AM Bike
Monday night, I wanted to go to bed at 8pm. But, out of my control, there was a Tour de France recap show on from 8pm to 10:30pm! I couldn't pass this up. I've only caught part of stages 5, 8, and 9. The show was about 15 minutes on each stage. I watched until 9:30, before finally going to bed. Unfortunately, the recap got me all "jazzed" up and I laid in bed until 11:00 before I dozed off.
I set the alarm for 4am. But like last week, I was up at 3:50am on my own. I laid there thinking how little sleep I had gotten and how I could snooze until 5am and then go for a short 5 mile run and bike Thursday. As soon as this thought left my head, another entered. This time it was Eric Thomas, the hip hop preacher with one of his motivational, real life lessons. I thought, "To some of you, sleep is more important to you than your success." My success here being to train or get in shape or finish a half Ironman. That was all it took, and I was up and getting dressed.
Monday, I had picked up my Cincy Express "kit". This "kit" consisted of a team cycling short sleeve jersey, a sleeveless team triathlon top, and a pair of team bib shorts. This is my first official team outfit. They look great. Needless to say, I was wearing the cycling jersey and bib shorts for today's ride. Here is a photo:
I pumped up my tires, attached my fully charged headlight, grabbed a few Clip Bars and Gu packets for the road, and filled up two water bottles with Gatorade G2 low calorie Fruit Punch (my favorite!) and hit the road. I was out of the house by 4:30am. Though humidity was high, once I started biking the wind felt nice. Surprisingly, I saw a runner on my road. Another brave soul in Blue Ash at 4:30am! That's what I'm talking about!
My plan today was to bike the same 27 mile route I did last time, hitting three hills (Given, Kugler Mill, and Indian Hill). I planned to eat a Gu after about 5 miles and hope it kicked in by Given's hill. Camargo road was ground up in preparation for being repaved. This sucks, but luckily my route only has me on this section of Camargo for about 200 feet. I turned onto Loveland Madeira and went well, hitting an average of 24 mph on one of the miles. I turned onto Spooky Hollow, then left onto Given and started to round Camp Livingston park before hitting the hill. The night before, I had watched Tour de France guys climb hundreds of miles of steeper hills, and felt possessed. I was able to hold my Tour de France impression for about 50 feet, before I started to zigzag and eventually get out of the saddle and crank up the hill. However, I felt good. It felt like a new best time for climbing the hill. I rolled down Spooky Hollow (which was also ground up for repaving) and turned back onto Loveland Madeira.
Following my usual route, I next turned up Kugler Mill/Galbraith. This hill is great, but not nearly as difficult as Given. I shifted down to my lowest gear and just cruised on up. I had my iPhone on the bike as a speedometer, running the Strava application, with music playing at full volume. There's no one around, and it's dead quiet, so the music is the perfect compliment to each ride. I love music, in case you didn't know. I had everything from Boston's Foreplay/Long Time and Blondie's Rapture, to Lil Wayne Bring It Back and Stuntin' Like My Daddy. I'm very cultured. Hah ha.
I turned onto Given and cruised down the hill, hitting today's top speed of 37 mph. Though I always descend like a wimp, with both hands in the drops and fingers on the brakes. I'm over-cautious most of the time. I turned onto Indian Hill and started to cruise toward my third and final hill of the day. I felt good. As I approached, I heard Eric Thomas' voice in my head again, badgering me. I was planning to just go up Indian Hill, but here came the voice telling me to man up and hit Old Indian Hill. I heard the voice say that the hill was short and sweet. Well, I'm here to train on hills, not lolly-gag around like a geek. I went up Old Indian Hill just like Given, and it also felt like a new best time. Sure enough, the crazy wall of a hill didn't last forever and I was over it and sipping Gatorade, listening to whatever, barking at deer to NOT run into me as I rolled by. I probably passed 7 or 8 deer just feet away from me. I usually bark at them to scare them away, as they just stare at me in awe/confusion. If you haven't seen the video of the mountain biker getting nailed by a gazelle, check this out for another reason to be cautious around wildlife.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dm9GSB446jo
I was recharged by the time I got to Shawnee Run, and I cruised along pretty well. I was thinking of the Tour videos and I was even standing and pumping as I rode along. No reason, I just felt like going fast. Legs were burning, but it was great. I turned down Miami and headed home. Near Red Lobster on Galbraith, I passed about 8 or 9 Queen City Wheels guys heading out for their quick (as in they haul complete ass) morning ride.
I ended up going 26.9 miles in 1:49:42 for an average speed of 14.7mph. My average HR was 138bpm, and I burned about 889 calories.
Here is the Strava data:
Lunch Gym
It's so "easy" to get into this routine and hit the gym twice a week at lunch. I wanted to do chest and triceps, but these machines were all tied up. Come to think of it, they're always tied up. Gym etiquette pointer - it is discourteous to sit on a machine for 10-15 minutes while you do three slow sets of 5 reps of 500 pounds. One kid was even on two machines at once. What the fuck? I just worked on back and biceps, because most gym rats are clueless to symmetry and never workout their backs. I did 7 sets of the lat/back pull down machine, in about 10 minutes. Take note gym hoodlum, as I only take a 30 second break between sets - half of which is me adding/subtracting weight. I also did 5 sets of the upper back machine that doesn't use any biceps, though I started with 45's. So, 90/110/130/110/90 versus my usual 70/90/110/130/then down. I also did 5 sets of military presses with 50/70/90/70/50. These burned. I rarely hit shoulders. I finished up with bicep isolation "kill" sets with a 30 and 15 pound dumbbell. I didn't have time for the rowing machine, so I headed out.
Nice and easy trip to the gym. It might be hard to get to the chest machines on Thursday, but time will tell. Tomorrow is the lunch run with two co-workers. We're going to shoot for 10 sets of stair repeats at the end of the YMCA Par Course trail. And, tomorrow morning is a swim with some buddies. I've realized that the 100 lap swim is the "hardest" thing I do all week. Even though it only takes about an hour, and my bike and runs are 1-2 hours, the swim really wears me out. I will be dragging for sure tomorrow. It's important to get these swims in, so I'm not complaining, but it's the hardest part of my week. It wears me out even more than my recent 60 mile ride. It's a full body, all inclusive, workout. Even though the impact is zero and I feel "good", it zaps my energy reserves. I can't wait!
Also, we got our treadmill hooked up and positioned. We needed a new outlet installed, which we put on its own breaker. My wife was running on it when I came home from my AM ride today. I can tell we're going to get a lot of use out of it. It's a 2006 Precor 956i from a local gym, and it's in great shape. It also feels very sturdy, as it weighs about 300 pounds.
Giddyup. To quote Ice Cube, "Today was a good day."
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