Sunday, January 9, 2011

Pics from today's run 'n' stuff









Few pics from the run today. Got in some good time in the snowy woods with Lucky and then hopped on the trainer at home. I'm amazed at my current fondness for the indoor cycling sessions recently. For the past year you couldn't pay me enough to even spend 5 minutes on a trainer. I'd dodge it at all costs and even purchased specific bikes to ride in crappy weather. Funny though because two things have now happened. One, I've realized that bikes are meant to be ridden, and I ride just about all my bikes in whatever weather shows itself. (That isn't to say that I shy away from riding my better bikes through stuff like rock salt when it snows-it takes forever to clean that stuff out of every nook and cranny-but I don't worry so much about "ruining" my bikes in the rain or snow. That's just stupid talk) And two, I think that since I've become more of a "cyclist" by venturing into more cycling desciplines (i.e. 'cross, mountain biking, and perhaps road racing), I can see the importance of very precise and dedicated workouts on the trainer. Maybe it's also just a natural maturation that takes place within endurance sports where you actually learn about training and what it takes to get better.
For part of today's trainer ride (mostly to break things up a bit), I encorporated some speed skill cadence drills. Every 5 minutes I would max out my cadence (without bouncing and with low resistance) for 30 seconds. The first few reps didn't get me up to high, but by the end I was maxing out at 211 rpm. Very happy with this. And while this is really only 30 seconds of effort every 5 minutes, by the end of an hour of doing this, your ass is really kicked-IF you're giving it your best effort for each 30 seconds.
All in all a pretty good day and a nice ending to a decent weekend of training. I think I'm most looking forward to getting back into the gym this coming week and pushing the weight pile. I'm really happy with the benefits it's given me thus far.

4 comments:

  1. 211 revs... holy crap. That's BMX level shit. Nice! My legs would fly off at that cadence. I always incorporate off the bike work like wall sits during trainer rides. Step ups between intervals are also good, very cycling specific strength work plus it breaks up a ride. Also crap loads of standing which changes muscle recruitment.

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  2. Yeah man, 211rpm was no joke. Couldn't hold it for more than 20-25 secs, but that was my max in the end. Step ups rock! I had been doing some sessions with spinning and squats (that will be coming back in to my training next week), but I'll certainly be sure to add in some step ups along with the trainer. Just so happens that I have a set of stairs right next to where I park my bike on the trainer. The wall sits must be brutal-I'll have to try that too!

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  3. Ya, my Computrainer is next to our stairs too, perfect. The wallsits I do free standing so I don't use a wall and I would bet your squat form is perfect so you wouldn't need the wall either (far more 'core' activation). Get low! During a hard session a ~2:00 wall sit is agony! I love it! I think it teaches mental discipline.

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  4. Yeah, freestanding is the way to go-if you can do it correctly. 2 mins is a looooong time too!:)

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