GordyBlog

Triathlon Training, day 120

Cycling Field Test
Instructions

Bike Field Test….warm up well then 3 miles steady full out to get max hr and avg hr. take 10 minutes endurance break and then repeat.

I ended up doing this indoors using my Tacx Flow ergotrainer because it was cold and raining outside. Here are the splits:

Ted Nugent on Gun Control

A friend of mine sent me a copy of this video and I subsequently found it also posted on YouTube. It’s not real long and I encourage you to watch the entire video. I do not disagree with anything Ted says in this video.

• Leave a comment... (2)

Triathlon Training, day 117

NROL Strength 1/D (#5)
Did this workout fairly early over at Lifetime Fitness.
Details

Duration: 01:02
WU x 00:10 elliptical
WT x 00:48
ST x 00:05
Sets:
1. AS1-chin up: 6, 3, 6, 1, 7
2. AS1-BB shoulder press: 6/75, 2/95, 7/75, 1/95, 1/65
3. AS2-DB bench press: 8/50, 10/50
4. AS2-wide grip cable seated row: 8/90, 9/90
5. SS1-lower body Russian twist: 10, 10
6. SS1-DB curl (left arm): 10/25, 10/25
7. SS1-DB tri extension (left arm): 10/25, 10/25

BRICK
Bike Details

Duration: 01:48
Distance: 30.56 mi

Run Details

Duration: 00:29
Distance: 3.02 mi

I was so cold when I got off the bike I fell over in the front yard. I couldn’t get my fingers to close and so had a hell of a time getting the bike shoes off and the running shoes on and then tying shoe laces!

Weekly Summary

• Leave a comment... (0)

Office Fitness

I read an article in the NY Times called Too Much Sitting Shortens Lives, Study Suggests. Let’s face it, people were designed to move. I already have a timer set on my work computer that reminds me to get up and walk around for a bit every hour. But then I saw something even better!

There is a device called a Trekmill Desk from a company called TrekDesk. This thing looks great! You can set the generous workspace height to whatever is comfortable for you. You will also need to get a treadmill. I did some searching on Amazon and found several very highly rated models in the $800-$1000 price range.

So figure about $1500 for the entire setup.

Triathlon Training, day 113

Cycling – Spinning Class at LTF
Details

Duration: 01:00
Distance: 20 mi (estimated)

• Leave a comment... (0)

Triathlon Training, day 110

Strength Training – NROL Strength 1/B (#5)

WU x 00:10 Elliptical
WT x 01:08, Sets:
1. bench press: 6/115, 1/135, 6/125, 2/145, 14/115
2. BB bent-over rows: 6/125, 2/140, 6/125, 2/140, 13/95
3. AS1-close grip lat pulldown (Cybex): 6/130, 9/130
4. AS1-DB shoulder press: 8/35, 8/35
5. SS1-lower body Russian twist: 10/BW, 10/BW
6. SS1- DB curl (left arm only): 10/25, 10/25
7. SS1- DB tricep extension (left arm only): 10/25, 10/25
ST x 00:05

BRICK
Cycling
Was very windy!

Duration: 01:32
Distance: 25.45 mi

Running

Duration: 00:51
Distance: 5.02 mi

Weekly Summary

• Leave a comment... (0)

Triathlon Training, day 70

Today’s workout was a Bike-Run (BRICK).
Cycling
Description

Bike 1 hour endurance

Details

Duration: 01:03
Distance: 16.34


Run
Description

Run 2 miles at tempo after legs have switched over

Details

Duration: 00:31
Distance: 3.02 mi


• Leave a comment... (0)

Triathlon Training – day 63

BRick
Description

Bike 1 hour endurance
Run 2 miles at tempo after legs have switched over

Details

Cycling
Duration: 01:07
Distance: 18.16 mi
Transition
Duration: 01:31
Running
Duration: 00:20
Distance: 2.04 mi


• Leave a comment... (0)

Triathlon Training – day 40

Morning – Spinning Class

This was the regular 05:15 AM class at Lifetime Fitness. I had to bug out a bit early. Was trying to get home before Mikie had to leave for Pasadena.

Lunch – Strength Training
Coach said just to do upper-body today. I’ve got the 25K Rocky Raccoon Trail run up in Huntsville State Park.
Details

Duration: 00:35
Sets:
1. DB bench press - 25x10; 45x10,12
2. seated lat pulldown - 105x10; 120x10,11
3. ab with twist, decline - BWx20,20,30
4. DB shoulder press - 25x10; 30x10; 35x5
5. BB bent-over row - 115x5; 95x8, 10


Parallels 5 Rocks!

