Training for a century at home

Our gym pass expired and in our attempts to be thrifty we are trying to make it this month just working out at home. The bike is still out of commission but I am not defeated.

30 min of stretching continues
20 squats daily
3 sets of 10 second planks
2 miles of walking
100 crunches
20 knee ups
20 cross foot taps

Day one went awesome
Day two we had a dog follow us home
Day three, still success with the work out and the dog is still in our house. Bath given, food bought, collar on. I might be delving into Animal adoption blogging in the next few weeks. If i leave you hanging this adorable dog is at fault.

Another Day, another cross training

after 3 days of feeling utter lack of motivation, mixed in with long days at work I finally convinced myself to get back to the gym. Everything feeling proper I was able to get a good mixed work out in. 20 min level 10 on the elliptical, as well as full sets on the leg and arm machines. Still along way from my goal but can feel the fitness level rising =)

Back to the Parks Recreation Center at the Kilgore College campus today, printer issue still not resolved however wanting to keep the momentum going I did 12 min on the stair stepper, 5 reps of 10 on the leg abduction and 4 sets of 10 with eight pound weights. The gym was VERY busy tonight so that is where I ended and came home.

The results thus far: I was noticing gains in my upper body strength prior to hurting my upper arm over the weekend and it remains sore today (hence the minimal weight lifting). Monday, Tuesday and Today have all been focused on leg strength and I am noticing gains already. My bum remains a bit sore from the ride on Monday ... keeping rides short at this phase is most likely a good thing.

I am going to try to get some photos of the rec center up for everyone to see sometime in the next few weeks.

Century Training Week 6

Week 6 of training and these entries are becoming popular, so popular in fact that Google Ads thought I should advertise for bikes in my blog =). This week was close to a failure for century training, WE had a huge weather shift and my motivation hit rock bottom. So here it the weeks re-cap

Trek Wahoo

Monday: Cross training 1 mile walk
Tuesday: Nothing
Wednesday: Snow!
Thursday: Cross training 1 mile walk
Friday: Nothing
Saturday: Cross training 5 mile walk
Sunday: Cross training 1.5 mile walk


This is the Bike that I have been using over the past month, the Trek Wahoo, and at the end of this post are a whole bunch of bikes that Google ads is affiliated with if you want to do a bit of bike shopping =)

enjoy!

Century Training Week 4

Having over 6 months to get ready was an excellent decision.

This past week I did two 8.2mile days and today knocked out a 16miler. The 8.2 pushed me but were not to bad, I did start to encroach on darkness biking after work and put a headlamp on my helmet (great decision)

The 16mile ride today was excellent, it kicked my ass on the hills but overall I think that I will be able to do 30 miles next weekend. The downside to today's ride is it took me about an hour and a half, so that's about 10 miles an hour and the average time it looks for a century is 6hrs, thus i need to bump up my speed to about 17mph.

This week done, next week I am going to do some more 5milers and work on bumping up my speed. I have also taken to doing some excellent stretching post ride which i feel has really helped me prevent injuries.

First 3 weeks of training

If anyone has been following along I apologies my blogging has been almost as dedicated as my training. Almost is the key here.

After a good start with biking to work and I have biked to work about 5 times over the last two weeks. One day about a week and a half ago I went to the gym prepared to do my first long ride of the training. I had 15miles on my mind when I walked in and I was prepared. However 2 miles into my ride my knee started to have intense pain and i pushed through for another mile. Being unable to stand the pain i switched type of stationary bike and did another painful mile. Giving up on the bike I went to the treadmill and walked a final mile, totaling 5 miles for the day. Super bummed I slowly walked back to my apartment and iced my keen while trying to find the cause. Self diagnosis, i had the seat a bit to high and was using my toes more than I should have putting strain on my knee mussel.

Two days of pain and ice before I was back in go mode. I went to the swimming pool and did 30min of laps to help build the muscle group back with almost zero impact. That was a very good choice and I was back on the bike within two days.

Over the past week I have been doing 5 mile rides that are lovely, even if the oil trucks make things a bit dusty, just being on the back roads has been excellent.

Goal for this week bump the 5milers up to 8mile rides and if the weather turns to get a gym pass and do leg training  I am not quite ready to get back on a stationary bike, I read many horror stories after my knee a few weeks ago and think that I want much stronger legs before I try the bike again.

Training for a century!

Working towards my goal .... nothing too crazy yet, a few bike rides to and from work, making a point to get out walking regularly and hope to get some good riding/ hiking done this weekend. Not being sure if the hike/ walk part of my life really has any impact i did some reading and found this

... provide some variety to your workout. Even more variety can be found in mountain biking or roller riding. This is important, because if training gets boring, it most likely gets less intense and possibly less frequent. So don't be afraid to try something new, even if that means competing in a USCF event or even a triathlon. Cross-training is also a bonus for distance cycling because overall body fitness is the key to fighting fatigue in long events. My weekly schedule includes running, hiking, weight lifting, Tae Kwon Do, racquetball, and ultimate frisbee and I am convinced this is an asset to me on the bike....(http://www.adventurecorps.com/way/dctrain.html)

The person who wrote this has done a double century, I think I can trust this advice =) During the same search I found this, that I think I will implement in September, way more than 10 weeks out, but if I can build up to it sooner why not =)

Century Training Plan
Week	Length of Long Ride	Total Miles/Week
1	25	55
2	30	65
3	35	73
4	40	81
5	45	90
6	50	99
7	57	110
8	65	122
9	50	75
10	Century Ride	Yeah!

Century Training Days 3 and 4

Back from my wedding and starting back up with my training for a century. I spoke with my brother who told me that when he was first training he was doing time not distance(which i am doing) and told me that once he switched to distance he made much greater gains... so at some point ill have to make that shift. I am not mentally ready for that as of now however.

The first day back, day three of my training I had absoultly zero desire to get back on a bike, but knowing i had to do something i went for a brisk mile and a half walk ... but its something

Today i work myself up bright and early and biked to work, it was slightly chilly, my fingers got  bit cold but overall it was great!

Two days towards my century

My youngest brother is training for an iron man, and while that is something that i have zero interest in I do enjoy a good bike ride. While looking at the non profit sector in Maine I came across the lobster ride and though I can do the short one and he could do the long one, and it would be something we can do together, like a bonding activity =) I facebooked this idea to him and he called a few days latter to tell me point blank that i should do the century with him, i have a whole year to train .... true point. I am leaving for my destination wedding on Thursday so don't have much time to get started, but i figured why not start now. My goal is to bike for an hour every day between now and than .... the real goal is most likely to bike 6 hours a week, and perhaps when spring come around ill up that once i can bike outside again.

Day 1: Not bad, the traffic and lack of bikeable area in the town is crap, however the West River Community Center has a decent loop around it that i did 5 or 6 times. I went all out on this one, even using Ians I pod for some tunes.... i enjoyed the tunes, the ear buds made my ears hurt.... will have to find a better solution as time passes on.

Day 2: My but hurts, my legs are tired and I only made it 30 min