More Winter Cross-Training....a bit of backcountry with a photo.

My living room is down there somewhere, which is why I'm up here and looking down!

So, I've taken the last week off, kind of. After a good three weeks of consistent running and biking, I needed a week of rest. This week, between Christmas and New Year's, seems like a great week to take a break, at least sleep in. Another part of me thinks that this is the week that could be some really big volume; if I'm a few minutes late to work in the morning or after lunch, noboby will notice or care because 1) they probably aren't even there, and 2) they are probably late, too(!). 

Anyway, I say I've taken the week off "kind of" because I did a three-hour cross country tour last Thursday afternoon. And today I did a 3.5hour backcountry tour to the top of a local mountain I've been eyeing from my living room window. The mountain top looks great and seems like it would be a skiing heaven, but everything looks different up close. In the picture above, I'm at the top of Wild Horse Mountain and looking down towards the Portneuf Valley and Pocatello, with Idaho State University and my house in the middle of the picture.

This3.5hour tour took alot more out of me than I expected. Mostly because I broke a pole 30 minutes into it and decided to keep going! Ha! Backcountry skiing, mostly hiking, is difficult with just one pole. I figure I got a great ab workout of the deal because that is the core of balance needed on skis. I didn't get a lot of turns in, maybe a total of 30 linked turns total, but it was a great day to be out and about, and my expectation was to do more hiking to see this area than to get turns.

Anyway, it was a great day in the mountains, and I finally got up to the mountain that has been calling me from my living room.  And it was great workout. I'm putting it down as the equivalent of a twelve mile run......it feels more like an 18 mile run, but I'm going with 12 because I like to be a bit conservative that way.

Update: I did the route in mapmyrun at http://www.mapmyrun.com/route/us/id/pocatello/155129376609373579

It's 10.3 miles, 2200 elevation gain/loss.

Others shooting for 60 minute 40k TT........

A guy at Nytro is doing a series on how to reach 60 minutes on a 40k TT at http://www.nytro.com/index.cfm/nytro-blog/an-open-challenge-to-nytro-readers-beat-the-hour-for-the-40k/ in conjunction with a challenge he has put out to his readers.

Be sure to watch the motivation video at http://vimeo.com/16468046. I'd love to see the rest of that video. I'd even pay for it, up to $15 for a download I suppose. But I can't find it.

This challenge is also posted on Slowtitch at http://forum.slowtwitch.com/forum/Slowtwitch_Forums_C1/Triathlon_Forum_F1/Im_issuing_a_challenge_to_Slowtwitchers:_Beat_the_hour_for_40K.__P3133131 Iand got a lot of responses, from basics of it's too easy of a goal to something along the lines of it's a good goal for me, so I'm doing it. Hey..It's been my goal all along, and I'm still shooting for it!

Surreal gray scale

Today's workout. Six miles slight uphill.....six miles cruising home. Incredibly quiet and still. Very unique gray scale look. Nice workout!

Real time workout report

Wooohoooo!!!!! Great PT pulling Paul uphill. Now heading down. This is a real time update......gotta love technology.

A very consistent week....

My goal this week was consistency, and I got most of it. I hit every workout this week, except yesterday morning's bike ride, and I still think that sleeping in and getting a bit of recovery was the right decision. I essentially tried to double my bike volume in one week, which everyone should recognize as both dumb and unrealistic. That's two weeks in a row of consistent training, but with alot more volume this week.

I'm tracking the results of consistent running. In mid-January, I expect to have a nice graph that can show how much improvement the consistency is providing. Notice the word "expected"........I'm positive the results will be there based on what the chart currently looks like; I just have to maintain another four weeks of consistency. There are a couple of variables that are interesting to think about, too.

Next week is Christmas. Last night, we went to Collin Raye's Christmas show here in Pocatello. It was really awesome and got me into the Christmas spirit for sure.

Another view of weight training

Short and sweet note today.......borrowing from someone else!

I like this lady's view on weight training:  http://triathlongoddess.blogspot.com/2010/11/interesting-reasons-for-triathletes-to.html

Specifically, weight training is not about getting big and buff. It's simply about training muscles while getting a bit of variety and change of scenery.

Christmas trees!

Heading out to get our Christmas tree.....Merry Christmas!

Consistency trumps everything else

This winter, my primary goal is to simply be consistent. I was doing well with consistent running in October and November and then ran into a tough two weeks. I've convinced myself that I'm back on the consistent-train this week!

