Yesterday's Pedaling, Today's Back and More Pedaling

I didn't get to blog yesterday as I rode early in the morning with Shannon for a fast 29 miler.  I was suppose to workout with weights but decided to do more pedaling and spun at the gym instead.  There was no class, so I did my own thing and worked on off the seat pedaling to prepare for our Big Bear ride on June 9th.  I worked up a good sweat from both, but no ill effect cramp-wise.  Good.

I woke up hungry this morning, but managed to get in the gym despite.  I worked out my back but for some reason, ran out of time and only managed to do 3 exercises for it.  I did do my core workout also.  It was an okay workout.

For lunch today, I'm bringing in my Cervelo, which I haven't ridden for a while now.  Since it is the bike I'm taking to Bear,  I need some serious seat time on it as I haven't ridden it for a while.  I suppose I'll figure out a route, hopefully with some hills, for lunch today.  I'm open to doing something else though if the guys want to save it for some training this weekend.

Long Weekend and Starting Over

While I live for long weekends, one of the things that often happen is that I tend to not follow my diet too much and end up feeling quite regretful after.  This is how I feel this morning.  I did have a good long ride on Sunday but I carbed up before and then ate poorly after for the next couple days.  I did run yesterday at the beach with Lisa, but I don't think it was nearly enough to offset the crap I ate.  Oh well, now it's time to pay the piper. 

As far as my long ride on Sunday, I was quite pleased that I was able to manage doing the whole ride with only 2 bottles.  I did get half a bottle of water at our stop in Carlsbad, but that was what I drank in lieu of the rest of my Ultima left in another bottle.  I also had 1 package of Shot Bloks and only 3 gels.  I guess my carb loading worked!

For today's workout, I started my weekly routine today working my pecs and also getting in my core workout in.  I was having a little trouble getting started although not for a lack of motivation but just feeling a little slugging from the long weekend.  I still managed to get a good workout in and worked up a sweat in the process.

For lunch today, I plan on riding with the fellas and I think the plan is probably a hilly route.  Let's see if the guys want to do our "puke" route, which is not going to be fun for me since I'll have my standard crank bike today.  Oh well...more intensity I guess. 

Wednesday Through Today

I didn't blog on Wednesday because I went to work early to ride with Galen.  We did the Shady 133 NPC loop and it was a great workout despite it just being the two of us.  Tuesday's lunch ride was pretty tough, but I still had legs for the loop.   At lunch time, I was going to do weights but opted to get some more cycle training and jumped in Madison's spin class.  She was conducting a sprint trainer class, so I got to work on fast spinning.  My legs were definitely beat up after that.

Yesterday I skipped my morning workout in favor for resting as much as I can.  It helped a little for my race last night, but I just couldn't repeat the surges that kept occurring enough.  On the first run down the straight, the surge was unreal and people were passing like mad where I was close to the back by the next corner.  From there, it was just closing gaps for the next few laps until I finally ran out of steam.  I decided to just get a good workout out of it, so I went into time trial mode for the rest of the ride picking up riders who also couldn't sustain the pace.  Not a good outing again, but still a good workout.   I think I'll work on this type of riding more after Big Bear and hold off on any further races just because it's way too humbling not doing them as prepared as we used to be. 

For this morning, I got my shoulders worked out and the intensity and rhythm was very high.  I was dripping sweat even in my first exercise, so the rest of the exercises had me gasping for air.  I also got my core training in so cool. 

For lunch, I want to get a run in but we'll see how the weather is.  I may get on the treadmill, but hopefully an outside run would be better.  I hope to get 6 miles in. 

150 Weekend Miles, Yesterday Workout and Today's Back/Ride

Haven't blogged since Thursday so what's happened since.  Friday I rode down to San Diego to attend a funeral and got 63+ miles.  It was tough because I didn't eat much the night before or the prior nights for that matter.  I bottomed out halfway through the ride, and struggled to finish rationing my 2 gels and 1 waffle as best as I could.  When I arrived at my in-law's house, I definitely needed the two cokes I had as soon as I arrived.  Good stuff.

I rested on Saturday and got some good calories in this time where I was better prepared for a ride on Sunday.  I went out with Craig and his friend Dave and we put in 86+ miles by riding down to Encinitas and back.  I had a better outing and managed to do it with less intake during the ride finishing the whole route with just 2 bottles, 3 gels and 1 package of shot bloks.  Craig is definitely stronger now, so it was nice to see how eating allowed me to work with him and do a significant amount of pulling on the way back.  When a guy on a tri bike passed us on El Camino Real, we broke off from Craig and I finished the last 8 miles on my own. 

