Roger Bikes

Tag: training

  • Skate ski season and therefore drills

    Skate ski season and therefore drills

    We have had a late snow season in MacOS, Colorado, and the entire United States this year. This has delayed my interest in skate skiing. I have also been extra cautious about my finger injury.

    For the next week we are getting three snow storms giving us anywhere from a foot to two feet of snow. With that the ski park, Chicken Creek Nordic Center, a few miles from home should open shortly. Reducing my commute to the currently open parks, Lizard Head, Priest Lake, Durango, and Telluride, by at least an hour.

    My goals this year is to improve my skating technique. I’m doing well with the basics of standing and balancing. Now it’s time to start flying.

    In skate skiing there are five generally agreed upon styles for propelling oneself down the track:

    • Diagonal
    • Offset(V1)
    • One skate(V2)
    • Two skate(V2 Alternate)
    • Free skate

    Currently I’m pretty good at Diagonal and Offset(V1). The next evolution is to use One Skate(V2) as it’s the most efficient in terms of power vs speed.

    The following link is for a video on an excellent set of training drills for improving my technique. I like the combination of dry land and on snow drills. I can do the dry land ones anywhere anytime. Then on snow I can reduce the motions into pieces and build into the complete movement.

    One skate box drills

    I’ll let you know how it’s going.

  • Getting started with rowing

    Getting started with rowing

    I returned the really expensive mountain bike a few weeks ago. It was too small and I also don’t need a super duper high end mountain bike. I don’t need to go any faster than I already go. In the meantime the ground is covered in snow and riding a bike out of doors is not happening as much.

    This creates a lack of aerobic exercising which leads to a grumpy Roger. No one wants a grumpy Roger, especially me. At first we considered getting an indoor bike trainer setup. One consideration was to get a trainer that we could attach our road bikes to and ride inside. Another was to buy a spin class style trainer.

    While I was researching all of this I was also reminded that indoor rowing is a great aerobic exercise. A few years ago I got into the CrossFit thing as a good friend owns a gym here. CrossFit uses indoor rowing as an anaerobic workout or for warming up. I enjoyed using the rower, the rhythmic movement is similar to how pedaling a bike becomes a rhythm, and there is no impact.

    So I started researching indoor rowing machines and quickly identified 2 main types: air resistance and water resistance. The most famous air resistance is the RowErg® by Concept 2. You will see these in most gyms, they started making machines in 1981, and are used by elite athletes for training. There are a variety of water rowers on the market. The advantage of a water rower is that they are less noisy.

    My goal with the rower is training and the RowErg is very reasonably priced compared to all types of brands I reviewed. I asked my Crossfit gym owner friend for advice and she highly recommended the RowErg. So the purchase was made.

    We took delivery on Christmas Eve and I have used it all but one day so far. We agreed to set it up in the guest bedroom in the basement. This gave it a dedicated space so that it is always ready to be used. We can also close the door to avoid bothering anyone else in the house.

    With the location determined now we need to start rowing. Apple Fitness+ offers rowing classes so we started using those. They are good workouts but a little short and more focused on keeping a high stroke rate of 26 to 30 strokes per minute. One of my goals in 2022 will be to row a marathon or 42194 meters. Training for that will require slowing down and rowing for much longer.

    Concept2, who makes the RowErg, have an extensive training section on their website. Part of this is a Workout of the Day (WOD) which emails you each morning 3 workout options for the day: short, medium, and long. So far I have done 2 of the long workouts and they have kicked my butt. The first was 2 sets of 6000 meters and the second was 3 sets of 4000 meters.

    Concept2 also has an online log book that you can manually enter or use their mobile app to do so. The app connects wirelessly to your rower to collect workout data which you can then quickly sync to the cloud. This helps them keep the cost of the rower significantly lower. Once you upload the data you can then see what other Concept2 users are doing from the Rankings tab of the log book.

    Concept2 goes even further with this and has Challenges throughout the year to keep you motivated and even connect with other rowers. There are also teams and races depending on how involved you want to get. For now I am using this as a training tool especially while there is snow on the ground.

