Rest Day
Monday was a day for core work and stretching. I've been increasing the number of crunches and other ab exercises that I do. I want to work on increasing the planks soon too. They are so tough, but I think they are so good for strength. I can now do my three 30 second planks in very good form. Soon, I will aim for 45 seconds.
Yoga is awesome! I've been using AM Yoga with Rodney Yee. The dvd has five different 20 minute routines. I work my way through them, week by week, and then I start over.
Sublactate Threshold Intervals
I have adjusted to the new changes Mike just made. I also do this routine outside now. It's much more effective than doing it on the trainer. I already blogged about that night here.
Easy Paced Group Ride
I'd been watching the weather channel off and on through the whole work day, and it looked good. Then at 4:10, a text came through that Action Wheels was calling off the group ride because of approaching rain. What? I'd just looked at it, and there was no mention of rain!
I texted back that they must be mistaken, and Adam let me know that the hourly report didn't show it, but the 6-hour moving radar picture did. I went home bummed out, thinking the ride was off. When I got home, I checked the weather again, and there was nothing on the radar, but a 70% chance of rain was showing up at 7pm. I decided that I'd do the ride as early as possible and finish before 7pm.
When I got to the park, there was no one there. I headed into the woods and rode for about 45 minutes. I kept my heart rate in Zone 1 and avoided the hills. George and Larry Sr showed up and I met them in the parking lot.
George riding over a log on the brand new trail. I gotta get better at taking pictures!
We had a nice even paced ride, chatting as we went. The weather was a mild 49 degrees and it was actually kind of pleasant. A surprise for December! At 7:30, I wrapped up my ride and there was still no rain. I was happy I'd beat Mother Nature again.
George and Larry decided to keep riding. I found out later that they came across a fire in the woods on the edge of the field. They stamped it out with their feet. They continued into the woods and found two more fires, which they also put out. The fires were about 6 inches to 1 foot high. One of them had burned out a 6 foot circle and was just starting to catch the sticks. The other two were small and hadn't spread. We think that kids from the nearby apartments set them. The location of the fires were easy to walk to, and not too far into the woods. It was also pretty close to the trail that leads to those apartments.
Pedal Drills
It rained on Thursday, so I nixed my plan to ride at the Monroe Bike Path with the Action Wheels racers. I hooked the bike up to the trainer and did my pedal drills.
Mike added ramp ups and over/under intervals to my list. I still have to do the one legged pedals drills. Ramp ups are when you ride at 100 rpms in an easy gear for 1 minute. Then you do 110 rpms for the second minute. You conclude with 120 rpms for the third minute. The over/under intervals are where you ride for 3 minutes at 60 rpms in the hardest gear, and then you snap it up to a cadence of 120+ for one minutes. This last minute can be in an easier gear.
I mixed up the one legged drills, the ramp ups, and the over/under intervals and got myself thoroughly confused. The workout was only supposed to be one hour, but there was no way I was going to be able to fit everything in with the number of intervals I was supposed to do. Mike had said to just do whatever I had time for in 1 hour. Being the martyr that I am, I tried to squeeze them all together by doing them in rapid succession, with less recoveries in between. I kept forgetting what set I was on. Next time, I'm going to keep them separate and just do what I have time for. The next week, I'll start with a different type of interval choice, so that I get to do each kind eventually.
Hard Efforts
George confronted me about riding alone. He worried about the ghetto houses along the Monroe Bike Path. He thought about what could happen if I met up with the hoodlums who started the fires at CCC. He said his piece and I took it to heart.
My first dilemma came on Friday night. The weather report called for rain on Thursday, so I couldn't do my group ride with hard efforts. On Friday, I tried to get people to ride with me, but no body was able to make it. After work, I headed over to Ceres Park. I figured, it would safer to ride there alone, and there was a better chance that someone might be riding there.
I got to the parking lot and it was empty. I shut off the car and sat there. The night was very dark and the wind was whistling in the trees. I felt kind of nervous about riding by myself. All that talk with George about shady characters and the chance of an injury with no one to help me... it made me feel a little scared to ride.
I was annoyed at the same time. There was no rain tonight. I had my bike. I was sitting in the lot at an awesome park. Why couldn't I just ride?
I know that if I'd wanted to ride, I would have. Even if I was doing it alone.
But I honestly didn't want to do it. I had this funny feeling that it just wasn't a good idea to venture out by myself.
I drove home and told myself, "Go ahead and use the trainer. You might like it because you haven't gotten to watch your race videos in awhile. If you hate the trainer session, you can always put your foot down and be stubborn next time."
So, I ended up having a very productive trainer session. I did my hard efforts and I rode for 2 hours. The race videos kept me interested and I didn't get bored. Afterwards, I rewarded myself with a dip in the hot tub.
Zone 2 Mountain Bike Ride
I took the Hard Tail over to Fair Hill on Saturday. I explored the Orange Trail backwards and forwards. I was climbing a hill, at one point, when I noticed a girl on a bike behind me. I could tell she was pushing hard.
The competitive part of me wanted to speed up and see if I could keep her at bay. But I held myself back because I needed to keep my heart rate no higher than 138 bpms. She was on me in a moment and pulled over to let her by. I think she was one of the Elite women in the 45+ group. I said, "Go ahead past me. I have to keep my heart rate low."
My pride was hurting. I wanted her to know that I really could be going a lot faster than I was. She thanked me and went past. She was standing up and pushing hard to climb the hill. She was out of sight in no time.
Suddenly, I wondered if she was able to go that fast, while also keeping her heart rate nice a low. What if she's just that fit? What if my little disclaimer made her laugh to herself? Ug, that thought was humbling. I have to keep doing my workouts though. When the time comes, I will be able to start pushing hard. Then, I'll be able to see how much I've improved.
Zone 2 Road Ride
The last ride of my week was my endurance road ride. The thing that stands out about this ride the most was that it was cold. The temperature was 36 degrees when I started and the winds were very strong. I had my slowest average speed for this ride yet! The hot shower when I got home was heavenly!
Next week, I have the option to add endurance work to my easy paced Wednesday group ride. The following week, it goes from 1:30 to 2:00, so I'll take the option and make the next one 1:45 to bridge the gap. Mike is also making my Zone 2 mountain bike ride change from 2 hours to 3 hours. Yea!
