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Archive for the ‘training’ category

Fueled by Cheerios

January 17th, 2010

Early Sunday morning, I met up with 20 or so riders for the weekly Sports Basement Group Bike Ride. Our ride that morning took us from San Francisco over the Golden Gate Bridge through Sausalito to Mill Valley where we turned West and headed almost straight up to Four Corners. Crossing the Panoramic Highway at Four Corners, we headed down through Muir Woods to Muir Beach, then back up again on PCH for the second big climb of the ride to cross back over the Panoramic Highway a second time to get back to Sausalito and finally back home to San Francisco for 35 miles of good brisk riding.

I managed to finish, but just barely.

I didn’t really fuel up properly for the ride. I started the morning with a large bowl of Cheerios figuring that would be enough to get me through a moderate ride. I didn’t bother with any type of sports drink, snacks, or energy gels for the ride figuring a full Camelbak would carry me through the ride. Turns out a bowl of Cheerios will buy you about 25 miles of moderate tempo riding. That’s pretty good for one bowl of goodness, but for a 35 mile ride that creates some problems.

Next time, I’ll start with the Cheerios but continue with a something more substantial, and pack some Gatorade and a Clifbar. I also won’t ride on by Mike’s Bikes thinking, “hmmm… I’m running on empty… I could stop for 5 minutes and fuel up… no, I’ll keep riding.”

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Posted in training

Tags: doh! nutrition SF training

Cold Weather Cycling Tips

December 22nd, 2009

Cycling in New England (or anywhere it gets cold) is tough over the winter months. You must deal with the cold, the rain/snow, the wind, and the ice. Not sure what to do about ice, but I do have tips on the prior three. Here is what I have learned so far:

Tip #1: Goggles!!! Scrap the sunglasses and try your ski goggles. I find they keep my eyes and head warmer. The goggles fit well with my standard helmet.

Tip#2: Pay up for gloves. I admit, my first couple attempts were on the frugal side. Tried the snowboarding gloves in the closet…no good. Tried multiple layers of running gloves….no good. The issue was wind and water getting in. Finally made the purchased that changed everything about my cold wet hands. The Barrier Lobster Gloves from Pearl Izumi are wonderful. I couldn’t be happier. Hands are toasty and dry. The “lobster” fingers allow easy shifting. They are also a bit long, which helps keep the wrists and forearms comfortable. I like them so much I just bought their Barrier line shoe covers. I will come back with a review on those.

Tip #3: Layer Layer Layer. You can always take one off. Start out a bit on the cooler side though.

Tip #4: A head sock with a neck warmer for the real cold days.

Tip #5: Stay Dry with Gortex shells!!! Sounds like a no brainer, but any body part wet will destroy your ride when the temp get low. For now I have been fine with my Gortex Snowboarding jacket and pants. Over time I will buy some Gore gear for cycling.

Tip #6: Avoid a motorcycle helmet and goggle combination when biking in the cold. To warm in my view. I experienced sweat-ice build up inside the goggles, which was a pain.

Hope this helps my fellow winter cyclist!

Ride Safe,

David

WeBikeUS

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Posted in training, Uncategorized

100 runs in 100 days

December 22nd, 2009

Time for the annual 100/100 Run Challenge (login required) on Slowtwitch.com. Now in it’s 4th year, the challenge is to run 100 times in 100 days. The rules are simple, run a minimum of 30 minutes and it counts. Once a day for 100 days, or double up a day and earn yourself a day off – or finish over 100. The challenge started 12/15. Nathan is also participating!

Last year I managed 88 runs, 529 miles. This year, I’m shooting for the full 100 runs. Today is Day 8 and so far I’m getting my runs in. The first 7 have been on the treadmill, and today I finally got one in outside, 4.14 miles along the Charles River. It was cold, windy, snowy, but glorious to be off the treadmill. As an added bonus, I’m 41 miles away from hitting 1500 running miles on the year. Go me!

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Posted in training

Tags: challenge running slowtwitch training

Signs of Progress

October 20th, 2009

I’m going to talk about me (Nathan) for a minute. To monitor my progress as I get back into running, I started using a GPS and heart rate monitor to monitor my speed and heart rate. I’ve notice my heart rate gets going at about 180-185 BPM at a 9:30 pace. At that pace, I can hold a conversation, I can speed up if needed, and I seem to be able to sustain that pace for a few miles.

At 31 years of age, I’m pretty sure my max heart rate is supposed to be somewhere around 189 BPM (220 minus my age) and I shouldn’t be able to maintain anything above 90% of that which puts me at about 180 BPM. But, 180-185 BPM seems to be where I find myself running.

Until today.

Today I went out and my feet were pounding the pavement a little faster and my heart was pounding in my chest a little slower. On a 3.75 mile run, my pace averaged 9:07 with a heart rate of 172 BPM. I dropped 10 to 20 seconds off my pace and 5 to 10 BPM off my heart rate. Nice. Love seeing progress.

Maybe one day I’ll be as fast as Patrik and Dave. I have all winter to catch up. For now, I’ll just be a little proud of a little improvement.

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Posted in training

Tags: training

Century Ride Planned

September 22nd, 2009

David and I (Patrik) are planning a century ride… my 2nd ever 100 mile effort, and David’s first. Tentatively we’re plannig to ride the TFCE route sometime next month (October 2009). The goal isn’t really to ride for 100 miles straight. It’s more of a … at our current fitness level, can we ride 100 miles without killing ourselves? I think the plan is to ride about 35-45 miles, have a meal, ride some more, have another meal and then ride some more. You know, since we’ll have to do that every day as we traverse the country, we should start practicing it.