Over the Horizon

Joggin' With Skully
Originally uploaded by BottleOfPills.

Week 3

01.15.07 to 01.21.07

Again as I said.. just catching up as that's why this is posted late...

So for this week it was the third week of what from now on shall be called "The Plan".

This is the large week... remember all of that discussion about periodization, building, basing, resting etc??? If not go back and read it.

The large week was to consist of twelve hours of workout time. Most of it is still low to moderate intensity and still in the "Base Period", so I'm working on Endurance and Skills.

Monday started out very tired, but it was Martin Luther King day, and I was determined to make the most of it. That is - I was going to get a fair share of time in today, so that I can coast more through the week.

So started off with a ride around Barkers Ridge to Cooper creek... The weather was warm, but the ground was muddy, so hence the reason to stay on the road. For the record...I could write a book on reasons to not ride in the mud.

Anyhow, the weather was in the 60's for January, so decided to ride longer than planned. Grey skies finally broke with about 20 minutes left (6 miles from the homestead). But the small drizzle actually felt good.

Afterwards, came home, piddled, took a nap, and then decided to finish my workouts for the day. Did a 15 min run, then weights, then some spinning on the trainer for 45 minutes.

Monday's mission accomplished.

Tuesday - this was a rest day.. Started doing some walks at work with co-workers.. So today it was a short walk around town, up to the Farmer's Market in Charleston and back to the office.

Wednsday - got home from work late, and the weather is breaking, so it was cold out, and the lite wasn't charged up... did a small 15 min jog, and then rode on the trainer for an hour and 15 min. Made sure I got some time in the Zone 2 Heart rate.

Interlude:

Heart Rate Zone 2 - Zone two is after zone 1 according to the book. Zone 1 is an easy recovery heart rate - your normal active rate when not working out is included in this. Zone 2 is your starting to work a little bit - the book calls it "Extensive Endurance"... by that it's saying that your still Aerobic - and not working too hard but working. What does Aerobic mean - basically that your body is getting plenty of oxygen to the blood flow.

Back...

I ended up staying in the Z2 for about 20 min.. For me, my computed zone Two is 140 BPM to 152 BPM. (thats Beats Per Minute for those who may be wondering). Anyhow, considered the workout a success.

Thursday - Did get up prior to work at 5:00AM and do a short 30 minute spin on the trainer. Tried to get the HR up, but was not able to.

In the evening, this was another weight day... so did a 15 min run prior to doing my normal weight routine. Nothing much to say except I ran before dinner, and worked out after dinner. Whoopee. After the weight routine, did some 30 min spinning on the trainer. I also walked at work for about 25 minutes. Fairly busy day, but it wasn't too intensive.

Friday - Got home late.. Susan had to work over some.. Did ride outside around McComas Branch and Lower Creek. This was a cold ride, and because of the late start 20 minutes of it was performed in the dark. It's often asked why one rides in the dark when they have a $300+ light at home? When I find the answer I'll let you know. Needed around two hours, so once I got home from this I jumped on the trainer for another 50 minutes.

SPINERVALS - This 50 minute ride was a workout I found from the Spinervals website. Basically a bunch of intervals that ended up kicking my ass - and it had a low intensity rating. I'm going to post this workout when I get a chance but it boils down to 4 sets of two 3 minute intervals, with 60 second recoveries. The sets went something like 3 min at moderate intensity, 60 sec recover, 3 minutes hard intensity, recover, 3 min hard, 3 min mod, mod, hard, hard, mod. You get the drift. Well that kicked my ass, but it really felt like a workout that accomplished something.

Saturday - This is the Photo Day (see above you idiot). The day started off with a run in the morning.. Took the dog to the WVU Cabell County Extension track and did a couple of laps. Nice sunny day, cool and crisp. Came home and worked on the Trek 8500. It needed a new chainring and chain and well the whole drivetrain. So replaced it. Afterwards - took it on a ride around Barkers Ridge. Took some getting used to... but I hope to use this bike for the majority of the road riding now. Again wanted to ride longer outside, but cool and under dressed. So once I finished I once again jumped on the trainer. This was futile, and I only managed 15 minutes.. I think that "Spinerval" workout broke me down some.

