10-Hour Snooze

Training for an endurance event can eventually take its toll on old bones and saggy muscles. Well, even young bones and muscles for that matter can feel the pressure after a while. Yesterday was one of those "I can't do this" days. The plan said 2.5 hours on the mountain bike on the road with a 5 minute warm up at 85%, then 1 minute rest, then go all out at race pace for 12 minutes. This was the same routine Donna and I did last week. The 12 minute ditty was an effort for me last week, but all in all the ride felt great before and after. Even the weekend went ok after that session. Yesterday, however, was a completely different story after a week of 2-3 interval sessions at a higher than normal heart rate. The weather was perfect for a road ride on a mountain bike with calm winds and temps hovering around 37. The ride started ok and I felt ok, but when I ramped up the heart rate the holy-shit-this-hurts affect started. I said, "Oh Buck up, damn it, and just do it." I pushed through it watching every minute on my watch waiting for the 12 minutes to end. It was sheer torture. After that, it was a struggle to get home and when the watch hit 2:29 I was pulling up to the garage door. The real story is always told by how I sleep. I can't recall the last time I slept 10 hours. 3:30 or 4:00 am is usually wide-eyed time, but not Sunday morning. I didn't wake up until 6:00 am -- exactly 10 hours after I shut my eyes. One thing I learned is that you often don't know how tired you are until you get on your bike and try it again the next day. So today, I'll do just that and see how I feel. I may be home in 20 minutes cutting back the raspberry canes (I'll do that anyway today). The alternate workout for today is a big fat OFF, which may also be on tap if I don't perk up in a couple hours. Fatigue and overreaching is something the endurance athlete has to be on the lookout for, and know when to recognize it. When you see it, take a break. Starting tomorrow, a week-long break is on tap and Coach Eatough knew exactly when to build those into the plan and boy am I grateful. Thank you Chris!

You Know You're Big Time When You're In Wikipedia

The Transylvania Epic folks recently posted in Facebook that Jacquie Phelan is coming to the TSE and is looking for a team. WHAT!??? Legendary Jacquie Phelan? Holy shit. She's a phenom -- an icon in women's mountain biking history - and she's coming to Central PA? I'm not sure how many icons I can take. Rebecca Rusch. Sue Haywood. Selene Yeager. And now Jacquie Phelan. When I started mountain biking in 2000, my first "jersey" was a light blue cotton t-shirt. What did I know. I just wanted to ride my brand spanking new kale colored Cannondale and I didn't even know there were special clothes to wear on it. I bought the bike in the fall, and over the winter I started perusing bike catalogs and websites and realized, gee, I should be wearing that fancy special fabric all those biker-types wear. And one of the very first jerseys I bought was from this cool website called WOMBATS which stood for Women's Mountain Bike and Tea Society which was started by, you guessed it, Jacquie Phelan. At the time, reading a little more about her, I realized she was a co-founder of NORBA in 1983 and a legend in her own right. She raced and won races and was GOOD! Time got away from me and I sort of forgot about Jacquie until now. Today, she's even got an entry in Wikipedia! She's right up there with Lance. I'm humbled.

Tired!

Last week's training was focused on "Top End Power" and this week is labeled "Transition to Race Season" with many of the workouts similar to last week. Time in the saddle is reduced to 9 hours, but the time is what a prior Team sponsor called "quality" time. That sponsor was Tim Cusick, and he and his side-kick and female athlete extraordinaire, Kathy Watts, are now both coaches (and hosting a training camp for Peaks Coaching this year in California) and I now totally understand what he meant by quality time. Quality time, in Tim's world, is intervals, sprints, tracking power output in watts, etc. All that "stuff" that serious competitors always, always use in their training. If I'm not mistaken, road racers and time trialers are constantly doing this type of training and not as much endurance. Mountain bikers, in my opinion, don't need quite as many sprints built into their training plans and thank god the Eatough plans don't have too many intervals -- except for last week and this. There's one interval session that I've grown to like because of the convenience of doing it next to my house and getting a really good workout. I call it "good" because the next day I'm whooped and beat. If the training pushes you and you feel it the next day, something's working, and I label it a good workout. Tuesday's plan said "If you trained properly on the weekend, you still need this day for full recovery." We did and I did. Last Friday Donna and I did a little 12-minute ditty going at race pace inside our 2.5 hour road ride on mountain bikes. Ouch. Saturday was the hill interval thingy, and Sunday I just kinda lazed up and down the side of a mountain 2 times. Monday was off, and I was tired yet on Tuesday and did the Alternative option of an easy spin on the trainer for 45 minutes. Last night was the 10 x 2 (I do three minutes just cause I need a minute to get my HR in the range) at 85% heart rate with 1 minute at 60% in between. They seem easy enough while doing them, but damn do they tucker me out the next day. Yes, today my arse is dragging. I'll push through tonight's "exploding" workout (Standing starts: 4 x 1 minute "getting all the power you can out of your body.") Tonight's workout is painful and I'll be screaming. But the reward will be a nice, warm piece of vegan chocolate cake. Yummmmmm...

