Recovery and Today's Cycling

Yesterday, my legs still felt "heavy" (for the lack of a better word) in the morning when I was walking around, so I'm thinking those who chose not to ride based on having ridden on Sunday probably did the right thing.  I spoke to Eddie, who came out also, and he felt the same way.

This morning was suppose to be my leg day, but since I beat them up again yesterday, I thought it best to avoid training them.  Because I don't know if I fully recovered from Sunday with yesterday's ride to boot, I thought skipping a workout all together this morning was probably a good idea as well.  This hopefully will let me feel more recovered.

I will spin today for a lunch ride and will pull back regardless of who else comes out.   I still want to spin to keep the blood circulating and help the recovery process...hopefully. 

Back Day and Cycling

Got my back workout on this morning, and managed to get 5 exercises in along with some core training.  My forearm is still bothering me after last week's bowlfest with the family, but the straps helped to let me get through my workout.  Rep count is still high and focus remains with speed over intensity. 

I weighed myself yesterday and came in at 158.  This is up 2 lbs. from the last time, but I believe I was dehydrated when I weighed in at 156.  Since I just downed a whole bottle of water with my chest workout, I accept that the weight gain is probably more of my true weight than anything else.  Nevertheless, I hope to use it as my motivation to work hard during today's lunch ride. 

Yesterday's Ride and Today's Workout

Yesterday's ride was tougher than I expected.  Not having ridden a bike since Tuesday along with breaking routine had me nervous on the hills before the timed climb section.  Nevertheless, I don't think I could have done significantly better either way.  In fact, who knows if the "rest" beforehand did me good and helped me.  In the end, I'm happy with how I did and look forward to keep improving through the year.

For my ride diet, I was a little disappointed in how I did here.  I brought 4 waffles and 5 gels, and I had consumed all of it by the end of the ride.  I also ended up having a PB&J on one of the SAGs as I was starting to feel like I was bottoming out where I needed some immediate nourishment.  The ride was tougher than I expected with the extra elevation gain added through the change in the route.  Also, the headwinds on the way back was insane and the guys were always pushing the pace nonetheless.   My Garmin's calculations of the calories burned was pretty high, and it sure felt that way despite the slower than average pace we had done.  I'll have to re-think what to do for the L'Etape ride based on this.

For today, I was aching the night before where I opted to actually skip cardio and only do weights.  Since I was only doing one and not both today, I slept in and opted to train chest at work during a late lunch.  The change was good and I got a good workout performing 6 exercises with 3 sets each.  I also got a little ab workout as well, but cut it short since I was worked from the weights and the previous day of riding. 

Looking forward to riding again tomorrow.

Vacation Activities and Exercise

On Tuesday night, I went with my family and met up with my wife's brother's family at Big Bear Lake to go skiing/boarding the following morning.  With the kids taking classes, the wife and I were able to get some decent ski time in although it took a while to get the kids situated.  It was a little odd this year in that other than the knees and the quads feeling like they got a decent workout, I never felt like I sweated at all even going down some of the steeper runs.  I never felt out of breath, so cardio seemed to be up a lot this year. 

For Thursday, we wanted to catch some more action on the slopes, but the winds were 25-35 mph with up to 60 mph gusts up in the mountains.  It did snow as well in the afternoon, but it looked like it was going to rain initially.  With the weather not ideal, we opted to just take the kids to do a little luge action along with some go-carting.  We also went bowling for a couple games, which was my only source of activity for this day.  I did end up hurting my forearm (still wrapped today) as a result.

Diet-wise, I did okay and relied a lot on bars and shakes, but also had some regular meals.  Overall, I did okay here.  Hanging with my brother-in-law, I did have 3 beers (not the light ones either) both nights, so this was probably not the best thing for me. 

Yesterday, I was back, so I was able to get an hour cardio session on the stationary bike at the gym.  In the afternoon, I got in a shoulder workout.  It was a little difficult given the grip on my left hand (based on injured forearm) sucked, but I did the best I could.  I was in San Diego for the latter workout, so the change in atmosphere plus the fact that it was my old stomping ground let me push through.