    As with any new toy I am tempted to use it all the time right now. However this is a great way to burnout and even get injured. I am giving myself some time to get used to rowing without getting too crazy. I will continue to take it fairly easy and use it as a way to prepare for rowing our raft on the Usumacinta.

    Once we get back from the trip I plan to start training for a Marathon effort sometime in April or May. That should give me enough time to get used to spending long periods of time on the rower.

  • 1 year review – Apple Fitness+

    1 year review – Apple Fitness+

    A year ago Apple came out with its streaming workout video program known as Apple Fitness+. I have been using it off an on the the last 12 months and have found a lot of value from using it. You have to have an iOS device, an Apple Watch, and a subscription to Fitness+ to access the classes. There are a variety of types of classes, coaches, and music genres to choose from.

    When I first started using Fitness+ we were visiting Kate’s father in Virginia. There was a spare room where I was able to do my workouts. I used my iPhone as you cannot access Fitness+ on a Mac, only iOS devices. This is less than an ideal setup as the screen is so small. I used my Airpods to keep from annoying anyone else with the noise.

    My first workouts were Yoga and Core as I wrote about here. Once we got back to Colorado I started doing HIIT and Strength workouts as well. These kicked my butt. I got super sore for a while.

    Now we are in the house and I have an Apple TV connected to a projector it is much easier to follow along. Especially for the dance classes, where I need the most help.

    At the end of the day Apple’s streaming fitness video service is very polished. The camera work, coaches, and music are all well done and entertaining. The workouts I have done are all effective. I like some coaches more than others. You can do it on your iPhone but an iPad is really the minimum I would suggest. Ideally you have an Apple TV connected to a TV or Projector.

    It would be nice if there were more filters for finding classes. Some are much more difficult than others and can catch you off guard if you aren’t expecting it. However, there is always one of the coaches in the background taking the moves at an easier level. I want to think I can always keep up with the main workout, but I have learned when to take it easy and not let my ego push me into getting injured.

  • Monday Morning Ride

    Monday Morning Ride

    Had some hesitation for this morning’s ride. Its a strength day so I want to avoid over exercising, which is a lame excuse cause I don’t workout that hard. It is also dark longer in the morning so I was worried about visibility. However, once I was up and soaked in the hot tub I got over my concerns and decided to get in a nice 1 hour ride.

    The sunrise was just gorgeous this morning. I hit the road about 15 minutes before it came up over the San Juans and I was able to get a a few pre dawn photos in that came out great.

    As I approached the area where the Ute tribe raise a herd of bison there was a group of deer hanging out. They weren’t bothered by any of the trucks and cars flying by at 65 mph but lil ol me got them all startled and running off.

    Most of em headed east away from the road but a group of 3 were stuck on the wrong side of the fence. They were running along parallel with me and the road about 50 yards ahead. At first I was excited and enjoying the chase but then I had the realization that they each outweighed me by about double. If for some dumb reason they decided to double back at me it would suck.

    Fortunately my fears were even more dumb and they eventually managed to jump the fence and rejoin their group. Just another morning in Mancos I guess.

    Later buddy!

    The rest of the ride was uneventful except for the sun rays pouring out of the clouds like a heavenly vision. I was thankful my tail light was flashing to alert any sunrise distracted motorists of my presense. Car’s rear ending cyclists only make up about 10% of all car-cyclist collisions but I have to imagine they probably don’t work out well for the cyclist.

    They say that near death experiences make you appreciate living more. I try not to dwell on my close encounters but occasionally wonder what the distracted driver who gets me will be posting on Facebook at the time of collision. When people tell me to be careful while out riding I remind them that its really up to them and their driving if I am going to be safe or not. They seem to get my drift, mostly.

  • FTP (Feel The Pain) test day

    It’s been since last October that I’ve done an fitness or FTP test. After a good warmup you go as hard as possible for 20 minutes. Then use a calculator to figure out what your heart rate or power meter zones should be for training. This personalizes you training zones not just to your body but to your body at this time.

