Monday Spin....kinda crazy attendance Jan 10th

Monday's spin had Randal, Molly, Shawn, Frank, Fil and Myself in attendance to continue with the incessant cranking of pedals to the likes of Coach Troy. This workout was pretty much aerobic subthreshold virtual spin through Tucson Arizona. Hard to behave during these sessions. I do admit that I am using some mental imagery that may include substituting Coach troy for another cyclist whose name does start with a T........there is some yelling at the screen.......occasionally :)
Stats:
1 hr 38 min
141 bpm avg; 177 max
In zone - 1 hr 1 min; above 18 min; below 18 min
937 Kcal
91 avg Cad; 120 max

Wednesday Spin will be a bit more interval and anaerobic I think......pends on group. Repeat lacatate Threshold testing next Monday

Playing Catch up - Sunday

Sunday January 8th we dropped the kids off at the folks to enable wifey and myself to throw the skis in the car and hit the local trails at Little Cataraqui. What was supposed to be a rendezvous with another four ended up being one that goes by the name Shawn.

We quickly applied some wax to shawns pretty cool retro xc gear and off we went. Just a mellow 5 km. Was really impressed with Jac as she ticker taped along the entire time looking like a bit of a skiier. This will set the tone for Future Sundays....bring more snacks/water and get the km's up with her. Dowloaded a new app for the phone...pretty cool...here's stats:

5.07 km
52 min 31 s ski time
5.79 avg Km/Hr
479 cal

Plan get a spin in Monday, Night Ski Tues, Spin Wed, Night Ski (epic) Thursday, hockey Wednesday, Rest Sat, Ski with Jac Sunday......and repeat :)

nice hour 45 of threshold training

January 5th, day after my first attempt at running we (Frank & Fil) joined me in the sweat shop for a session extra ordinaire...Frank had purchased a couple of cycling vids over the break and was jonesin to try them. We figured the climbing vid of virtual Mt Lemmon climb would be a good choice. After a good 20 minute warm-up passing intermittently passing around some chocolate covered coffee beans (thanks Molly) we got into errrrr.

So for anyone happening to come across this blog, let me quickly describe what is happening here..We have our bikes attached to resistance trainers on our rear wheel. Some magnetic resistance and others fluid type resistance. Essentially the resistance is guided by our gearing and also with the added resistance from the magnetic cable resistanc (mine and molly's). This video required an hour plus of slow cadence (80 rpm) climbing (virtually) in a gearing that was one away from the toughest possible. The last 10 minutes of the video required an all out effort and resulted in some pretty good stats as a result:

1 hour 45 min
144 avg HR 180 max
In zone 1 hr 13 min; above 24 min; below 7 min
1143 Kcal
81 avg Cad....right on the money baby..max 112

Thursday was a chill day and Friday had an hour of hockey to work on that good old fashioned hand eye foot coordination :) Today was jammed full of kiddy activities inclusive of Gymnastics and then brunch with friends and then quickly transformed to sliding. I had a blast at the hill with the kids.....ensured I did some wind sprints pulling the little suckers up the hill :)

Tomorrow...drop the kiddies off at folks and meet a whole wack of people for an xc ski at the local trails..just downloaded a cool app on my phone which should give me some data (although mellow as will be with wife and friends) of XC ski. Next week should be a great opp to crank things up a notch with the addition of some night skiiiis as well as some potential outdoor rides in the snow ;)

Running from WHAT!?!?!?!?!

It happened....awoke at 3 am to the sight of snow and lots of it coming down to blanket the gray and dismal landscape. Too excited to sleep by 4:30 I got up and shovelled the driveway and brushed off my car to find that it was the nice and fluffy kind....more excited I decided to try my way of running...this AFTER showering and shaving. Knew I had 30 minutes before crunching the potential for being late for work so.....plugged in and off I went.

