5 weeks until the TdC

A couple of weeks ago I signed up to ride the Tour de Cure in Saratoga with a few members of The Court Club (my gym). My brother Jim is riding on the team, having just bought a new road bike. We've decided to do the 50 mile route which I find preferable to a century this early in the season.

I'm not doing much today as Iain's confirmation is scheduled for 1:30. I just made a pot of coffee and am getting caught up here, which is easier than doing any of the real chores I had thought I might get to this morning. Sandy and I are taking Bri, Iain, his sponsor George and George's wife to an early dinner after the Mass and if I'm home early enough and not too stuffed I may head over to the campus for a quick spin.

This week was pretty tough as far as training goes. I packed in 4 strength workouts but minimal cardio, not exactly optimal for my short and long term goals, besides, it kind of hurt. In retrospect I did not need the extra kettlebell workout last Saturday as we hit the upper body hard on Monday. I was still feeling it on Wednesday at BodyPump and during Thursday's kettlebell workout as well.

I had to skip yoga on Tuesday as I had to travel for work, probably just as well too. So that brings us to Friday, which is turning into ride day with Jim. Although the weather had been forecast to include some sun what I mostly experienced was wind and rain. Nice and sunny out right now, probably because I can't go out and ride...

Anyway we got in a nice enough, if not plodding 25 miles and some hilly terrain (http://connect.garmin.com/activity/82367472)

I still see encouraging power numbers but I'll wait until I get a ride with a low VI to make any more quotations.

Up until recently I've been fortunate not to have the calluses give way from cleans/snatches/etc. Saturday's workout with a competition-style bell ended that through a combination of moist skin, too little chalk and the very smooth finish on the painted horn.

Tonight's workout didn't help matters very much. I had a shorter warm up than is usual for a Monday as I got to the club late. I still managed about 45 minutes of spinning before heading into the kb workout.

Kb warm up was 40 2 handed swings, then 50 one handed swings, exchanging on every swing, then 50 one handed swings with 1 exchange swing in between.

Then on to the killer.

5 double cleans: 15 sec rest,
4 double overhead press: 15 second rest,
4 double push press: 15 second rest,
4 double jerk-push press: 15 second rest,
10 snatches.

repeat, add 2 snatches.
until we get to 20. (6 sets).

Learned a valuable tidbit when swinging 1 handed: if your low back starts to hurt (and mine was) you're dropping the bell too low. Concentrate on back instead of down. Thanks Viv!

Happy Easter

Thursday: Hell's Bells, no spin. 2 hand swings, 5/10/15/20/25/30/ and back down, on the minute. 1st 3 sets w/35#, balance w/ 53#. Alt 25 swings (53#) w/ cardio. 5 x 5 1 arm swing, snatch, front squat.

Friday: 25 mile ride w/ Jim (1:41). Up Lainhart in 7:14.

Yesterday: Extra kettlebell workout at the club. 5 x 1 minute swings w/ 35# & 53# bells for a warm up. 5 x 5 to 1 clean and press R & L using a 35# bell. 5 x 5 to 1 snatch and front squat, R & L.

30 minute spin on an indoor cycle.

Today (Easter). Not a durn thing...and on the seventh day I rested. And it was good. Attending the triduum and Easter Mass just wore me out. Thought about going for a ride, napped instead.

When I got up yesterday for Palm Sunday services I had already decided to skip yoga and so some extra kettlebell work with my new 20kg cannonball. I did not foresee having to put in 4 hours counting donations this weekend due to not seeing the new schedule. So no workout on Sunday.

While I'm trying to write this I'm watching UAlbany vs UMBC lacrosse. The Danes have not had a good season after a great start.

Spent an hour spinning for a warm up. Really felt tired this afternoon, but felt energized leaving the gym. I don't think I'll ever be able to stay for an entire class Jamie leads. She really has no clue what to do on a bike.

Kettlebell warm up was 3 rounds of 10 ball slams/air squats.

Long workout next was 5 rounds of:
5x 1 arm swing R,
5x clean & press R,
5x front squat R,
5x snatch R,
5 goblet squats,
5x 1 arm swing L,
5x clean & press L,
5x front squat L,
5x snatch L
5 goblet squats

Yeah.