Sunday - I'm stupid... plugged in the Guns N Roses video tape and did the spinerval workout from friday again for 1hr.

You know where you are.. your in the jungle baby.. your gonna die...

So how did this week do??? I don't know you be the judge....

Weight 239.5lbs

138 miles on a bike of some sort

7 miles of trotting my fat ass up and down the local roads jogging.

See you soon

Two Down…

Week of 01.08.07 to 01.14.07

Ok so I posted this late… this is all new to me….But let’s get started..

Week two saw me starting off the second phase of the Base I period at about 246lbs…Monday started off tired… but I managed to Run for twenty minutes prior to lifting weights followed by a slow spin on the indoor trainer. Tuesday, felt a little better so prior to work I rode on the trainer for about 45min. That eve came home and originally wanted ride outside.. but it was raining and got home a little late …. So thus started to spin on the trainer some more. This will get old soon.

Wednesday.. ran prior to work at Susan’s. This felt good to do.. This was a rest day, and I think it was well needed as it felt good.. Susan and the kids we all went to the movie to watch a cinematic turd – Happily Never After. Good for kids, but bad for adults.. If it’s not Pixar don’t go watch it.

Thursday…Today was supposed to be weights.. but I won some tickets off the radio for the Comedy Zone, so while I was trotting down Howells Mill Road on my thunderous jog… decided to push the weights back till Friday, and finish this run then do a nice longer ride. So that’s exactly what I did. The normal loop around Barkers Ridge to Lft Fork Cooper Creek. After words….. consider 8 beers at the Funny Bone.

Friday….Run, Weights, and then spinned on the trainer. You know the routine.

Saturday…. Supposed to meet the better half’s parents for lunch around 1ish. Plus it rained today. Rushed home that morning from Susan’s, to get the bike together.. right prior to riding the rain began to hit… Hence the pics…Same ride as yesterday – around Barkers Ridge and Lft Fork of Cooper Crk. Just in the rain. It sucked. This only takes about an hour and a half so, once I finished I jumped on the trainer for an additional 30 min or so to get my planned two hours in. Felt good on the trainer and probably could have ridden more.

Then off to Famous Daves in Charleston for some food. And legal beverages… Of course the legal beverages lead to one and one makes three type of situation. So after returning home it was then off to Ruby Tuesdays for more brewskis and to watch the pigskin on TV while Susan and the girls shopped.

Because of all the Brewski’s, on Sunday at 10 ish, I found myself pedaling to the mall to get my car. For this ride, I had my first IPOD incident. Locked up.. so once I returned home, I spent an hour researching this problem. Simply had to reset it, and this is done by holding down on a couple of buttons. However this must be proprietary info, because it’s a pain to find.

10:41 hours of workout time, 6.6 miles of Jogging, and 94.28 miles of riding.. Most of which was done on a trainer.

Week Two Ended at 243lbs.

Up Hill Struggle

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Originally uploaded by BottleOfPills.

Wow.. one week down. As of this date, it's actually been about a week and a half.

It's not been that bad.. I think the reason for this is that over the past several weeks I've been wanting to finally get back in the saddle. (sorry to coin a phrase) So definitly the newness is a factor in the enjoyment. Plus the weather has been nice and cooperative.

Yes in the first week of January it wasn't too bad, heck great. 60 degree weather isn't too bad.

So this first week I actually plunged gung ho into it and hit it full bore.

First..... The Plan..

A few months ago.. about after the Dirt Derby - 1st Annual, I felt reinvigorated. This may have been due to seeing friends, and seeing a race. Nevertheless I decided that I have to do something. Well of course nothing happened immediatly, but the feeling lingered. So after recieving an email about the upcoming WVMBA season being set it was decided to set a plan.

Basically I agreed with some friends to do the 24 Hours, as explained in the last post, so no bore here. So to help "train" (and I use that term loosely) it's a good idea to do other races. So with this new schedule I picked a few that I would definitley do - Six, and two or three of those I picked that I would want to do well in. Let's call them A Races. The others would be B races, and then of course there's several C races.

A - Do well in.
B - Do
C - Do if you want to, nothing else better to do, etc.

Then break out my dusty copy of the Mountain Bikers Training Diary and follow the authors' regiment (Joel Friel).

