
0.5 out of 10
Thursday, November 20, 2008
The best or worst of both worlds
Today's workout was 2~30 minute Spinerval workouts. I got this DVD free with my trainer purchase. Usually, the DVD's are for when I want to ride in front of the tv, as opposed to my Real Axiom that's hooked up to my laptop. Well today I played the DVD on one monitor while riding the Real Axiom which is viewed on the laptop monitor. To make things interesting I set up the thing to ride a 1% grade. Now 1% isn't much until you compare it to 0% on the "normal" trainer. That provided a pretty good workout for the day. Bunches of 90 second intervals. It's not exactly the season for that, but what can you do?
And no, cranking down the tension on my normal trainer does not make it harder, thank you very much.
And no, cranking down the tension on my normal trainer does not make it harder, thank you very much.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Monday, November 17, 2008
Bought two of these today...
http://www.endurancefilms.com/Videos/Cycling/tabid/696/ctl/Edit/mid/1859/Videos/Cycling/CyclingnbspFitnessnbspResults/tabid/916/Default.aspx
Of course, one of the two I bought promises that I will set a personal best time trial. Hot dog.
CFR4 and CFR2
Of course, one of the two I bought promises that I will set a personal best time trial. Hot dog.
CFR4 and CFR2
11-17-08
174.0 thanks in part to my 6am spin while watching Married With Children and Saved By The Bell.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
BEWARE of 'unflavored'
My hips and knees have been in a pain in, well, my hips and knees for a while now so I decided to test out some Glucosamine. Unfortunately, I am not a fan of swallowing pills that are the size of my thumb, so I opted on an unflavored powder. Should have known better. The last time I bought an unflavored product it was an endurance formula from Hammer. I used it a handful of times then gave the rest away to a team mate. That unflavored pales in comparison to this glucosamine powder. First, it smells worse than my gear bag left in my hot car after a day's worth of criteriums. I could only liken it to the scent of my dog farting in my four year old cycling shoes that have my used socks stuffed in it. Not that I've tried that, but you get my drift.
Instead of the recommended 8-12 ounces, I've opted to take it in shot form and chase it with a glass of clean water.
It better be worth it.
Instead of the recommended 8-12 ounces, I've opted to take it in shot form and chase it with a glass of clean water.
It better be worth it.
11-16-08 from the coffee shop
175.5 - can't win them all.
So I'm sitting here in my favorite Englewood coffee shop. Why? We have YET ANOTHER open house. That meant I spent a good chunk of the day yesterday cleaning the house. I was able to sneak in 1.5 hours on the trainer. When I get home today, it will be more trainer time. Probably do a G.D. Spinerval.
Anyone know how to build a wheel out there? My Power tap enabled American Classic is getting long in the tooth (or at the very least I have bike wheel envy and just want to replace it). Excel Sports is have a good deal right now on Zipp 404 clincher rims, but this is no undertaking I want to take on myself. I have zero knowledge on spokes so I don't know what I can use, what is good, what is bad, etc.
So I'm sitting here in my favorite Englewood coffee shop. Why? We have YET ANOTHER open house. That meant I spent a good chunk of the day yesterday cleaning the house. I was able to sneak in 1.5 hours on the trainer. When I get home today, it will be more trainer time. Probably do a G.D. Spinerval.
Anyone know how to build a wheel out there? My Power tap enabled American Classic is getting long in the tooth (or at the very least I have bike wheel envy and just want to replace it). Excel Sports is have a good deal right now on Zipp 404 clincher rims, but this is no undertaking I want to take on myself. I have zero knowledge on spokes so I don't know what I can use, what is good, what is bad, etc.
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Friday, November 14, 2008
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
First four 'races' of 2009 scheduled
http://www.teamdaytoncycling.com/Documents/2009ITT.pdf
Four indoor time trials to kick the year off. It's probably time for a fitness check on my simulated course that's a simulation of a made up route.
Fitness check complete. Completed the course about 50 seconds faster than my best time (which was last February) and set a season high 15 minute power output. There you go.
That makes a total of 35 races (all time trials) on my schedule already for 2009. Who knows when the road race and crit schedules will start coming out?!
Four indoor time trials to kick the year off. It's probably time for a fitness check on my simulated course that's a simulation of a made up route.
Fitness check complete. Completed the course about 50 seconds faster than my best time (which was last February) and set a season high 15 minute power output. There you go.
That makes a total of 35 races (all time trials) on my schedule already for 2009. Who knows when the road race and crit schedules will start coming out?!
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Monday, November 3, 2008
stuff
Should we talk about the weather? Should we talk about the government?