    As we improve our fitness our muscles get stronger and more efficient. This applies to the heart as much as the bicep or hamstring. In aerobic training the focus is one getting the heart to maintain a high level of output while being as efficient as possible. Science has shown that training the heart at a percentage below maximum is best for improving the hearts capabilities.

    If you are interested in this stuff I recommend researching Joe Friel. He wrote the book on this stuff and is a very successful athlete and coach. He created TrainingPeaks.com which is software for compiling your workout data and then analyzing it.

    Personally I’m touch and go with this level of training. It has the ability to wipe out all the fun of bike riding. It also has the ability to make you into a jerk. Currently I’m back on the wagon because we have a house being built and this will help distract me from thinking about that too much. There are also going to be bike races this year and I’m thinking of doing some of them.

    That said while I’m going to be following my workout routine I’m not going to be obsessed with it. I’m going to do my best to get all the workouts done first. Then I’ll try to hit the goals of each one.

    One big change this year is that I’m using Apple Fitness+ to help me with the strength workouts. Last year I was using my body weight workout routine which works great but it’s too cold outside to do that just now. Instead I’ve started using the Functional Strength workouts in Fitness+ and let me say this: ouch.

    I did my first class yesterday and I’m still sore. Turns out that you need to keep doing squats and deadlifts in order to be able to keep doing them. I was so sore this morning I was a little worried about being able to do the ride.

    The good news is that once I was on my bike the magic kicked into gear. Sure it was 30F and I had pretty much all my cycling gear on but I was grinning ear to ear the whole ride. One thing I was taught years ago in sports was to smile. It throws your competitors off but also gives you a psychological boost. If you can smile then it can’t be that bad.

    It is recommended that you try to do your fitness tests on the same route to reduce variations and try to keep the results neutral. My route starts on road 40. It’s about 4 miles from my house and gives me a nice warmup to get to it. Then I use road 40 to push myself as hard as possible.

    It’s a nice route because it doesn’t have a lot of traffic and it is uphill. Another recommendation is to have a route that climbs a little so that the challenge is more consistent. There are a few sections you may call steep but in Colorado that’s just a hill!😂

    At the top of my route you take a right into the Nordic Center parking lot and then onto the roads and trails of the Nordic Center. Unfortunately there is still snow in the Nordic Center so the top end of my route is not yet rideable.

    So today when I got to road 40 I kept going on by. This gave me a nice downhill to spin my legs out on and further my warm up. A couple miles down is the turnoff for road 41. I turned around there and started my test from there. This gave me a few miles on pavement before hitting the dirt on road 40. It was a perfect call as I hit 20 minutes about half a mile before the Nordic center and had a solid effort.

    Some instructions for a good fitness test is to go hard in the first 10 minutes but keep it back just a touch from full effort. Once you hit 10 minutes you reassess how things are going. Do you feel good or are you starting to wane?

    If you feel good then you should continue what you have going and consider stepping things up a bit. Remember there’s still 10 minutes left so you have to do what you just did. You want to finish the test strong.

    If you are starting to wane then consider pulling back a little. Give it a minute or two and reassess how that feels. Again the goal is to finish strong not spent. It’s only a 20 minute test so you should not be collapsing before the finish. After the finish?

  • Fitness Test Day : 89/100

    Fitness Test Day : 89/100

    Today was day 2 of my cycling training program. Yesterday was a strength day, and today is the fitness or FTP test. I wrote about the fitness test on May 16th on the 16th post of this blogging challenge. I know I had said I was only going to watch my time on workouts but I have added heart rate back. This is more helpful for telling me when to reduce my effort. It is amazing how often we are working way too hard in aerobic workouts. The purpose is to train your heart, and science has shown us that training from 85% to 94% of your lactate threshold heart rate (LTHR) is where you make your heart stronger.

    Determining LTHR is done by going as hard as possible for 20 minutes. You take your average heart rate during that effort and have an approximate of what your LTHR is. From there you use a guide or calculator to determine your training zones.