I have since added biking to the mix, and consistency is still my main goal. Of course, I soon realized that to be consistent in both run and bike workouts requires a cut in volume, which I didn't want to admit at first but intuitively knew would be needed.

Joe Friel wrote a post about top ten training errors at http://www.joefrielsblog.com/  All of his information is good, but I particularly liked his note about consistency:

#6 mistake: Inconsistent training.


Correction: High goals? Don’t miss workouts. Ever.

Comments: Consistency is the single most important aspect of training. It’s more important than long or intense workouts. You’ll improve faster by working out frequently and regularly rather than by doing hard workouts with lots of days off in between. This comes down to moderation and infrequent attempts to find your limits. Pushing yourself to the edge frequently leads to soreness, illness, injury, burnout, and overtraining. These will cause you to miss workouts and lose fitness. You gain fitness at a much slower rate than you lose it. But, let’s face it, you will miss a workout on occasion due to things you have little or no control over—weather, work, family activities and other responsibilities. When these happen you need to do some workout rescheduling. Try not to miss any of the key workouts on your schedule.

He's absolutely right. Before making consistency a top priority, I would have argued that you can be kind of consistent and still be good. And I think that's true. But to WIN, consistency is an absolute must.

I want to win, but that's not why I do triathlons, so I don't get too mad when I lose consistency. "Frustrated with myself" is a better description.

But after seeing what just six weeks of real consistency can do for fitness, it is certainly always at the top of my training goals. Just be consistent. Even if it means an hour of really low intensity....the consistency will give you a benefit.  It's important to point out that he mentions "moderation" and "infrequent attempts to find your limits" because that is exactly what I'm finding in my own adventures in consistency. Two hard workouts per week at the most, and the rest are a moderate level with a specific function that he mentions in his other posts.

A new week starts tomorrow...thank goodness

I have a bit of problem in that I like to schedule out a week of workouts, and when I miss two workouts, then the week falls apart. I don't know how to fix it yet, but if you find yourself wondering why you have a great first half of the week and then a crappy second half, take a look at the missed workouts. I'll bet you find a trend.

This week's training fell apart. I was all set mentally for a great week of training. I got up early Monday for the bike workout. I ran in the snow at lunch on Monday.....and then I felt the calf muscle cramping up and feeling really tight Monday afternoon. I don't know what happened, maybe it was running on my toes more or something like that in compensation for really icy roads. Anyway, I haven't run since that Monday lunch run, and it's just barely getting to the point where I want to get back to a run. The no running then killed my motivation for biking in the motivation.....kind of funny, if you would talk to me at night, I couldn't wait to get up in the morning for a ride; then the alarm went off and I couldn't care less about it. I have to learn to beat that mental game like that and accept that no running doesn't mean no progress...it just means I don't run and all bike or swim can BUT DON"T HAVE TO make up for the lost running.

Music and training

I'm not one to use music in all my workouts. I see people at the pool with the waterproof-players and I wonder how they even stay on. I see people with headphones at the gym, always playing with the players instead of the weights. People listen while running, and I can understand that, but I can't get past the safety factor and the fact that I wouldn't be able to hear any birds singing on a wonderful, crisp morning. I tried listening to a player while biking on the road....I'm lucky I didn't cause my own wreck; I don't do that anymore.

On the bike trainer is another story. I like to listen to tunes on the trainer. I have a playlist that is 90 minutes long, which is just a tad longer than I normally ride on the trainer. So, I can go past a few songs if they don't feel right.

My playlist is pretty basic. AC/DC High Voltage album, then select songs from Iron Maiden Live After Death, then select songs from Judas Priest Live (mostly the older songs). Then I have some Donnas, which is really strange for me but keeps me going. For the cooldown, I get to Allman Brothers songs. That's the line-up. It never changes.

It's a challenge to keep the volume down. During my "previous life" of partying, drinking, and heavy metal, I cranked it up. Now I have tinitis, and that damn ringing never goes away.

But when "The Trooper" or "Freewheel Burnin''" comes on, I usually turn it up a bit.

If you like to push your bike intervals as hard as possible, get some "Freewheel Burnin'" on, learn the words, and then go for it. "Fast and furious, we ride the universe To carve a road for us That slices every curve in sight We accelerate No time to hesitate This load will detonate Whoever would Contend its right....

Born to lead At breakneck speed With high octane Were spitting flames.

Freewheel burning......freewheel burning."