Weather! What a great couple of days with a couple more to follow. Unfortunately, I missed riding Saturday as my whole day was booked up with a trip to the site and a party that was hosted by us. Needless to say, I didn't make it to son of Godzulla. Once again, I'll say it. I will make it next year.
Sunday and today I spent outside getting some badly needed miles in. Tuesday and Wednesday look to be more of the same.
Getting ready for 2009 started last Sunday. I keep changing my game plan in regards to training but I've settled on this for now: There will be no daily structure. When the weather starts getting bad, I'll reduce my long rides to once per week so I won't be dealing with long bouts of freezing on the road or numb ass on the trainer. The rest is all sorts of variants of intervals. Sure, when I say no daily structure, I really mean that there will be weekly structure based on time and weather. Everything from 20 second to 20 minute intervals are on deck. Gradually, I'd like to up the wattage that I'm doing the intervals at while at the same time chipping away at the weight hanging off my ass.
There are only about four more months until the season starts. Got to get with it!
Weather! What a great couple of days with a couple more to follow. Unfortunately, I missed riding Saturday as my whole day was booked up with a trip to the site and a party that was hosted by us. Needless to say, I didn't make it to son of Godzulla. Once again, I'll say it. I will make it next year.
Sunday and today I spent outside getting some badly needed miles in. Tuesday and Wednesday look to be more of the same.
Getting ready for 2009 started last Sunday. I keep changing my game plan in regards to training but I've settled on this for now: There will be no daily structure. When the weather starts getting bad, I'll reduce my long rides to once per week so I won't be dealing with long bouts of freezing on the road or numb ass on the trainer. The rest is all sorts of variants of intervals. Sure, when I say no daily structure, I really mean that there will be weekly structure based on time and weather. Everything from 20 second to 20 minute intervals are on deck. Gradually, I'd like to up the wattage that I'm doing the intervals at while at the same time chipping away at the weight hanging off my ass.
There are only about four more months until the season starts. Got to get with it!
Sunday, October 26, 2008
With friends like these...
...I need slower friends. My last road ride was 12 days ago and since I've been mired in a funk of blah trainer rides. Schedule has not permitted much time to hit the roads lately and it showed. For a 50 mile ride, it felt like a good 38 of it was in a head wind. How does that work? I threw my best effort forward to share the workload (as I am not keen on wheelsucking freeloaders on a group ride) but I still felt like I didn't hold up my end of the ride.
At the very least, today's ride did save me some money. I know for fact that I'm not in shape enough for Son of Godzulla next week, so I'll save the drive and $40 entry fee.
Statistics - because you know you love them.
50.38 miles
2:31 (20.1 mph average and like I said it was head windy)
1867 kJ (which I promptly replaced via burrito)
207 watts, 241 normalized
Still not wearing my HRM.
In closing it was nice to actually be out there riding! I miss the road.
At the very least, today's ride did save me some money. I know for fact that I'm not in shape enough for Son of Godzulla next week, so I'll save the drive and $40 entry fee.
Statistics - because you know you love them.
50.38 miles
2:31 (20.1 mph average and like I said it was head windy)
1867 kJ (which I promptly replaced via burrito)
207 watts, 241 normalized
Still not wearing my HRM.
In closing it was nice to actually be out there riding! I miss the road.
Saturday, October 25, 2008
If money were no object.
I want to try all different kinds of bike racing. Track, cross, MTB. Unfortunately, time and money prohibit this. Track looks the coolest, but the closest place to ride is 100 miles away and they are only open for a few months per year due to the weather. And of course, at the time of the year the track is open, I am busy with racing my other bikes and I don't own a track bike. Someday, I would love to take my TT bike and ride it around a track for an hour. Cross sounds like fun, in a brutal, hard sort of way. That being said, I don't have a cross bike so I would have to buy one. Then shoes. Then a scrub brush and soap to get clean before the drive home. I do have a mountain bike, if you can call it that. It's a 100 pound steel POS with lower than low end components that I bought to ride in the snow when I lived on the farm.
For the time being, I'll just keep throwing all available bike cash toward the time trial bike.
Blog posts get real boring when you spend too much time on the trainer. It's not like I'm going to detail the horrendously boring 90 minute ride I did today. I did wear my new shoes, so there's some excitement and used the new trainer yesterday and the day before. Maybe tomorrow I'll have something to write about.
For the time being, I'll just keep throwing all available bike cash toward the time trial bike.
Blog posts get real boring when you spend too much time on the trainer. It's not like I'm going to detail the horrendously boring 90 minute ride I did today. I did wear my new shoes, so there's some excitement and used the new trainer yesterday and the day before. Maybe tomorrow I'll have something to write about.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
New shoes!
Excuse the picture quality - it's from my freakin' phone.
And yes, I wear my team cycling socks as everyday wear.
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