I purchased and installed the Parallels 5 upgrade for my Mac a couple of days ago. Those of you who know me are aware that I am no fan of any Windows operating system (although 7 is looking interesting), but that I occasionally have to run it because there are a couple of niche programs that I have whose developer’s have yet to provide a Mac version.

One in particular is the Polar desktop application that is needed to upload data from my Polar heart rate monitor to the computer.

Well I’ve been using Parallels to run my Windows XP partition on the Mac for some time now. It works, but it’s been kind of slow and also there have been issues with certain peripherals. Give you an example of the second point. Sometimes when I plug in the USB infra-red data transfer device that interfaces with the Polar HRM, XP wouldn’t recognize it. My work-around was to just start-up the Add/Remove hardware control panel. Just had to get it to the second screen and then I could quit it.

Well after installing Parallels version 5 I have noticed that (1) it’s MUCH faster and (2) it seems to recognize the IR interface reliably. Good job Parallels!!!

• Leave a comment... (0)

Triathlon Training – day 35

Cycling – Field Test
Description

Ride at maximum sustainability over 3 miles (dont start hard and burn out before 3 miles done). Should be on course that you can retest on later in training - try to keep all elements the same each time - weather, time, fatigue, course, bike, etc. This 3 mile test should be done TWICE with a rest of at least 15:00 between each. Ride outside somewhere that you can repeat this test again when we need to check zones. warm up, do the test, capture the data and then continue to ride at endurance for a total of 1:30; cadence on ride should be 85-110

Details

Duration: 01:38
Distance: 26.44 mi
Energy: 1454 kcal

Splits

• Leave a comment... (0)

Triathlon Training – day 31

Cycling – Force Reps
Description
BT: On flat road or on a trainer. Use the big chain ring and a gear that allows only about 50-60 rpm. While in the saddle drive the pedals down as hard as possible for 15-20 revolutions of the cranks. Do 6-10 of these starting a new one every 3-5 minutes after warming up. Heart rate is not observed.
Details
I didn’t get to do this until after work. Was already dark and it was raining on and off the whole time. A bit freaky but otherwise OK.

Duration: 00:54
Distance: 12.82 mi
Energy: 789 kcal


• Leave a comment... (0)

2009 Houston Half Marathon

This was my first race, ever, and it went great. I was worried about problems with my left knee but that held together pretty well. I had the alarm clock set to go off at 03:30 this morning but I actually woke up on my own 30 minutes before that. So I had plenty of time to feed the dogs, cats, parrots and myself (fed the fish when I got back), and get down to Allen Parkway about an hour before the race started.

The Kingwood Fit group had a tent very close to the starting area and were kind enough to have someone posted there so we could leave our drop-bags and not worry about them.

It took about 3 minutes from the time the starting gun sounded to when I got across the starting line. I had foolishly started my Garmin timer as soon as the gun went off instead of waiting until we got to the starting line. Oops! Also, I think in using the little foot pod I may have some setting mixed up because even after uploading my data I do not see the route. Not that it would be a very interesting one … just three laps along Allen Pkwy.

Anyway, I hope that when the chip times are posted I will find that I finished in a bit under 2 hours. That would please me immensely!

Here is Dewayne, Stephen, and myself all sprawled out after finishing the run:

And, for what it is worth, here are the splits from my Garmin. I’m not sure if the paces and speeds are accurate as the Garmin may have been taking them from the foot pod and not the GPS. I say this because I vaguely remember it asking me something about the pod, shortly after starting the timer. It was pretty dark and I couldn’t really read what it said. But I may have told it to use the data from the foot pod (which is not calibrated) instead of the GPS… live and learn!

Update – I have the official times from the race web site:

Triathlon Training – day 28

Cycling – Pedaling skills
Description
Ride in the HR 1-2 zones on a mostly flat course (or indoor trainer). Include pedaling drills such as: a) try to drive pedal straight forward from 9 to 3 o'clock, b) pedal with foot against the top inside of your shoe trying to avoid touching the insole, c) try to touch toes to end of your shoes at top of downstroke. Stay as relaxed as you can while doing these drills. No tension in feet, legs, hands, etc.
Details

Duration: 01:34
Distance: 22.74
Average Speed: 14.6 mi/hr
Energy: 1378 kcal


• Leave a comment... (0)