Yesterday, I wasn't up to have a 2 workout day so even after I got up early, I went back to bed.  I did get in the gym at work during lunch and got a good chest workout in.  I also did 20 minutes on the elliptical to burn some extra calories. 

This morning, I got my back worked out and worked up a pretty good sweat.  I started out doing sets of pull ups, which I haven't done in a while.  I got 4 exercises in plus a lower ab workout but the lower back machine was tied up.  I'll do it tomorrow. 

For lunch today, I plan on a lunch ride with the guys.  Not sure yet what kind of route to do, so we'll see if anyone has any suggestions.

Yesterday, Shoulders and More Cycling

I missed yesterday's blog since I rode in the morning with a couple BRCM guys for some extra cycling.  I got to ride an extra 10 miles more than normal and at an intense pace making for a good day's worth of training.  I skipped my training at lunch opting for a haircut instead and ended up  also skipping one Met-Rx meal.

For today, I worked on my shoulders and I'm really noticing that I have more energy with real food, which I ate again last night.  I did 4 exercises plus 2 core workouts and managed to get a little sweat going. 

At lunch, I will be riding with the guys and hopefully finding a route with a good mixtures of hills and flat roads.  I'm always open to any suggestions from the guys though, so we'll see what we end up doing.  My legs are a little worked since I've been training them since Sunday, but I still hope for a good outing. 

Back Day and Lunch Ride

I didn't sleep too well last night, but that's probably from having taken a nap when I got home from work.  I didn't even think it was a work day and was a little disoriented when my alarm went off.  Nevertheless, I still made it to the gym with Lisa this morning and got my back worked out.  I had a little trouble focusing feeling a little distracted with things going on at work, but I would regain focus every now and then and get a good set in managing to get a good sweat going.  I also did my lower back and lower abs as well. 

For lunch, I hope to get a good lunch ride in but my legs are a little worked after yesterday's 6.5 mile run.  They don't hurt too bad, but let's see if they can put any power down.  I may try and revert back to a high cadence run and keep building on this style of riding again since I don't think I do this enough.  It was really effective on my Sunday ride, so I'm hoping it'll be the same for today. 

Effects of Eating, Catching Up and Today's Training

I  missed Friday's blog since I started out at work early in the morning for a ride with some of the BRCM guys.  We had a good 30 miler and I had a pretty good outing despite having raced the night before.  The race was tough but ended up ending early due to a crash, so I definitely had a lot of legs left.  It was nice to be able to push hard again, so the food I've been eating is coming through in my performance.  I still want to work toward 145, but I just am taking a break given I don't like suffering too much on our rides.

I rested on Saturday, ate like crap, but then had a good outing on my solo ride down to Del Mar yesterday where I met my family to hang out at the beach.   The weather conditions were ideal, so I was able to PR and hit a 21.5 average.  I passed a bunch of people and not one latched on or tried to mix it up.  I felt good all the way down and didn't even suffer too much leg wear by the time I finished where I was still able to play with the kids. 

This morning, I made my way into the gym and got my chest worked out.  5 exercises done and then I hit my core also.  My chest workout was light and I even substituted presses with push ups.  It was a pretty decent workout and my focus again was speed.

For lunch today, I hope to get a run in to keep this cross training up.  I think Madison and I were going to try and PR our hilly lunch route, so we'll have to see how that goes. 

Back and Cardio

I felt pretty tired when I got up this morning and could have easily been persuaded to go back to bed.  As that didn't happen, I managed to get up and get in the gym to workout my back.  I only managed to get 3 exercises in (pull downs, rows, and pullovers) but they were high rep sets.  I also got my lower back worked out along with lower abs. 

Now it is my legs that are feeling pretty tired, but I do want to get a cardio session in today during lunch.  I may spin on my own but I'll consider other options as well since last week's attempt to spin with low intensity left my glutes feeling really worked. 

