core | commute

It's going to be a good day.

First – I found this video. How can that not make you smile?

Second – I finally managed to get myself into the gym today and did my core routine. It's been a full week and I know from experience that if I blow it off for more than seven days it is very hard to get going again. Both because by then I am out of the habit and because my core is noticeably weaker.

Third – the morning was brilliant. Blue sky, sun and I only needed two shirts and no layers on my legs to ride to work. For various reasons this is the only day this week that I have managed to commute to work on my bike so that helped lift my mood as well.

Fourth – [Yes, I realize I will sound like a girl saying this...] I stepped on the scale (having not done so in ages) after eating breakfast and was pleasantly surprised. Your mind can play tricks on you when you feel down in the dumps and for better or worse weight is something that affects my mood when I'm already bummed.

Sleep	6
Waking HR
Body Weight	7:00 AM - 178
Body Fat	9
Breakfast	6:45 AM – cereal 10:00 AM – almonds, yogurt, tea
Lunch	11:30 AM – yogurt, 3 pieces Pilot Bread, package of fake turkey meat, 3 pieces string cheese, tea, Stonewall's Jerquee 3:30 PM – tomato/mozzarella/basil skewers, cheese bread, cake, lemonade
Dinner	7:00 PM – bread, cheese, Tofurky, tomatoes, spinach, avocado, water 8:30 PM – milkshake
Workout Food	water
Injuries
Therapy
Time of Day	gym – 5:30 AM
Workout Type
Weather	low 60s, sun, dry, wind
Course	plank 3 min, 2 min each side back extensions 3 x 40 clam knee lifts 100 each leg side leg lifts 80 each leg twisters 40 each side – 12 lb. roman chair knee lifts 3 x 40 push-ups 20 hip abductors 3 x 30 – 100 lb.
Distance	20 miles
Time
Power
Results
Equipment	Town Bike
Clothing

I feel happy of myself!

Pure Gold. This kid needs to go on tour and remind people that, "I'm good enough. I'm smart enough. And doggone it, people like me."

And getting folks excited about cycling is not a bad thing either.

Technorati Tags: learning to ride a bike

Trials of Lance Episode 1: Tour of California Recap

Genius should be recognized. So should this.

Technorati Tags: Lance Armstrong,doping,Levi Leipheimer,Tour of Califormia

trainer

Back-to-back workouts; sometimes it feels right and sometimes it feels disastrous. Today was the former.

Since rain was in the forecast I suggested to some teammates that we hit up Seattle Multisport for a CompuTrainer workout and lucky for me Ryan D, Tim F and Steve O decided to show up.

I'll say it again – I hate riding a trainer alone! So much so that I am barely able to do it at all; maybe once or twice per year. It really sucks.

Not having an agenda for today I was up for whatever kind of workout everyone else wanted. Ryan loaded up a good one that consists of 12 x 1.5 min "peak and fade" intervals. Each interval starts at 100% of your threshold power setting and then fades to 90% by the end of the 1.5 minutes. You start out with a short warm-up, do three intervals with equal rest, then you get a slightly longer rest, do six more, one more slightly longer rest and finally one more set of three.

I started the workout with my threshold power set to 340 watts. It felt rough in the warm-up but after the first interval I felt much better. So much so that I almost increased the watts right away but decided to hold off for a bit – it was probably the right decision.

after six intervals I upped my threshold setting to 350 watts and then after three more intervals I upped it again to 360 watts. Funny how 350 felt fine and 360 felt pretty hard...

It was a super workout. We had Casino Royale on the television and Steve is always good for the non-sequitur quip or biting sarcasm.

Sleep	6
Waking HR
Body Weight
Body Fat
Breakfast	5:00 AM – cereal
Lunch
Dinner
Workout Food	water
Injuries
Therapy
Time of Day	6:00 AM
Workout Type	intervals
Weather
Course	12 x 1.5 min peak and fade intervals
Distance
Time	55 min
Power
Results
Equipment	Road Bike
Clothing

Technorati Tags: Seattle Multisport