Sounds much more “medical and ominous” than just saying “cramps”doesn’t it? Well, while I was experiencing it, ominous wouldn’t even have come close. Something like excruciating, nightmarish pain; completely off the charts would have been a bit more accurate. I simultaneously had both hamstrings, my left quad, and my right calf all sieze up like someone pulled the emergency cord on a bullet train. In my 10 years of riding, I never had a full blown cramp – only slight cramp type feelings that were able …
Training with power is the ultimate way to insure your forward progress in cycling. While I am a huge supporter of heart monitor training, and I believe there is no more important training tool than a cadence monitor for both indoor and outdoor cycling, the power meter brings the best of all worlds together. With power we are measuring the “real work” we are doing, the actual energy produced by our efforts. After all, it isn’t how much our body is suffering (reflected by the heart rate …
It was easily the most beautiful day in Pittsburgh in 2009. Temperature a perfect 70 degrees, little to no wind, sunny skies, and a group of riding buddies all psyched to ride. The beauty though was not limited to just the weather. My daughter Nina was riding as strong as I’ve seen her. Her “Cycling Fusion” training – of 70% indoors and 30% outside – was proving to be the secret sauce we’ve been talking about for months now. She was fast on the flats, …
… and the what? … and the psyched, the sore, the sorry and the satisfied. Let’s start with the psyched. It was just me and my Buddy Bill again (see my previous post) on my outside training ride. I’m always psyched to ride with Bill. We still had to wear arm & leg warmers, base layers, long fingered gloves and the works as spring is not as much “Springing” here as it is Sputtering. This week we’ve had snow and consistently low temperatures all …
Actually, my butt isn’t as sore as I thought I would be. I’m sure it’s the very methodical 10% increase in volume and intensity that I’ve started since the beginning of my training using Heart Zones training methods, and a variety of training tools to not only monitor my progress, but also to “keep me honest”.
Sure it was sunny on Saturday, that wasn’t our team training day. What’s worse than training in the cold? How about training in the cold, wet and dreary. These are the days of early spring in the Pittsburgh area. You can see a short video of our ride Sunday by clicking here, or view the embedded one at the bottom of this post.
This is my buddy, Bill. Everyone should have a Buddy Bill. Bill is the kind of buddy that I want to be to my friends. He’s the guy that is always there for you, ready to help, never expecting anything in return, and genuinely interested in what you do. He’s the guy that considers sacrifice just something that happens along the way when you are somebody’s buddy. He’s the guy that will always point out your strengths, overlook your weaknesses, and find a way to …
I have to confess, I did not go to the 2009 Heart Zones™ Master Trainer conference to partake in the blatant doping and mad consumption of performance enhancers that went on there. I just went to secure my Master Trainer certification and make sure I’m well equipped to train others how to teach the Heart Zones™ system for training indoor cycling. WOW, was I in for a surprise.
OK, I admit it, I’m an obsessive jock. All my earliest memories involve some sort of sport. It was baseball, football, wrestling and diving when I was a kid. My jockular puruits turned to tennis and golf when I hit college (even the football team’s water boy was bigger than me at Penn State). Outside of being “vertically challenged”, I guess the individual sports appealed to the control freak in me. Consequently, I have always been accustomed to training and improving in one sport or …
Well, OK… maybe not just like Lance. Nina and I (father/daughter) are indeed ahead of schedule! Chris Charmichael wrote about how Lance was ahead of schedule as he prepared for his first tour event of the season, and well, I at least want to be just like Lance. This Sunday was just our 2nd ride outside since the fall, and we had planned on only 30 miles with some climbing, since last week we did 20 with no climbing. After the first half of the ride, …
