Overdun it a bit...

I got in my disciplined 'rest' day the other day, and that was good.  Yesterday I woke up with a migraine but still pushed myself to do hill reps for 50 minutes on the road bike followed by a light but intense kettlebell workout later in the evening.

The hill reps went fine.  Hard, but fine.  On my new bike I have a compact crank (50 teeth on the big ring and 34 on the small), something I've never used before but am experimenting with.  The original cassette on the bike was a 12-27, something that would have been a bit too 'spinny' for me with even a standard crank, but with the compact it's just way too small.  I got a new 11-23 cassette from a friend and put it on the bike yesterday before the hill reps and it seemed just about right.  I'm still gaining back a lot of my power on the road, but this particular cassette is just about what I want to be on when I'm riding with the compact.  It shifts smoothly and I don't get a lot of gaps inbetween gears.  I'm not a huge math guy, so I can't give out exact ratios and whatnot, I just know that it feels just about right and just about what I'm used to.  

For the kettlbell workout I went with something I'd done last week (see the 1-2-3-4-5 workout I posted last week) but scaled the weight down using two 16 kg bells instead of two 24 kg's.  That's a HUGE difference and allowed me to save some energy and just work on my lungs and heart with that particular workout.  Oh, and while I kept the 1-2-3-4-5 scheme the same, I did do the following changes (kind of on the fly):

Clean

Squat

Jerk

Burpee

Renegade Row

Pull Up

I like throwing the burpee and the pull ups in there to spice things up a bit and 'get away from just holding onto the kettlebells the entire workout.  Part of the reason for doing it while holding the bells the entire time is to work on grip strength, but with only the 16 kgs of bells I used yesterday, I didn't really think it would benefit me much.  Rather, I thought I could work in some other stuff and give the workout a bit more variety.  Seemed to work out well.

I started this post this morning and now, by this evening, I forgot what the hell I was writing about and I'm too lazy to go back and actually read through what I wrote.  Anyway, I finished the day off with a light, recovery-ish ride in the cold.  I've really got the bug back when it comes to road riding, and it's been a great way to not only pursue my fitness and potential racing goals for the upcoming season, but also a wonderful new rediscovery of something that was very important to me.  Yeah, riding mountain bikes will always be my number one, but there's a certain calmness that comes from just turning the cranks and riding in a straight line.  Nothing is more fun than jumps, berms, roots, and rocks, but there's certainly something to be said about the smooth liquidity with which a road bike moves.  The efficiency and the low hum that you get from your tires moving on the pavement.  Again, it won't take over as number 1 in my eye, but it sure is a close second.  Road bike, my friend, it's good to have you back.

The weather tomorrow is going to determine what I'll do for exercise.  The forecast calls for snow overnight and if that's the case it would be great to get out on the mountain bike and hit the trails before it's gone.  I'm not a HUGE fan of the snow, but riding in 2 inches of fresh powder is super fun-just as long as it doesn't turn to slush and mud.  Either way, I'll find a way to ride or lift.  Gonna be a good weekend.

I did it!

Not exactly the groundbreaking "I did it!" as in finished a specific race, or achieved some amazing goal, but I did manage to stick to my plan and actually REST yesterday instead of training myself further into the hole of being dead tired.  I even got to bed a bit earlier than the last few nights, so I guess that's the cherry on top of everything.

Today is going to be played by ear.  The temps are super low here and have been for the last couple days, so it's going to be tough to harness the motivation to get out on the bike-either road or mountain.  If I am to ride I'm leaning a bit more toward the road, but only because it's "new" to me again and I'm enjoying something a bit different.  

I woke up today with what I think is a migraine I had in my sleep last night.  It's one of those "grab you on the side of the head" type of headaches that hurts only with sudden movement or exertion.  Coffee's helped a bit, but I think if I can get a chance to get out into some fresh air and move my legs a bit I might be feeling better.

If I do opt for some gym work, it'll probably be a light kettlebell session.  I've been lifting quite heavy of late with the 'bells, and while it's making me into a beast, it's also breaking down my body a bit more than I'd like.  I deadlifted very heavy this past Saturday and I can still feel it-not in pain or injury, but rather in a shock to my central nervous system.  Today I think is the first day I'm fully recovered and I don't want to push any buttons to slow down my strength building process.  

Regardless of the type of exercise or "training" I do today, there will be some physical movement involved with this body today.  Maybe a sub-freezing ride on the cold roads is just what I need right now to get my motor going.  We'll see.

Rest

I'm gonna rest today.  I swear.  No exercise, not even a "recovery" spin.  Nothing physical other than what I have to to at work and what I've got to do at home.  Chores as they're usually referred.