    On today’s test my LTHR came out to be about 6bpm less than the last time I did the test. There is a possibility I could have pushed harder but I am tired tonight which I attribute to pushing pretty hard this morning. This isn’t exactly ideal but since I haven’t been doing aerobic training for over 2 months it should not be a surprise. I guess I know why I am doing the training now.

    Overall it was a beautiful morning and a great ride.

  • Keeping fit : 6/100

    Keeping fit : 6/100

    When we hit the road 6 years ago Kate and I had just completed our second of two half Ironman triathlons. We had trained with a coach for about 8 months. As a result we were in possibly the best shape of our lives.

    Once we hit the road our workout volume dropped significantly. I tried doing some bodyweight exercises. However we mostly just focused on living in the RV and adopting Dazey and Enzo. As a result we lost our fitness.

    Personally I noticed it most when getting up from working on something low to the ground. Or when grabbing pots out of the under sink cabinet. Kate would even mention that I sounded old with my groans and sighs. My back and knees were not feeling great.

    Getting older means that the ‘use it or lose it’ mantra applies more everyday. In 2015 I hurt my knee pretty badly doing a relatively minor task. This required surgery and I ended up on crutches for a few months while my meniscus healed. Physical Therapy(PT) was brutal but I knew it was critical for my recovery.

    The last time I had done PT was in University 16 years earlier for almost the identical injury, just on the other leg. Back then I took for granted my body’s ability to heal and recover. I did some PT but it didn’t take long to get back on my feet with full range of motion.

    This time it took considerably longer to regain the strength but the flexibility part was the most frustrating. One goal was to be able to bend my leg till my heel touched my butt. When we started I was about 8 inches away. The therapist was really helpful here by giving me some encouragement. As the weeks went by I improved, but it took work everyday. Not just when I was at the therapist’s office.

    After that surgery and recovery I started to realize how important staying in shape is. Beyond being able to bend down and pick things up without groaning and pain, staying in shape prevents injury.

    6 years ago I did the St George Half Ironman triathlon. It was a pretty cool achievement that required months of training. Today I am not running anymore as my knees like to break too much. So I am focused on riding my bike to stay in shape and have fun.

    My next goal is to race in an endurance mountain bike event, once this pandemic stuff settles down. I was hoping to either do a 12 hour event or a 100 mile event this year. Now I am focused on training and getting ready to race in 2021. My goal is not to win but to finish with a smile on my face.

    In the meantime I am focused on the process of training. Compared to when I was young, I am learning to enjoy the training process. When I was in high school I hated workouts and just wanted to ride my bike or play soccer or ice hockey. Workouts weren’t fun, at least that was my mentality. Now I know how important training is for being prepared for an event or activity. Training also gives me daily routine and makes me feel more confident and comfortable during the rest of the day.

    This post just touches the surface of what goes into my training. Currently I am using my Apple Watch to collect heart rate, distance, and speed data. I then upload this to the Training Peaks software to compare and analyze it with my training program. Currently I am following a training plan focused on athletes over 40. This has an adjusted focus towards recovery. So far I am enjoying the program and have been following it almost exactly for 4 weeks.

    Workout details:

    Today we are back on strength training. I did the recommended routine and felt good. This is the 3rd day in a row that I have not had coffee before my workout. I am mainly doing this to keep from waking Kate up in the morning. However I am also interested in seeing how it affects my ability to complete the routine. So far I have not noticed any decrease in performance or lack of enthusiasm.

    My pull ups seem to be progressing. Today I did 4 sets of 3 reps. I used a neutral grip for the last 3 sets as it felt stronger. The entire workout looks like this:

    1. Warmup – Various movements to get the body going. About 10 minutes. This is part of the workout I have learned to spend more time on.
    2. Pull ups 4×3 / Squats 3×8 – 1 min rest between each set then do the other exercise. This gives over 2 min of rest between the same exercise.
    3. Dips 3×7 / L-Sits 3x30sec – Same as above. My L-Sit is progressing and I currently try to pick up one leg at a time.
    4. Rows 3×7 / Diamond Push Ups 3×7 – Same as above.
    5. Core – Various things from knee ups, side lifts, supermans, etc. Mostly I still hate doing core exercises. Need to make this part more fun.

