Tuesday - June 18th
Morning ride
Another 4:30am wake up call. Since this is so early, and I don't want to wake the family as I sneak out of the house, I got everything out and setup the night before. I added my clip-on aero bars to my handlebars, in an attempt to mimic a triathlon bike. I've had them on and off several times. For those that don't know, they let you rest on your elbows, which lowers your body and makes you more aerodynamic. Hence the name, aero bars. In the past, I can only stay in the aero bars for five minutes or so at a time before I feel my guts are squished and my lower back starts to hurt. My shoulders even start to hurt after a while. This is all, I believe, due to my bike not being setup correctly. If it were, I could ride in the aero bars all day long. For whatever reason, I wanted to put the aero bars back on, and see how fast I could do my morning route. Since my shifters are still in my brake levers, I could only ride in the aero bars on more/less flat sections.
Because the aero bars clip-on my handlebars, I had to move my headlight to my helmet. My headlight is 1,000 lumens (very bright) and has a long cord and battery pack. I had to weave the cord through my helmet and run it down my back, letting the battery pack rest in one of my bike jersey (shirt) pockets. I'm not a big fan of the helmet headlight. I thought it would be cool to be able to see where I looked, but I often just gaze off into the distance - zoning out. Also, I seemed to hit more traffic signs with it and blind myself from the glare. But, with the aero bars taking up most of the room on my handlebars, I didn't have many options.
Today, I wanted to add some hills to the route. So, I did my normal route but turned onto Spooky Hollow from Loveland-Madeira and went around Camp Livingston Park to Given, then back to Loveland-Madeira. This looked like nothing on the MapMyRun elevation chart, but it was actually a BEAST. Strava shows the elevation of slightly over 10% grade. Though the hill is pretty sick, it's not that long.
I then continued on the bike trail to Galbraith/Kugler Mill, and turned to climb it. This climb wasn't so bad, and more like regular Indian Hill Road - about 4-5% grade. These kinds of hills, like the hill in the Amazing Race, are not that bad if you have the right gear. Shift to an easy gear, sit back on your seat, sit upright with your hands on the top of your handlebars, and crank away. If you don't have to swerve switchback style or stand up to pedal, hills are not a big deal and better training then riding flat roads.
I wanted to turn left onto Given (from Galbraith/Kugler Mill) and take it to Route 126 in Milford and the base of Indian Hill Road. Then, I wanted to climb regular Indian Hill Road (Old Indian Hill Road if I was feeling saucy) and then finish the route like normal through Indian Hill to Madeira to Kenwood to Blue Ash. But, I got a late start (5:15am start time) and didn't have time for the full 27 mile route. So, I just kept going up Kugler Mill to Camargo and turned left on Loveland-Madeira and came home. I still got two hills in, and wound up going 21.7 miles in 1:30:37, with an average speed of 14.4mph (remember, two hills - one of which was killer). Great ride on a nice morning. I love these morning rides.
Lunch Gym
I went to the Blue Ash Rec Center at lunch to lift weights. My focus was back and bicep. I did 7 sets on the back isolation machine, starting with 45 lbs, adding 10 lbs 3 times, then removing it. So, 45, 55, 65, 75, 65, 55, and 45 lbs on each side. I also did the overhead back machine with the same 7 sets of 45, 55, 65, 75, 65, 55, and 45 lbs on each side. I figured 14 sets of back would be good, especially since I haven't gone to the gym regularly in years. The first few times back always are the worst/hardest. I should feel this in my back for a few days.
I then went to the preacher curl and added 10 lbs to each side and did a double set. Basically, doing the set of 10 with my hands on the outer curl of the bar, then moving to the inner curl of the bar. I then added another 10 to both sides and did the same thing, then removed a 10 and repeated again. I think the bar alone is 25, so it's not heavy weight. I used to do sets with 45's on each side. But, sadly, that's all gone. I then went to a flat bench with a 20 lbs and 10 lbs dumbbell and did isolation curls with 10 reps of 20 lbs, then immediately doing 10 reps of 10 lbs. From first glance, this looks and sounds weak. But remember my 14 sets of back, half of which used my biceps too. The overhead machine doesn't use the arms at all, but the other one does. Also, I basically did 6 sets of preacher curls, and these double "kill" sets really hurt. By the time I was doing curls with the 10 lbs dumbbell, I could barely do 10 reps. I did three of these killer sets, as I call them, wiped off my bench and headed up to the indoor track and ran a mile of lap intervals. I would walk one lap, jog one, run one, sprint one, etc. Just mixing it up. My legs felt really heavy and lazy from the morning bike ride, but I got my 10 laps in and called it a day.
Nice bike ride and weights at lunch. Not a bad day of training.
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6/21/13 UPDATE: My back was never sore, not even a hair, but I had T-Rex arms for 2 full days. Those killer bicep curls do it everytime! They are awesome. I normally go to failure on them, but was strapped for time. Here's the workout: take a 30lb, 20lb, and 10lb dumbbell to a flat bench. If you choose more/less weight, just stagger them. I guess 15/10/5 or 40/30/20 would work. You don't need much though. Then, do 3 sets of 15 reps of each weight in descending order, immediately following each other, isolation bicep curls with your elbow resting inside your leg, using your leg to keep you from swinging. The first set isn't too bad, the 2nd one starts to suck and by the end you can barely do the 15 reps of 10lb. If that doesn't "kill" your arms, do a 4th. I normally went to failure, or until I could not do anymore of each weight. Best bicep workout I've found. It'll give you chicken wing/T-Rex arms (hard to straighten your arm) for a couple days.
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Here is the Strava data:
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