First off.....fresh snow always looks great at early dawn....no early sign of sun but dawn nonetheless. Lungs felt great...actually, but know I am NOT a runner and opted for the "old man shuffle" End result a 31:45 minute run with an avg HR of 132 bpm and max of 148..niiiiice. Great way to start the day and the first day BACK to work. Tonight........snowing like a BANSHEE so hoping to entice the kids to some sled pulling and watch the snow pile for some XC skiing later this week *fingers crossed*

Plan - SPin tomorrow night.....kick everyone out in time for WJH game...Go CANADA GO!!!

World Juniors

A couple of msg's from the "crew" clearly indicated that today was not "the day" to start the new year.....'nough said....junior hockey and sipping a rum and coke....the last for the next three months...eeeesh..Let's Go CANADA..LET's GO!!!!!!!!!!!

Recovery Dayyyyyy :)

Yesterday was a treat, riding out of doors on the road bike, with plus 8 degree temperature. No toe warmers and a good sweat on was a great way to start the new year. What wasn't a treat was the aftermath that a bunch of sand/salt and sludge did to my road bike. A thorough cleaning was performed and readied myself for a commitment for a morning garage spin for recovery. Frank was the only member of the crew who bit the bait and later found out he already had a P90x early morning workout....now THAT's committment ;)

We just decided to throw on some heart rate monitors and plug into a new video he bought over christmas break...actually a great climbing video, but kept intensity to below threshold vs the 90% he was barking throughout. Prefer this one to the uphill grind as the scenery is OUT vs IN a studio. Pretty mellow...see stats:

1 hr 16 min
126 avg 155 max HR
In zone (110-155 bpm) 56 min; below 19 min TRUE recover stats ;)
578 Kcal
Avg CAD 86 max 96

Finished the session and toyed with idea of continuing on with a spin tomorrow, made some loose plans and....to my surprise......my wife had a sandwich (chicken salad/avocado) ready to devour, HOWEVER.....Lauren(5 yr old), her friend Jordan, and the little copycat/Emma(2 year old)also decided they wanted a "bite".....so.....half a sandwich was good.

Frank shared his goal of weight loss which further sealed my deal....plan on losing 8-10 pounds pre-trip to get ready for the CLIIIIiiiiiimbs in South Carolina. Should be an easy task.....Right ;)

So...if no spin takers tomorrow....will try my hand at running.....why......why not

Bring on the NEW YeEEAR...BRING IT!!

Not too much to say about last night....we were all poooped after our drive back from New Brunswick...(see pic to right of extreme focus) the house all crashed around 11 pm....I had an agenda..the road bike was all prepped with cool weather gear all laid out in the spare room for a quick donning to bring the new year on "right note".

Weather was favourable with a risk of rain. I phone dialed in to some radio and off i went with a quick stop at the convenience store to load up with a starbucks energy drink (mistake....) and a gatorade to supplement the water bottle of water equipped on the bike. Heart rate was looking pretty good and the goal quickly turned into a ride that surpassed distance of Tommy :) All I kept in my head was sloooow and steady....aero base building. Didn't take too long for all of the sand/slop to quickly gather in my drivetrain and along the entire backside of me...fenders would be a good idea....actually, converting that peugot to a shitty weather ride is now a sealed deal.

I decided to keep going straight into Camden vs cutting right to begin my turnaround from travels north of Kingston...why...because after Tommy giving me the "heads up" about the expectations for speed, distance, and vertical in SC....it's time to purge every bit of slackness out of the system to prep for this season. Other than a quick pick of the bike it was a sustained spin which has resulted in a niiiice bit of fatique. So it began....the stats:

2 hr 57 min
155 avg HR (riiiight at lactate threshold)
181 max HR
"In zone" 1 hr 22 min
Above zone/anaerobic 1 hour 34 min
2281 KCal
Distance 77.8 km
Avg speed 26.4 max 49.3 km/hr
Avg CAD 94 Max CAD 110

I will consider this a "moderate to hard day" and choose to use tomorrow on the trainer to keep things more "recover"...thinking Coach troy's recovery and Technique vid. Monday will be back to previous schedule with intensity and carry on with Mon, Wed, Sun spins and hope to GOD some snow falls to get the XC skiing/riding in.