    That’s what I have for today. I will get into the riding side of the training more tomorrow.

  • For the Recovery

    For the Recovery

    As someone over the age of 40 it is important to focus on recovery as much as if not more than my hard workouts. If you are over 40 you should understand the why of this. If you are not yet 40 then get ready. 😂

    Snoozing Dogs

    As we age our bodies get slower and not as good at recovering from injuries. Exercise is in effect a mild form of injury. In order to grow muscle you have to push it to its limits and cause small tears in the muscle fibers. The muscle repairs itself and overcompensates to make itself stronger than it was before the exercise.

    If you don’t give the muscle enough time to repair then you make no progress in gaining strength. If you do this often enough you can achieve something known as over training. Generally the rule of thumb for endurance training is 3 weeks of progressive overload followed by 1 week of recovery.

    I say generally as this is applied to athletes in their 20’s and up broadly, but if we circle back a few paragraphs we see that as we age our ability to recover gets worse. To compensate for this the training program I am currently following does 2 weeks of progressive overload followed by 1 week of recovery.

    That was a long way of saying that this week is my week of recovery. 😎

    Today I had a 1 hour recovery ride which means I pedaled about as easy as I could without falling over for 1 hour on a flat road. My heart rate stayed in Zone/Level 1 and I could have easily held a conversation for the entire ride.

    It was a beautiful morning with a light southerly breeze. Riding around Tubac for the last 5 weeks has been really nice and I will miss it, a little. The roads here are not in the greatest of conditions and there isn’t a lot of shoulder. The nice thing is that the drivers have pretty much all given be a wide berth which is always appreciated.

    I listened to a number of podcasts this morning:

    ReWork – The Soul of an Entrepreneur – Great discussion about entrepreneurs from an angle that is less typical these days. Turns out we don’t all have to be Elon Musk or a Kardashian to be successful.

    Short Wave – On Earth Day, What You Can Do For The Environment – 50th Anniversary of Earth Day is tomorrow. 3 things to focus on: 1) Educate yourself, 2) Make conscious purchase decisions, and 3) Reduce travel. While individually we might not make a huge impact on climate change we will change our thinking and perspective. This will then force our representatives to adopt our thinking and perspective. Maybe.

  • Sunday Ride – 3 hrs of riding

    Sunday Ride – 3 hrs of riding

    In a few religions Sunday is a day of rest. In the world of Roger’s cycling training Sunday is a big day of riding. While we aren’t going for crazy hard efforts like in intervals we are riding the longest and biggest ride of the week.

    There are a few reasons for this: 1) Its Sunday so I don’t have anything else to do besides some chores and 2) I gotta get in my long rides sometime during the week. Kinda the same thing but I needed a list in this paragraph for SEO.

    Since we have been parked in Tubac for about 5 weeks now there has been a pretty consistent use of heading south on the I-19 frontage road to start a ride off. This is because the wind is generally southerly and the road does not dead end at a US Border Patrol station.

    For today’s ride I need a 30 minute warm up before I climb for 2 sets of 15 minutes. It just so happens that about 30 minutes south of Tubac there is an exit for the I-19 that has a dirt road which climbs to the west of the interstate. This is perfect for our needs.

    The climb ranges from 5˚ to 12˚ grade and gets pretty scrappy at points with large loose rocks. Staying in an L2 to L3 heart rate zone is a challenge but that fits well with the slow RPM’s around 50 to 60.

    I did well on both climbs and managed to keep my heart rate from getting too high. The view from the top was pretty awesome:

    Time for an apple flavored power bar.

    Once the climbs were done I returned to the Frontage road and kept riding south for another hour and 20 minutes. Then I headed home and ended up with 35 miles of riding and just over 1300 feet of climbing.

    I felt better after today’s ride and attribute that to eating more while on the ride. I had 2 apples and a bag of dates with peanuts. I also added some powdered Gatorade to my second water bottle.

    Next week is a recovery week so the overall time on bike will be shorter allowing my body to recover to the work the last 2 weeks have done.