Spinach and Intervals
It's been quite some time since I've written anything on this site.
Between work, church and bike riding I'm just generally too busy. Add
to that the fact that I have to find free wifi to get online and what
you get is no blog posts.
But since so much has been happening in the world of biking I figured
I'd suck it up and write some things down.
I went in to get a bike fit on a recommendation and ended up hiring a
coach to help me train for Vision Quest. I have toyed with the idea
of having a coach lay out a training plan for me for a few years now.
I made up my mind that this is the year where I actually do what I've
seen other riders do to get faster. If that means hiring a coach,
then I hire a coach. If it means riding on the road, then I put on
the spandex. Whatever works is what I'm going to at least try to do.
So far the general training program is done in cycles. One cycle is
equal to one month of riding. Every week gets harder and harder and
the fourth week is a rest week. It was funny to me the first time I
realized that when my coach said "Thursday is an off day", that he
didn't mean I wouldn't be riding. Off day means you still ride, just
not as hard. Haha.
Each individual ride feels like the majority of it is pretty easy
(more on this later) with some tough intervals sprinkled throughout.
Funny stories from training so far:
1. I was told that when I need to go slow I am probably not going
slow enough. Ok. On my first road ride I was at a place where I
needed to keep my heart rate really low. No kidding I was riding _the
same speed_ as two kids walking to school on the sidewalk. I remember
being pretty embarrassed.
2. I refuse to shave my legs for road riding. There was a discussion
some time ago amongst some of my friends where we wondered out loud
how far up the leg guys shave. The answer is all the way because leg
hairs come through the spandex. Looks pretty silly. Haha.
3. Sometimes the intervals create awkward situations. For example,
the other day I was doing short intervals up a hill and I saw two
trail runners ahead of me. One was a guy and one was a cute girl (I
assume his wife or girlfriend). It was just my luck because I ended
up finishing an interval _right_ as I was pulling up next to the girl.
Went like this:
(Ryan pushing hard, rides up next to girl, then shifts down to
smallest gear immediately - and loudly)
(Girl looks over at Ryan and must be thinking "Who is this idiot?")
Girl: Can't ... stop ... now (gasping)
Ryan: ...
She pulled away from me because it was time to recover and wait for
the next interval. Next interval time came and I passed her going as
hard as I could. She must have been thinking I was a complete tool.
4. Letting guys that are _way_ slower than me pass me because I have
to keep my heart rate low. I tell you the structured training has
really beaten my ego out of me.
5. Last night I was freaking out because I was about 2,000 calories
behind what I needed to eat at about 6PM. 2,500 calories just to live
every day and then I was told I need to eat whatever I burn on a ride.
The morning ride was about 1,000 calories burned. Out of 3,500
calories at 6PM I had eaten only 1,500 and I felt full. I had planned
to eat soup for dinner and was horrified to read it was only 180
calories for a can.
My mind raced as I thought of how I could cram a ton of calories into
myself. I ended up making a huge piece of chicken and some rice. I
had to throw out the rice because I couldn't finish it. I suppose I
need to plan better.
6. I end up doing quite a bit of back tracking on trails now. If an
interval ends on a hill and I need to have a low heart rate for 10
minutes I can't keep climbing and keep the heart rate where it needs
to be. So I end up turning around and riding down and then doing it
again. The other day I did two intervals on STT and got more than a
few strange looks as I would pass someone on a climb, pass them again
as I turned around going downhill and then passed them _again_ on a
climb only to have them pass me later after I had "shut it down".
Just plain strange.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I find myself doing things I would have never dreamed of doing a few
years ago. For example I ate scrambled eggs with spinach in them this
morning. SPINACH! My mom must feel a tingle in her spine as I write
this. I hated spinach more than any other food as a kid. But since
my coach said "If you aren't already a fan of spinach, you better
become one", I decided I need to eat it. So there you go. I'm eating
spinach, doing intervals and wearing spandex from time to time.
The plan is to get under 7 hours for Vision Quest and hopefully I'm on
track. I got the green light to do some races before VQ and I plan to
do at least two if things go my way. I'm curious to see if the
training has been paying off.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Things I've noticed from training:
1. When I rest properly I'm stronger and more fresh for the hard
days. It's become clear to me I was always riding at a tough pace on
every ride and so I settled into mediocrity and couldn't break free.
I need to rest well and go easy quite a bit in order to really reap
the benefits of going hard.
2. Fatigue is delayed. I'll often feel pretty good and strong on the
tough days and when the ride is over I find myself thinking, "I could
have done SO much more and gone SO much harder!" Then a few hours
later I start to feel _really_ tired.
3. I don't eat nearly enough. This is a new revelation. I need to
find ways to get more calories into me and at the right times.
4. I'm more efficient with a higher cadence. I went through a long
period of riding where I always tried to ride everything in my middle
ring. I was also convinced that higher gears meant that over time I
would get stronger. Now I'm starting to think that just created bad
habits. It made my pedal stroke very sloppy.
I now try to make sure I have a smooth pedal stroke and I find that I
am more efficient and use more of my leg muscles when I pedal at a
higher cadence.
5. Working on my pedal stroke has made me use muscles I wasn't used
to using. I'm not sure how this is going to affect how fast I am just
yet, but after rides now I can feel that my hamstrings and calves are
sore. This never used to happen before working on technique.
