After Christmas....going into the new year

The morning workouts continue to go well. I'm getting up and doing the workouts, and now I can feel my body beginning to be able to work at higher outputs in the morning. The human body is an amazing machine.

I did a nine-days straight push of workouts before leaving to NoDak for Christmas. My legs were ready to sit in the car all day, for sure. Then it snowed for three days straight with blizzard conditions most of the time. I was no-kidding planning to run, but I don't run in the wind...or two feet of snow. I don't mind the cold, it's the wind that gets me. So now workouts for six days.

My parents got me a nice wind-breaker cycling jacket for Christmas. Nice and bright, too. It should help me get out in the mornings during the summer. Maybe I'll start to ride even when it's down to 50degrees! Seriously, I need to be biking in the morning, and the cool wind has made me bail in the past. Not this year!

Today I basically destroyed my legs during my morning workout. I normally feel ok after a workout, but today the soreness set-in within a few hours. All day long I had trouble walking. The real challenge is to do tomorrow morning's workout.

I am seeing weekly improvements on my bike, and it is very motivating. It's easy to get up and workout when you know you are improving. Each day is a different type of workout, and each day I do better than the previous week. I'm not looking forward to the inevitable plateua at all.

Next week I start a new phase of this plan. I'll continue to do big bike workouts each morning, followed by a 1.5 or 3mile run. The bike is being extended by 20 minutes to reach a total of 80 minutes, which is just a bit longer than a normal 40k ride. Then I'll run with the goal of teaching my legs to run after the bike. At lunch will be lifting weights or swimming. I'm starting up swimming again next week when the gym at ISU opens up again. I'm not terribly excited about that, but I need to do it. I am excited about getting back into the weight room again, though.

This weekend I plan to get in my first turns of the year. A buddy and me are planning a backcountry ski adventure in the local mountains. The snow will be sketchy, but it should be there by now. Then it's a family fun XC ski on Saturday.

My race schedule is up in the air right now. The Marine Corps drill weekends and the two-week exercise at the end of August are really cutting into the schedule. Everything is falling on the same weekends, and the Marine Corps gets the priority. Looks like a couple of olympic tris in Utah at this point. The Rush Tri in Rexburg is definitely out, and that was going to be my A race. Also, the Bear Lake Brawl got moved to the last weekend of August, so that is out, too. Damn, my two favorite races are gone this year. But I still get to do Janet's Tri in June, so that is good; it's always nice to be in Yellowstone, do a tri, and then get in some early summer fishing.

Things are on track for a much improved bike time this summer, though, and that is my focus right now. When I'll get to prove that in a race is the question.

Body clock changed successfully

I have managed to change my body clock. I'm now completely ready for bed at 9pm instead of 11pm. Of course, this helps me get up at 0445 for morning workouts. I've found that I'm much more consistent now, and I am doing all of my workouts. With lunch and after-work workouts, something would always come up that shortens the workout or completely cancels it. Consistency is my goal this year, and I think I've found my answer.

Last week was really cold, but I still got out and ran after the morning bike workout. It's a matter of gear and being warmed up. There's no way I could get out of bed and go run in -10 degrees, but I can get up and ride the bike for an hour and then be warmed up and ready to go outside in the cold. I got in three runs last week this way!

Interesting that as my body gets used to morning workouts, it gets easier to get my heart rate up. In early November, I couldn't get ready mentally or physically to get my heart rate much above 145 or so. After six weeks, I can get it up to 170 now and the intensity is close to what my afternoon workouts were. This should probably help come race day when I need to be "on" early in the morning.

Snow is here, and I can't wait to get in some backcountry skiing!

December going well so far...SNOW!

The December training schedule is going well. I've added a bunch of details for here on through Spring Break in March. The focus is on the bike, and I'm doing one workout of each type each week: M=power (slow cad, big gear, low heart rate) T=hard interval set, W=easy spin and spin-ups, R=hill repeats, and F=steady state at 75% LTR. I'm running 1.5-3 miles after the M,W,F workouts to train my legs for running after the bike, and I like that I have an entire winter and spring to do it. The distances are short, but it's the consistency I'm after; and it's damn cold in the morning now (avg about 5deg), so I like to keep it short. It's much easier to run in the morning after you've had a good workout because it's easier to get out in the cold with a working body rather than one straight out of bed.

I'm lifting weights at lunch on M,W,F, and swimming at lunch on T,R. All in all, the average scheduled hours is 9-10 hours, of which I hit about 7-8, with missing hours because of work, life, etc.

And there is now snow on the ground. In a few days, that measn ice on the roads. The running will be difficult, but it will force a shorter, faster cadence. My goal is to get to an average cadence of 84 on the run this winter, so I guess the conditions help that.

This past weekend I was at Camp Pendleton for my drill weekend. I liked the warm sunshine, but I simply didn't do any workouts other than a bike spin on some rusted out stationary bikes in the Del Mar gym. Next drill periods, I resolve to do lunch and after-work-hours workouts like long runs instead of sitting in front of a tv.

I also got the video analysis of my bike tonight (Thanks, Tera!). Everything looks good. I have a bit of a "snake" action in my core that I don't know if it should be there or not, but it sure looks like it shouldn't. Also, my right heel doesn't come down like it should, although the left ankle action is looking pretty good. The Cobb seat is AWESOME!