Ice, Ice, Baby

Had full intentions today of riding 3ish hours on the Rattling Creek Trails in Weiser State Forest, central PA, and the riding came to a screeching halt - literally - when I fell 4 times on ice and ended up trudging through 6ish inches of snow in all the low, shady spots on the trails. I ended up bagging it after an hour, climbed the hard top road to the top of the mountain and down the other side, back up and down to the van, then home to the trainer for an hour to get my time in. Barf. Crap of a day. Rick was at the YMCA. I can't wait for it to get warm and have clear trails again. Heck, I'd even take freezing temps as long as the trails are clear. One more week doing the winter training plan and next Sunday calls for a race somewhere. Hmmm... a race on February. Will have to do a search.

Training Like a Pro. Really?

Yup... even FIT CHICK uses Chris Eatough! So, yeh - we're training like Pros! No, not really; but, its fun to think we are. But the training us mere mortals typically don't do here in Central PA is the traveling to a locale closer to the equator. At least four of me/Donna's female competitors at the Transylvania Epic have trained or will be training south of the border. If it's not Arizona, they will be enjoying warm temps and riding somewhere equally exotic. Sue Haywood has been in Sedona AZ since January sometime. Amanda Carey is heading to Tuscon AZ for two solid months after spending a week or two in Maui. Sonya Looney will be sponsoring a camp in Sedona later in the spring. And while it ain't Arizona, it's equally awesome -- Rebecca Rusch is currently in Argentina and Fit Chick (Selene Yeager), (who doesn't claim to be a pro by the way), spent three days in Puerto Rico. And us desk job working stiffs? Well, we make do with what we have in Central PA - something that fits into our hectic weekend schedules of tending to family, home, cooking and hubbies. For me, that was something like riding up and down the 3-minute hill next to my house 10 times yesterday at a nice comfy heart rate of 155-160. I'm sure Violet (elderly neighbor) was peering out her window thinking, "oh dear." It was cold and windy, I had to be ready to head north with Ricky to a kayak rolling session by 2:00, and I was feeling tired from the day before so I opted to stay as close to home as possible. The plan called for 10x 2 minutes at 85% heart rate on a hill, spinning at 60% in between each effort. The hill at my house is actually a 5-minute hill from top to bottom. I ended up doing a minute to get into the 85% zone, two minutes at that effort, then coasting back down for a minute. It was perfect. Ten times up and down that baby and I wasn't tired, cold, nor minding the wind anymore. It's amazing once you BUCK UP and do it how glad you are you did and how good it makes you feel. We then went and rolled our boats for two hours and ate at an awesome restaurant that caters to local farmers, Emmas Food for Life. Great day. Can't wait to ride Weiser state forest today. Will give you an update on that too. Toodles!

Friday Afternoon Delight

I can't recall ever riding with anyone but Rick or myself on my beloved back roads around my house -- until yesterday. Donna made the trek north to the hinderlands to do a little 2.5 hr road ride on our mountain bikes. It was a beautiful, 60ish degree day that we couldn't let slip by. On tap for the ride, was a 5 minute stint at 85% HR, ez spin for a minute, then all-out race pace/time trial effort for 12 minutes. We were bucking a semi-decent headwind to start out, so my planned route was altered to get a break from the headwind. After about a 30 minute warm-up, off we went into time trial mode. I am NOT used to that kind of effort and seriously have to start bucking up now that spring is here and we can get out. It was kinda hard for me. My heart rate was hanging around 170-174 the entire 12 minutes and I can tell it was hard on me because today I feel near dead. Super-duper tired is an understatement. Donna, on the other hand, seemed fresh and energetic, before, during, and after. Damn youth. She suggested getting in on some road rides to help build my speed. I was never a fan of group road riding. Maybe I'll do a couple, just not sure yet. Although... all the really good cyclists do group road rides in their mix of training. Crap... I'm doomed! Today is windy as hell, but I'm going to get out for a two hour endurance spin on the road and tomorrow I'm checking out Weiser trails and hope to get 3 hrs in of more endurance - probably with some climbing. It was a great afternoon of riding - thanks for coming north Donna.

Last Night's Trainer Session with Mumford and Sons

Thanks to my training pardner', Donna, I was spinning to the beat of the tunes of Mumford and Sons, Sigh No More, last evening. If you saw them perform at the Grammy's you know how awesome they are. If you didn't learn about them here -- they are incredible. You can watch the video here -- its a can't miss. The trainer session was to be a 15 minute warm-up, following by 3x3 @ 80% HR @ 90 rpms with a 2 minute rest between each, 3x3 @ 80% HR @ 80 rpms with a 2 minute rest between each, then 3x3 @ 80% HR @ 70 rpms with a 2 minute rest between each. Then spin easy for the remainder of the 1.5 hr session. I'm one of those people who has to spin to the beat of the songs and when Mumford starts jamming, the legs started spinning with ease. I can't say I followed the above exactly, but I definitley got the 3x90,80, and 70 rpms in, but the HR got a little higher than 80% (more like 90%), and they weren't in any kind of order. Following the beat of the songs, the rpms were more like 71, 69, 82, 89, 69, 85, 91, 82, 79. So they weren't exact! It still worked and I feel awesome today. My weight was even down for a change! Oh yea.... what training - and some good tunes -- does for the bod...