For today, I'll be resting and preparing for tomorrow.  I'm really hoping my forearm doesn't play a factor when I'm climbing on the drops. 

Back, Yesterday's Solo Ride, and Today's Ride

For today, I was a little fired up to work my back as I felt like I took in some extra calories the last couple days...last night not being an exception.  I actually got a good sweat going, so I know I'm pushing the pace when this happens. 

I did an angled alternative reverse grip row, reverse narrow grip pulldowns (machine), wide grip pulldowns (cable), row machine, and lat machine.  I had drop sets, pyramids, and mostly high explosive reps.  I also got my ab workout in, but I didn't do lower back.

Yesterday I did a solo ride at lunch but took it easy and only did 17 miles.  It was the standard Shady Canyon Laguna Cyn bike trail CA loop.  It was nice to manage a pace based on rhythm than just keeping up.  It got windy on the bike trail back, where it was hard to stay in the 20s, but a 19.8 average isn't bad.

For today's ride, it doesn't look like a lot of people will make it out.  It should be a good one though.  Legs feel a little tired from the riding in the last couple days, but they should do okay today.  Skiing and riding the next couple of days should get them truly worked, but they'll have 2 straight days of rest before Sunday's Gran Fondo. 

Yesterday's Ride, Chest Day and More Cycling

For yesterday's ride nutrition-wise, I had 3 Honey stinger gels and 2 waffles.  I also had about 2 and half bottles of Ultima and 1 package of Shot Bloks.  I probably should have been eating sooner than I did.  At our last stop, I was worried I was going to run out of gas for the fast pace back so I actually had 1 waffle and two gels at this point.  I was also trying to keep from cramping where I kept making sure I had a shot blok in my mouth the whole time.  It ended up working out, but I shouldn't do it that way.

For today's chest workout, I got my 5 exercises in:  flat bench, incline press machine, pec deck, decline press machine, and low angle cable crossovers.  With the bench, I dropped the last set down and ended up doing 4 total, but I did 3 sets for the other exercises.  The rep range today was 20-30.

Since I have a short week with being on vacation Wednesday where I'll be skiing with the family, I'll go ahead and bring my bike in today and tomorrow.  I don't know who else will bring their bike in, but a solo ride will work for me if no one does.  My legs feel good and I need to get the miles up for this week. 

Arms, Overtraining, and Progressive Results

Today was arms day, and I was able to get 4 exercises in with the focus being mostly triceps.  I was able to squeeze out a couple bicep sets but realized that I promised to get the kids croissants this morning where I forgot my wallet at home.  I had to cut the workout short and did not get to train core. 

For lunch training, I think I'll back off the cycling a little and try to just do a fat burner cardio session.  I felt a little tired during yesterday's ride, and the heat did do much to help that.  I was a little surprised that my left calf started hinting that it may cramp on the way down NPC.  Fortunately, it didn't get to the same point as it did on Wednesday.  In the back of my mind, I do wonder if hitting the bike again today just to condition them further.  However, I'll take the safe route and not do so considering what we have planned for the weekend.

As far as the topic of overtraining, someone on Facebook was asking me about whether they thought I may be overdoing it going to the gym every day (M-F anyways).  My response was that from a weight training perspective, I don't believe it's overdoing it as long as different muscle groups are trained and that each muscle group is given adequate time to rest.  In my case, I only train each muscle group once a week.  The conditioning training is daily as well, but the premise behind it is that the more you do it, the better your body is able to adapt.  The trick is to separate the two workouts, which is why I train in the morning and at lunch time. 

Another topic to discuss was how buddy of mine asked about whether progress promotes more motivation.  For me, I get even more strict with my diet and regimented in my training when I see results.  I know progress is not inherently persistent and that continuing requires continuous adjustments.  The reduction of starchy carbs at night has helped a lot, but I also have to realize I need to carb up more on occasion so that I don't drop weight (lean mass) too fast.