I read somewhere that rest is over 50% of the puzzle when it comes to training and general fitness.  In my experience, this has been true more times than not.  I, like all athletes, have refused rest, pushed my limits, and often gone overboard with training.  It's not because of some internal need to be better (well, in some cases it might have been), but in thinking about it, the incidence of such overtraining is much more related to the fact that it "feels good".  Yeah, at a point in my life, I had goals-be them weight loss, muscle building, going faster on my bike, etc-but it all comes down to the fact that I feel better after a hard workout, and especially when I'm in a fatigued state.  In my sick head, I don't feel that I'm doing anything relevant, physically, I've I'm not spent by the end of the day.  And the cherry on top is when I'm pleasantly sore the day after a hard weight workout.

As I've shifted my focus more and more into the gym and lifting weights these days, it's easy to get carried away.  As well, the feeling of soreness is easier to achieve, further pushing me through the revolving door of being over trained and under rested.  I'm at the point now where I'm seeing changes in my sleeping patterns because I'm too wired from my workouts to settle into a good night's rest.  I've GOT to work on this and today will be the day.

As I started this post, I HAVE to rest today.  There's no other option.  No easy ride on the rollers and certainly no "fun" and "light" kettlebell session.  This day will be all about healthy eating, sitting when I can, laying down when I can, and even taking a nap if it's possible.  For as hard as I've been pushing my body, I owe it a little bit of a layoff-at least for 24 or so hours.

Motivation

I've found through the years that the more motivated I am in my own training the more I write on this page, the more I finish things I started in my personal life, and overall, the better I feel.  There's something to be said about being organized, and in life, like in sports, the one who's got the most specific plan is usually the one that succeeds.

I decided to throw my hat back into the racing ring.  It's not that I had been pondering it for long hours, or losing sleep over it.  Rather, I got myself a road bike, remembered that I'm not a bad bike rider, and thought, "Why the hell not?"

I'm getting married in the next few months and my beautiful wife-to-be competes as a professional athlete.  In every way, she motivates me to be a better man-a "superhero" in my own movie.  She's awesome on so many levels and athletics is just a small part of that.  Seeing the focus that she brings to her workouts gives me chills.  Laser-like precision would be an understatement.  With that in mind, I decided if I could harness just a bit of that, I might have some success of my own.

It's not wholly that I'm getting back into racing for success.  I want to be competitive again to have a goal, a focus.  I love riding bikes and I love being fit.  Why not combine the two and throw in the objective goal of racing?  Seems to me like a pretty straight shot and one that I've done before.

So what does this all mean?  I don't exactly know but I'm excited.  When I think about my training I get the willies and the tingling excitement that I haven't felt in a long time.  Having a plan is awesome, but having something to shot for (i.e. a race) is even better-at least for me.

So here's to another (my second in a row!) week of being back in training mode.  Let's hope I rock this week just like I rocked the last!

One of the hardest workouts I've done to date

And I'm not kidding.  This was the mother of all "short and painful" workouts.  As I've stated before, I'm not a big fan of crossfit, and I don't condone most of the workouts they put together.  While the following workout is "crossfit-esque" it's much more of a thought out plan, staying strict with movement and keeping the volume low on olympic type lifting.  This is what I did yesterday:

Warm up- Range of motion ballistic movements.  Light kettle bells and light deadlifts.

Main- HEAVY dead lifts for 2 sets of 5 reps.  Plenty of rest taken between sets and form had to be just as good on the last rep as on the first.

Then- 1-2-3-4-5 reps with 2 24kg Kettle Bells of: Clean/Squat/Jerk/Man Makers
      This portion of the workout was done for example, on the 3rd set, 3 cleans, 3 squats, 3 Jerks, 3 man makers.  (1 man maker is a push up on the kettle bells straight into one repition of a row-in push up position-on both arms....*note: a "true" man maker includes a clean and push press/jerk after the rows are completed on each arm)

Then- 2 sets of 10 one arm Kettle Bell snatches on each arm with the 24kg bell.


The thing that made this workout hard was not the heavy dead lifts, but the 1-2-3-4-5 of the clean/squat/jerk/man makers set.  Two 24kg kettlebells get real heavy real quick, but because of the low rep counts, you're able to keep the form good while blowing out your entire body.  At no point in the set was I so fatigued that my form suffered, rather my heart and lungs were screaming out!  This fits my philosophy of training quite well, and it's something that I'll use not only with myself, but with my clients.