A few rounds holding 2 bells racked tensing legs,glutes & back.
10 swings/10 breaths, 10 swings/9 breaths

Spring training is on

Felt fairly tired this morning and am still wheezing a little bit from sucking cold air on yesterday's ride. I was so damn happy to get a Starbuck's in my hand and sit down to breakfast in the local diner.

As promised, the weather absolutely sucks today so I went to the gym to get a recovery ride in. I barely managed to simply sit in the saddle on not fall over for a few minutes but eventually warmed up and did some real work without overdoing. Finished with about an hour of mostly easy spinning with a few easy out-of-the-saddle efforts. Jim showed up as I was finishing on the spin bike, and I followed that up with 25 minutes on the rower, 21 hard and 4 easy, 4k/4.5k.

Nothing left for the weight room.

short climbing route by fleshbroiler at Garmin Connect - Details

Sunny, windy and chilly day today but the next 6 are supposed to be gray, rainy and dismal so it had to suffice. I stopped by Jim's place to drag him along and we headed out to Guilderland to find a good staging point. We parked at the Capital Care offices on the corner of Carman Rd and Old State Rd and headed out.

In short, lots of wind. I forgot how much cold air tears my lungs up. I was slow as hell today (15.1 avg speed over 21.2 miles) and my power was on the low side (sort of) 161 watts avg, 200 NP. 817 kj expended. Shit I better lose weight...

Jim was great, really strong. He sprinted off for about a mile and if he hadn't backed off I wouldn't have seen him again. The hills were ass-kickers, I hope Jim enjoyed them.

I called Saris about the dead HR channel and its most likely the strap. Certainly was not working today which is too bad because I'm curious what the pump was turning to get up to the top of Old State.

Now its 10:30 pm and I can't stop thinking about breakfast tomorrow.

Untitled by fleshbroiler at Garmin Connect - Details

I have not been back out on the road since Saturday because I am a weenie. There, got that out of the way. Too windy, too cold, too dark. Uggh. Today the sun is shining and it may get to 60 so I better make it happen today. The next 6 days are supposed to be miserably cold and rainy.

And now, the week in review.

Tuesday yoga was hot as hell, really good workout.

Wednesday morning BodyPump was also really good, in fact, it was over before I was ready for it to be over. Found the ab track a little weak which is weird because it was primarily planks, and I like those. Did face down on the elbows, up to one side, back to center and the other side. Finished with crunches.

I only used 25kg for the squat track and this one had a ton of singles with very few bottom half reps. Barely finished and my back was hurting by the end. Used the same weight for the chest track and 30 kg for the back/glutes/ham track. Anyway, all around it was a good workout.

Thursday: Kettlebells followed by spinning.

Warm up was 4 rounds 25 swings (53#) then 200 yd run, then on the workout.

[1] Ladder from 5 to 10, clean and squat R/L (35#), 15 swings between rungs (53#).

[2] Ladder from 5 to 10, clean and press R/L (35#), 15 swings between rungs (53#).

Tried some bottoms up. 35# R, 25# L.

[3] 15 seconds work, 15 seconds rest of snatches (35#) for 8 minutes.

Then spin, felt ok, not super strong or super spent.

Felt pretty cooked on Sunday and I skipped yoga class in favor of an easy recovery ride in the afternoon. The only problem is, the weather turned sour and I didn't get out. I did spend several quality hours in front of the 58 inch plasma playing Gran Turismo 5 and watched the entire Paris-Roubaix coverage.

Today I spent about an hour on the spinner as a warm up with a couple intervals to wake me up, and I needed that bad. Started the kb workout with 300 swings with as many as possible in a row. Every time you put the bell down you needed to do 5 burpees. I really despise those so I wanted to do as many as possible straight through. Using a 35# for the whole thing, I did 240 straight in the 1st set and the remaining 60 in a 2nd set so I only had to do 5 burpees. Go me.

It started raining so we dragged the bells inside to continue.

2nd workout was a ladder from 5 to 10 of clean and presses, right and left.

3rd was 5 rounds of 5 reps R/L swing,snatch,press squat.

Good workout, hard.

