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Friday, October 28, 2005

Oh Yeah, The Gym Hurts -- Log

So i'm now on a 'real' training plan! Previously i'd just wing it, doing regular training rides maintaining a certain heart-rate, and throwing in odd excercises, but now i'm on a schedule.. Just about finished the first week..details below. (Mondays and Fridays are now my days off, i'll prolly try to update this those days now..)

If any of you are familiar with the Carmichael Training Systems, i'm on the "5 Day Advanced" program - woot! Since i'm aiming for a event in December, i'll be peaking then, and then rebuilding for the Provincials next June.

I've started going to the gym again too, and reminded myself of all the muscles you use in the various lifts that *don't* get used on-bike..! And that was just with light weight / high reps..! I'll be hitting the gym twice a week too.

I gotta wonder tho..obviously i wasn't straining the muscles i ride with, more like the stabilizers, etc.. Don't you end up gaining a bunch of unwanted muscle with these things..?

I've also been trying out the new Vega bars, and they're quite nice to eat on-bike. They're moist, and go down quickly and easily, and sit well in the stomach. A little higher in fat (Omega 3's tho) and protein than i generally want in an energy bar, but it feels good so far.. =)

I'm also moving into the new Vegan House in a couple days, found a nice 5bdrm house, but still am short on people..! If you know any vegan-friendly people in Victoria looking for a place, please lemme know!!

Let's crank up the history machine:
Mon (Oct 17th) - rest day!

Tue - 3hr EM ride, threw in a few sprints, fartliks, etc..

Wed - 2hr RR with a friend

Thu - 2hr EM, did the Up & Over for the first time in a while..everything is so much easier to ride now! These places used to kick my ass, now i cruise along quite happily.

Fri - Rest day

Sat - 3.5hr EM, went out with Sarah and Kevin, rode out through Metchosin, and to the end of Silver Spray, which was quite beautiful. Lots of hills tho...

Sun - 2.5hr BSide, last 'unfocused' ride for a while....now everything has a purpose....

Mon (Oct 24th) - First rest day in my new schedule..hehe..

Tue - 2hr EM + 6x3m PI (Power Intervals), PI's are all-out efforts, hard as you can go! 1:1 recovery time.. These were rather painful! I also had to cut most of them short, as i ran into intersections or construction..

I made a really neat discovery with these tho, after about 1min, i'd feel *really* gross...stomach turning, lungs aching, everything is totally 'off'...then by the 1:30 or so, it'd start to dissipate and i'd start to feel alright (tho not comfortable) and could maintain that. I believe that's where your body runs out of anaerobic ability, and kicks over to aerobic..there's a noticable loss in power there too.. This will be a helpful excercise for Pursuits. (And Kilo's, if i ever do them again. ;)

In the evening i also went to the gym, did a bunch of light-weight high-rep stuff, to familiarize my body with the motions again.

Wed - 1hr EM, legs were not happy from the gym

Thu - 2hr EM + 6x3m PI, legs still not happy, had a bit of trouble keeping my HR up. It would drop *very* quickly if i let the pressure off...very interesting.

The PI's didn't feel particularly effective, tho i found a stretch that allowed me to do them the full 3mins without interruption. My legs had *no* power, and tho i was pushing as hard as i could, i only hit 180bpm as my max HR, and during the PI's i was down in the 170-175 range (where last time i was well over 180 for them.) I'm guessing this won't be as much of an issue once i'm more accustomed to the leg workouts again.

Also went to the gym in the evening, more high-rep acclimatization.

Fri - Rest day, thank the Bejesuses...
For the weekend i've got a 2.5hr EM w/60min RS (Race Simulation), will likely jump into the BSide ride for that. Sunday has a 2hr EM...might have to skip it to move tho, will see..

Next week has more PI's on Tues and then High Speed Sprints on Thu, otherwise fairly similar to this week.

Here's what i've been listening to:



Had a Pixies marathon for the last week (all Pixies!), but now have a fun, high-energy mix. Will likely take Ween out tho, too many slow songs:
* Electric Six - Fire - 03
* Gay Dad - Leisure Noise - 00
* Ima Robot - ST - 03
* New Pornographers - Mass Romantic - 00
* Pavement - Terror Twilight - 99
* The Postal Service - Give Up - 03
* Ween - Quebec - 03
(These are the albums currently in my Creative MuVo, 512mb MP3 player. I just set it to 'random' and soak up the tunes on my rides.. The MuVo is thebest flash-based MP3 player on the planet, btw! Click here for my top riding/training albums.)

2 Comments:

At Sunday, October 30, 2005 6:20:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I've heard of the CTS programs... i always found it slightly amusing that they have funky copyrighted names for some drills ("EnduranceMiles tm")

I think with weights, you build up a lot of muscle you do and don't need, and once you start riding more and stop lifting, what you don't need will go away, leaving you with tons of strength where you need it.

 
At Sunday, October 30, 2005 1:25:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I have to disagree with the last post. The muscles in your body are used like a system and help to compliment each and every other muscle. When you walk or move or anything else you do you use every muscle in your leg to help you do several different types of motion. Some are to help move you forward, some may be used to keep you upright and to assist other muscles in doing their job. By strenghtening all the muscles in your legs, though you may mostly only use a few major muscles, will inturn help balance out the other's and prevent injury. I'm not saying that you should just focus on making every muscle equally as strong but when it comes time to race and you're riding more often than doing gym sessions you should be focusing a little more attention to balancing out the "little guys". It's the same scenario with working on core muscles. You may have strong arms and legs but you're no good if you have a weak back. It's just like the term "you're only as strong as the weakest link".

 

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Name:
Dave Shishkoff
aka Dave Noisy
Location:
Victoria, BC
Canada

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