This was just one small part of my workout week, but a really important one.  I've been striving to gain strength and the dead lift is my most important tool for doing so.  In the weeks since I've started (about 5 or 6) I've improved drastically and gained back much of the strength I had when I weighed 250 lbs, but without the bulk now at 198lbs.  I plan on riding my bike and racing a bit this summer, so while keeping my weight down isn't the most important thing, it is a big consideration.

As for today, it's a toss up.  The weather is beautiful so I'm thinking a road ride might be in my best interest.  It's going to be cold this coming week so I'd rather spend that time in the woods where it's warm rather than on the windy pavement.  No matter what, though, a ride is going to happen for sure today!

Body Weight Fun!

I've stated this before, but I'm NOT a fan of Crossfit.  I am, however, interested in some of the things they do with bodyweight exercises.

In every way, I LOVE body weight exercise-squats, push ups, pull ups, sit ups, jumps, etc.  You can do anything you want, any way you want, and get a great workout without going to a gym, investing in equipment, or risking injury (more times than not).  In regard to Crossfit, while I'm strongly against many of the "weighted" workouts they do-forcing athletes to perform high volume workouts with exercises that were never meant to include more than 5 repetitions-I am, however, a big fan of what they do with bodyweight exercises.  Using your own body weight to do timed and/or high volume exercise is a great way to push yourself while avoiding serious injury.  Doing timed deadlifts makes you an idiot, but doing timed rounds of push ups, pull ups, sit ups, and the like, makes you tough, hard, and in many ways, a better athlete than the next.

So, in keeping with my beliefs, I did a workout today containing the following:

Warm up:
Playing around with a light kettlebell.  With this, I concentrated on warming up my shoulders, back, legs and chest.  Plenty of ballistic movements to get the blood flowing.
Main:
5 rounds for time of:
5 Pull ups (strict-full extension)
10 Push ups
15 box jumps (24 inch box)
20 sit ups
400 meter run

I've done this one once before.  It's my modification of a Crossfit workout.  I like it because it forces you to use every part of your body in explosive ways, while still challenging you aerobically.  Done correctly, it's not a sprint, but more of a paced session.  I get the same "feeling" from this workout that I'd get from running a hard 5k.  It's difficult if you push yourself, but not so hard that you'll be throwing up.

In the end it took me about 20 minutes to complete which was right about where I wanted to be.  Not too fast, not too slow.  Felt good and tired, but not so much so that I'd ruin the rest of my day being too exhausted to move.

Great workout, great day, and great life.

Back at it

It's been a while since I've had consistent postings here.  I feel like the "blog world" on the internet is declining.  Maybe among some folks it's still super popular, but for me it's been something that I'll get to from time to time, more often forgetting or neglecting to post rather than sit down for 10 minutes to share the experiences from my day.  While I'm not promising that I'll update this blog every day, or even every week, it will remain a place where I share my thoughts and experiences as well as a place to get things off my chest.

With that being said, I had a fairly big event in my life occur yesterday.  No, I didn't get married yet (though that's only month's away at this point!!!), but more simply, I got another road bike.  Back in the Spring of last year, I sold my one and only trusty road bike before I went to stay in Spain with Anne for the summer.  It was a decision I later came to partially regret, not because I didn't get what I felt was appropriate for the bike, but rather because I lost a part of my love for cycling in that sale.  The truth is, I got completely burned out on riding the road, so much to the point that I completely discounted anything road-related.  I started to make fun of "roadies", triathletes, and anyone that wasn't a mountain biker.  Kind of dumb and immature when you look at it, but in the end it was more my own demons coming out than anything anyone else had done to me.  I immersed myself in all aspects of mountain biking-xc, downhill, and most recently dirt jumping and urban riding (think bmx).  Through all this I've realized that I love ALL parts and aspects of riding on two wheels-even road riding.

So it was with all this in my mind that I sold an old mountain bike frame and took the money to buy a decent road bike again.  Is it carbon? No.  Is it top of the range? Not exactly.  What I got was a very nice Cannondale CAAD10 frame with simple Shimano 105 components.  Just what I need to get back into riding the road and get fit again.

I'm not looking to do any road races, but I am dedicated to getting back into racing this coming season. I'll focus mainly on Enduro racing, but perhaps throw in a few 50 mile XC races just for the hell of it.  Anne's races will be the top priority, but if and when I can find something that works inside of her schedule for me, I'll take it.  I'm excited to give racing another go, and after a solid year's layoff, I think it's time to be competitive again.  As a great "blogger friend" once told me, "racing will always be there."  The dude seems to have his head screwed on and so far anything that he's said on his blog or offered me in my comments section has been 100% accurate.  Here's to brining in a great race season for my Fiance and I in 2013!