Training setback

Training was going along very well until Saturday when I came down with some kind of bug.  Since I had ridden 3 times already that week, I told myself I'd just recuperate on Saturday and go for my long ride on Sunday.  Well, Sunday came around and I felt even worse than Saturday, so there was no riding that day either.
Long story short, I got in no long ride last week.  I don't think this is going to kill my training plan, but still, I hate to suffer setbacks.  I'll be back on the bike tomorrow night, but Wednesday is a travel day, Thursday night looks like I've got a client event (going to a hockey game it sounds like!), and Friday will be another travel day.  It looks like the best I'm going to be able to do is 3 rides this week, but I should have a good chunk of time for a 4-5 hour ride on Saturday.

First 100 mile week in a while

Last week I had the first of what will be many 100 mile+ weeks.  I rode 5 times, including a 44 mile long ride on Friday.  This was pretty impressive considering I was travelling every day last week except Sunday and Friday.

This week I'm scheduled for a 4.5 mile long ride, so the ride lengths are starting to get up there...

Ouch!

Over the past few days, I've had a really painful toothache that has  kept me off my bike Friday and Saturday.  Most important is that I missed my long ride that was scheduled for yesterday.

I think I will be able to get back in the swing of things tomorrow, but this set back has been a bummer.

Guilt...

Last night I was unable to get in a scheduled workout because I had to work very late.  Under normal circumstances, having to skip a ride would just be a bummer, but not a huge deal.  However, when I'm on a training plan with a ride upcoming, missing a ride makes me feel really guilty.

I guess this is a good situation to be in as it keeps me on track with my program, but it still feels like I'm taking things a bit too seriously.

By the way, I did get a 21 miles tempo ride in tonight, so I certainly don't feel guilty tonight!

Zone 4 intervals

Zone 4 intervals are something that I've recently started doing, based on Joe Freil's Heart Rate Training book.  I'm sure most of you are wondering what the big deal is, but I've got to admit this this is something new for me.

I can see how these are effective.  I just finished a 45 minute workout with 4 6 minute work intervals at my Zone 4 heart rate.  I don't know yet if these workouts are improving my fitness, but if the phrase "no pain, no gain" is even partially true, I'll be getting a lot stronger soon.

Century training week 1 complete

I finished my first week of training for my upcoming century.  The ride is on April 16th, so I have 14 weeks to train for it.  I rode 78 miles this week, including a 35 mile long ride on Saturday.  I also did another shorter ride at my planned century pace, a tempo ride, an interval ride, and a recovery ride on Sunday.

Things pick up a bit this week with longer mid-week rides and a long ride on Saturday running about 40 miles.  I feel pretty good that my training will help me finish a regular century, but this one has a LOT of climbing that have me a bit scared.  The good news is the ride is situated such that you can bail out on the climb any time and still complete the ride, so worst case is I fall short of the full distance but still finish.

Anyway, knowing that this ride is coming and is going to be hard is a great motivator to get on the bike and train hard.  That's exactly what I need to keep me pushing...

14 weeks to my century

I just checked out the calendar, and I have 14 weeks to train for the Bike MS 150, which will include my first century ride (actually 105 miles) followed the next day by a 55 mile.  I have picked up a copy of Distance Cycling and am going to be using the 15 week training program from that book as best I can. The book recommends a combination of long rides, tempo rides, brisk (interval) rides, and recovery rides. Mixed in are sessions working on core strength, resistence training and stretching.

During my rides, I will be using heart rates to monitor my effort level and ensure that I'm working at the right intensity.  These heart rate zones are based on my tested lactate threshold as described in the Joe Friel book I mentioned in a previous post (Total Heart Rate Training). Hopefully, this will ensure that I'm not just getting in saddle time but that I'm improving my fitness in specific ways that will help me complete my century.

I'm a bit worried about this century as it is much hillier than the previous Bike MS 150 I rode in Seattle. Therefore, I feel I need to train with a lot more purpose than I did for that ride.

Training with my heart rate monitor

As I get ready for the hardest ride I've ever done (the first day of the 2012 Arizona Bike MS 150 is 105 miles with significant climbing), I realized that just hopping on my bike and riding progressively longer distances might not be the best training regimen.  Therefore, I decided I needed to get smarter about training so I can complete my first century.

I've always used a heart rate monitor during training (I've got an ancient Polar S210), but never with any specific targets or anything.  Mostly I used to to get a feel for how many calories I burned.  However, doing a little research online it became clear that I was barely scratching the surface in how I can use my HRM to help me get stronger and more fit.  I kept hearing about Joe Friel and his approach to training with an HRM, so I bought his book, Total Heart Rate Training: Customize and Maximize Your Workout Using a Heart Rate Monitor.

I have learned a lot from reading this book.  Most importantly, I learned that a lot of my training was good for burning calories and taking off weight, but probably not the best for improving my performance or making me a better cyclist.  Now that's not to say there's no fitness benefit to just getting on your bike and riding, but if you only have a certain amount of time to ride and a certain amount of weeks to train for a specific event, you can tailor your workouts so they help get you better prepared.

With this book, I have found good estimate for my lactate threshhold (LT, which Joe maintains is the key measurement for training using an HRM) and can now use it to create workouts that improve my performance.  This is all stuff that I had heard of but didn't fully understand.  I'll give one example: in the book, Joe recommends doing cruise intervals (6 to 12 minutes with shorter recovery intervals) at just below your LT as a good way to improve your endurance.  He states that going harder than this does not significantly increase the fitness benefit, but does require significantly longer to recover after the workout.  I had never really thought about long intervals like these.  My concept of intervals was going really hard for 30 to 60 seconds or so.  While these are a type of interval that can be useful for some athletes, they really don't help someone just trying to ride long distances.

Anyway, this book is very in-depth, in some cases too in-depth (at least for me), and I am pretty sure it will pay off as I begin training in earnest for the Bike MS.