I ordered a 20kg bell on Saturday from AgainFaster.com, it'll be here tomorrow. Looking forward to doing high pulls and snatches with that baby.

It finally got warm enough for me to haul my sissy ass out for a bike ride. My short out and back route is now permanently .2 miles shorter thanks to the local grocery kingpin. The town gratuitously kissed his ass and re-routed traffic to make life easier for the guys that drive the hordes of tyson chicken-hauling tractor trailers into his warehouse, but I digress.

I reckon all my landmarks are 40 seconds closer now. I hit the turnaround at about 30 minutes which is still pretty quick. I lost some time on the inbound leg and I'll blame it on some headwind. The whole ride was a hurtfest but worth it. Interesting note. The saddle and crankarms felt weird as hell after spinning a damn 70lb fixed flywheel for the last 5 months.

I dumped my ride data as soon as I got in the door and it made me pretty happy. 186 watts average for the ride, 207 watts NP. 20 minute average was 199w, 212 NP. For some reason I have no HR channel, I'll have to look over the setup instructions.

Went over to the gym afterward for a little recovery and weights. Did ~25 minutes on a rower and then some dips and squats with Jim.

Tuesday night's yoga class was a blast. We spent a lot of time with weight on the arms and getting up and down. Built up a lot of heat!

Typical to history, I got about 5.5 hours of sleep for Wednesday morning and it took a lot to get out of bed for BodyPump. I stuck with my usual warm up weight. For the squat track I went up to 30kg in plates and I would up cheating on some reps. I also went up for the chest track to 25kg which was very tough. The back/glute/ham track was a challenge at this weight as well. Overall the session was hard and it felt good to work hard and be sore all day.

Got 8 hrs of sleep last night and only felt a little tired by the end of the workday. Ran late and got only 5 minutes of warm up before kettlebell class.

Kb warm up was run a lap, side stepovers for lap, which I skipped, so I did jumping jacks. Finished with 2 laps of farmer's walk with a partner. Shared the carry with Art (2x53#)

1st set was 6 rounds of 50 swings/50 rope skips. Used a 53# bell but only got started on round 5 before we moved on.

2nd set was a partner workout, stayed paired with Art. Alternated between a double waiter's hold with 35s and 10 to 1 snatches, R&L. Felt strong throughout. Viv told me my snatches are looking good.

Last workout was 1 to 10 burpee-deadlifts. Ouch. The pushups beat me up. Last set was shitty.

Finished the night on the spin bike. Felt strong. Finished the work with 5 minutes out of the saddle at a good cadence.

The weather forecast is promising and I'm predicting some mileage in the next week.

and then there was rain...

Still no decent riding weather, dammit. The 7 day forecast calls for nothing but lousy weather too.

Last week summary: Hard workouts, lousy recovery, so-so diet.
Took Friday off, yoga only on Tuesday. Weights and 75 minute spin on Saturday, yoga only on Sunday.

Tonight, 75 minute spin for a warm up, 5 minute out of the saddle effort. Felt pretty good, never felt like I was pushing hard enough.

Kettlebell class was good, very hard, but very good. Warm up was 3 sets of 100 swings, 30 second rest, 10 snatches R & L, then a 60 second rest. Was able to do the first 2 sets of swings all the way through, but rested twice during the last set. The snatches were easy.

Snatch workout;
1 minute of: 1H swing, snatch, exchange, 1H swing, snatch, exchange.
1 minute of snatch, exchange, snatch, exchange.
1 minute of 10 snatches, exchange, 10 snatches, exchange.
1 minute of: 1H swing, snatch, exchange, 1H swing, snatch, exchange.

Viv introduced us to power swings. 1 rep with a heavy bell. Start with the bell on the floor, hike into position and snap the hips into place. Kill the downswing and place the bell back on the floor. Start again from here, or let go and stand up first. Powerswings for 1 minute then switch with your partner. Hold two bells overhead for 1 minute.

Finished with 8 tabata rounds of goblet squats.

Shye wants to put together a team to ride the Tour de Cure. I've kind of wanted to do that for a while, so I'm looking forward to that. Shye also asked about cyclocross. Doing some 'cross races this fall sounds cool. Better lose the rest of this ballast first.