That's it. No more.
Between work, church and bike riding I'm just generally too busy. Add
to that the fact that I have to find free wifi to get online and what
you get is no blog posts.
But since so much has been happening in the world of biking I figured
I'd suck it up and write some things down.
I went in to get a bike fit on a recommendation and ended up hiring a
coach to help me train for Vision Quest. I have toyed with the idea
of having a coach lay out a training plan for me for a few years now.
I made up my mind that this is the year where I actually do what I've
seen other riders do to get faster. If that means hiring a coach,
then I hire a coach. If it means riding on the road, then I put on
the spandex. Whatever works is what I'm going to at least try to do.
So far the general training program is done in cycles. One cycle is
equal to one month of riding. Every week gets harder and harder and
the fourth week is a rest week. It was funny to me the first time I
realized that when my coach said "Thursday is an off day", that he
didn't mean I wouldn't be riding. Off day means you still ride, just
not as hard. Haha.
Each individual ride feels like the majority of it is pretty easy
(more on this later) with some tough intervals sprinkled throughout.
Funny stories from training so far:
1. I was told that when I need to go slow I am probably not going
slow enough. Ok. On my first road ride I was at a place where I
needed to keep my heart rate really low. No kidding I was riding _the
same speed_ as two kids walking to school on the sidewalk. I remember
being pretty embarrassed.
2. I refuse to shave my legs for road riding. There was a discussion
some time ago amongst some of my friends where we wondered out loud
how far up the leg guys shave. The answer is all the way because leg
hairs come through the spandex. Looks pretty silly. Haha.
3. Sometimes the intervals create awkward situations. For example,
the other day I was doing short intervals up a hill and I saw two
trail runners ahead of me. One was a guy and one was a cute girl (I
assume his wife or girlfriend). It was just my luck because I ended
up finishing an interval _right_ as I was pulling up next to the girl.
Went like this:
(Ryan pushing hard, rides up next to girl, then shifts down to
smallest gear immediately - and loudly)
(Girl looks over at Ryan and must be thinking "Who is this idiot?")
Girl: Can't ... stop ... now (gasping)
Ryan: ...
She pulled away from me because it was time to recover and wait for
the next interval. Next interval time came and I passed her going as
hard as I could. She must have been thinking I was a complete tool.
4. Letting guys that are _way_ slower than me pass me because I have
to keep my heart rate low. I tell you the structured training has
really beaten my ego out of me.
5. Last night I was freaking out because I was about 2,000 calories
behind what I needed to eat at about 6PM. 2,500 calories just to live
every day and then I was told I need to eat whatever I burn on a ride.
The morning ride was about 1,000 calories burned. Out of 3,500
calories at 6PM I had eaten only 1,500 and I felt full. I had planned
to eat soup for dinner and was horrified to read it was only 180
calories for a can.
My mind raced as I thought of how I could cram a ton of calories into
myself. I ended up making a huge piece of chicken and some rice. I
had to throw out the rice because I couldn't finish it. I suppose I
need to plan better.
6. I end up doing quite a bit of back tracking on trails now. If an
interval ends on a hill and I need to have a low heart rate for 10
minutes I can't keep climbing and keep the heart rate where it needs
to be. So I end up turning around and riding down and then doing it
again. The other day I did two intervals on STT and got more than a
few strange looks as I would pass someone on a climb, pass them again
as I turned around going downhill and then passed them _again_ on a
climb only to have them pass me later after I had "shut it down".
Just plain strange.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I find myself doing things I would have never dreamed of doing a few
years ago. For example I ate scrambled eggs with spinach in them this
morning. SPINACH! My mom must feel a tingle in her spine as I write
this. I hated spinach more than any other food as a kid. But since
my coach said "If you aren't already a fan of spinach, you better
become one", I decided I need to eat it. So there you go. I'm eating
spinach, doing intervals and wearing spandex from time to time.
The plan is to get under 7 hours for Vision Quest and hopefully I'm on
track. I got the green light to do some races before VQ and I plan to
do at least two if things go my way. I'm curious to see if the
training has been paying off.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Things I've noticed from training:
1. When I rest properly I'm stronger and more fresh for the hard
days. It's become clear to me I was always riding at a tough pace on
every ride and so I settled into mediocrity and couldn't break free.
I need to rest well and go easy quite a bit in order to really reap
the benefits of going hard.
2. Fatigue is delayed. I'll often feel pretty good and strong on the
tough days and when the ride is over I find myself thinking, "I could
have done SO much more and gone SO much harder!" Then a few hours
later I start to feel _really_ tired.
3. I don't eat nearly enough. This is a new revelation. I need to
find ways to get more calories into me and at the right times.
4. I'm more efficient with a higher cadence. I went through a long
period of riding where I always tried to ride everything in my middle
ring. I was also convinced that higher gears meant that over time I
would get stronger. Now I'm starting to think that just created bad
habits. It made my pedal stroke very sloppy.
I now try to make sure I have a smooth pedal stroke and I find that I
am more efficient and use more of my leg muscles when I pedal at a
higher cadence.
5. Working on my pedal stroke has made me use muscles I wasn't used
to using. I'm not sure how this is going to affect how fast I am just
yet, but after rides now I can feel that my hamstrings and calves are
sore. This never used to happen before working on technique.
That's it. No more.
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1:07 PM
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