The key is periodization... So I'm sure after a couple months of peridizing I'll be ready for a midol. But more seriously, periodizing works like this...

Activity, Activity+, Activity++, rest

Wash, Rinse, Repeat

Obviously there's more to it than that but that's the jest.

So according to the book my first goal is to work on the Base Period.

What is the Base Period you say...Well as far out of shape I am, this is probably the most important phase.

This is where I begin to work on endurance and skills. I've been out of it for awhile, so I really need to work on skills - shit - most of my pals will say that I never had any anyway. Plus it's also to build some strength. Because this period usually takes place in the winter months. A lot of rides will be done on an indoor trainer, weights, etc. Riding on ice will help develop skills. So it has it's advantages. The disadvantages are obvious - freakin' cold.

WEEK 1 250lbs

For this week -

Well this week started off in Florida - St. Augustine. I did manage to run 20 minutes around this quaint little town. Once home on Wednesday, I began watching the diet. Not strictley but for me it is quite a stretch.

Nevertheless, I ended up running 3 more times this first week. Mostly prior to lifting weights - which I did twice. I managed to ride 4 times, most on the trainer, but one ride was a night ride for about 10 miles. The other was a long 2+ hr ride on Saturday prior to my gf's party. All the rides went good and it totalled something like 8 total workout hours, 77 miles of riding, and 6 miles of running. For the record I had planned 8:48 hh:mm, and my actual was 8:28 hh:mm.

WEEK 1 ended at 246lbs

prelude .... to failure???

What am I doing here?

No clue really... just thought it would be neat to keep a slight journal of my record comeback to the wild world of Mountain Bike racing.


Most likely of course it shall be a lesson in Futility.


What got all this started you may ask... Well, a long time ago in a messed up world not so far from where I now stay, I used to race on the local MTB circuit. (from here on out, MTB, will stand for Mountain Biking, Mountain Bike, or some other similiar conotation - so enjoy).


At that point in my life I was about 215lbs, not the leanest, nor the meanest, but fairly competitive for my class - Clydesdale. I'll explain this term some other time. I managed one victory in my several year career before my hibernation, most times I finished in the top 3 in my class by years end, and if not definitly in the top 5. Competed in the 24 Hours of Canaan (Snowshoe, Timberline, whatever it is, as it will always be Canaan to me) several times. Had a lot of fun doing so.


2003


I fell upon hard times... Got a raise, a promotion, new house, semi family, and all the riding took a backseat to my new found HOME LIFE.


Well all that fell apart of course... you've seen it on Friends a 1000 times, guy moves in with girl, girl moves out. Eternal Bliss falls apart.


Enter 2007.


Same house, same money for the most part, new dog, different (BUT BETTER) girl, rusty bike, fat waistline, skyrocketing blood pressure, very little if any riding. My friends don't recognize me, but that doesn't matter because I can't keep up with them. (not that I ever really could but you know)


Basically, I'm a bloated warthog. I've spent the last 4 years basically drinking beer, eating at buffett bars, and not exercising.


Over those years, I have tried to get back into things. But as one can see I guess I wasn't too into it.


Well this is a new year, and a new goal, and well most likely, just another failure. But something's different..

One, I'm serious... at 250lbs. BP 158/95, I'll die. LOL. I like to eat, and if I don't exercise I can't. I also like to enjoy Beer. LADIES AND GENTS...BEER DOES NOT HELP. - BUT IT IS FUN -Thus I have to ride more.

Two, this journal, blog, may help the motivation factor, it may not. But I hope to keep it up to date ever other day, every day, or at the least a Week's summary.

Will anyone read? Well I haven't told anyone yet as of 1.4.07 - NO ONE KNOWS. Or at least NO ONE THAT KNOWS ME KNOWS!!! lol

Three... I'm sick of my better half reading me the amusing stories of the "Fat Cyclist". some other blogger who at 149lbs is not FAT!!! I'm fat.. I'll eventually give you pictures to prove it. Anyhow, this dude has reached some famous notoriety by claiming to be what I am and what he evidently is not. Come on - he did the Leadville 100... how can he be fat? But his writings are funny, and well thats probably the secret to his success and the failure to mine.

Well that's the prelude....

Hopefully the postlude will not be tomorrow.....

Till then....