Catching up, Chest and Lunch Cardio

Let's see...it's been since Thursday when I last blogged, so what's happened since then?  First off, my Thursday spin session was suppose to be light as part of tapering for the week and in preparation for Saturday's ride.  I really kept the intensity down but for some reason, the effect of the spin was that my glutes were really worked where by the end of the evening (after a happy hour), they felt really tight.  They even felt tighter on Friday (especially when I went out for dinner and drinks with some friends) where I could barely sit down.  This was enough for me to skip all workouts all together on Friday just so I can have my body recover as much as possible.

On my ride on Saturday, I could still feel my glutes but they didn't end up being too much of a factor.  Surprisingly, neither did the alcohol...or at least I don't think it did.  No cramps, finished the ride with just a little more than 2 bottles, and only had 2 gels plus almost 1 package of shot bloks.

Sunday was a complete rest day. 

Yesterday, I got up to go to the gym, but went back to bed to get some rest based on Lisa's request.  I'm compliant.  I did get a 4 mile run in during lunch with some of the girls at work.  It was a good session with a good warm up pace for half of the ride and then running harder for the rest.  I didn't wear a Garmin, but I think I was doing sub 8 minute/miles in the end. 

Today, I got in the gym and got my chest worked out, and since we went out to eat last night, I worked my ass off today.  I got 5 exercises in for chest plus a lower back and ab workout.  Funny thing about eating real food is that I get so much stronger when I do.  What scares me is how much harder I train where rather than tightening up, I think my muscles respond to it by growing.  I don't want to get bigger, so it's not a good thing to have the extra energy in that regard. 

For lunch, I do want to get a ride in with the guys and maybe we'll do a flatter run today and get some high intensity training in to prepare for this Thursday's crit.  I hope the other guys buy in on it, but I'm open to whatever. 

Arms, Lunch Cardio and Mind Games

For this morning's workout, I worked out my biceps only.  I didn't want to workout my triceps since I'm hoping to save them for this weekend for my off-the-seat climbing.  They get pretty worked from being on the drops, so I want them 100%  I also worked my core with a set of lower back and upper abs each. 

For lunch, I will skip today's lunch ride and do something a little lighter instead.  I've been working high intensity for the last 3 days, so I'm going to taper a little and let my legs recover.

One thing I wanted to talk about in today's blog is the inner dialog I have during my workouts.  I'm not sure what other people thing about when they work out, but to give some insight on what I think about, a lot of the times I'm telling myself not to waste my time in there.  Sometimes, I have to stop and check myself to remember that I need to make each rep count, and it seems to renew my enthusiasm and push me a little harder.  I also think about what my big picture goals are and I think how others who have the same goal are probably working harder than me where it pushes me to do more as well.  Whatever it takes, right?

Shoulders and Lunch Ride or Spin

Still not doing legs yet since I have a big ride this weekend, so I did shoulders instead.  I did 4 exercises:  alternating cable overhead presses, side lateral machine, front cable raises, and rear delt machine.  I got a pretty good pump from keeping up with the explosive reps and focusing on speed.  No free weights today.  Cables and machines don't get enough credit, but they do work.  The intensity starts from the bottom of the movement, one can focus less on using other auxiliary muscles and apply all the intensity to the target muscle and it's easier to add or drop weight as needed, which promotes even more intensity.   They get it done.

I wanted to get a lunch ride in today since I've been off the bike since Saturday.  I skipped yesterday just because I didn't think it would be dry enough where it would be safe and/or clean...hate when the bike gets too dirty.  Ha ha.  I again jumped on the spin bike yesterday and worked the high intensity off the seat training, which I hope will help for this weekend.  If I can't get out today to get a ride in given it seems even more wet today than yesterday (at least at my house), I'll probably opt to spin again.  I don't know if I'll do the off-the-seat training again, but I may.  I'm hoping it will be dry enough to ride outside. 

Back Day and Lunch Ride

Unlike yesterday, I had my iPod this morning and was able to get a pretty decent back workout.  I was also able to focus where the movement for each rep was as explosive as possible, which I think helps with speed.  I got four exercises:  alternating pull downs, machine rows, standing angled close grip pull downs, and overhead cable pull overs.  I also did my lower abs and lower back.

For lunch today, I hope the light drizzle goes away and we can get a good ride in.  Yesterday, I had a hard spin and did work on some off the seat pedaling with really high resistance (so high that he flywheel overheated at one point and the crank ceased where I couldn't pedal anymore).  My legs still hadn't fully recovered from Saturday when I spun yesterday, but they actually feel even more tired this morning.  I'll try to take it easy so that they can recover more (try being the operative word).