cycling rocks

taken 08/22/2006 - Racer at Portland Int’l Raceway

When marathoning, we sometimes used an accelerate schedule to accommodate less days of running. This means we ran three days a week. Tuesday was maintenance, medium workout, medium length; Wednesday was intervals and speedwork; Saturday was long, long run. I think this schedule would work for off season training as well.

Depending upon your goals this fall and winter, you too can have more time with your family and friends by adopting a 3-day a week workout.

Try this:

Day 1: 1-2 hour maintenance ride. Spin not too hard, not too soft. As Goldilocks would would say, “This is just right.”

Day 2: Kick ass intervals of thirty seconds HARD!, one minute recovery, do it again around four or five times. Stick this in during a decent race pace. I’ll usually use a DVD like Race Simulation on the trainer to get an intense, dedicated workout. Don’t like the trainer? Hey. The fun, easy road ride will come over the weekend.

Day 3: Longer three or four hour ride. Endurance miles. Don’t kill yourself. Throw in a sprint to keep it interesting and fun.

taken 09/20/2006 - Ready to ride with Carmichael’s climbing DVD

Kirk Nordgren, CTS Coach writes, “Right about this time of year, I start to notice the beginnings of a subtle change in the athletes I work around. They start complaining about little things. A training session on a hot, 90-degree day suddenly seems unbearable to them, whereas two months ago, the heat was a minor annoyance. Their weekly group rides or runs switch from fun rolling parties to miles of quiet suffering. In cycling terms, the switch can be as understated as someone telling me that they’re “going for a ride,” versus “having to train.” A “ride” infers an invigorating spin while “train” invokes work and exhaustion. —”

I think you all know when you need a break from training. I figured it out this past month after the Torture 10,000 where I got severe burn out. Don’t get so far into hard training that your mind can’t keep up. Scheduling a break for two to four weeks can make a difference in attitude and motivation.

Two things. Seriously. This will save you loads of time trying to figure out the nutritional information label on food.

1) When you’re shopping, look at the ingredients. If it lists high fructose corn syrup or evaporated cane sugar or any of ose’s (fructose, glucose, etc); find another brand that doesn’t have that in it. Oh. You mean ALL the breads has sugar in it? Sheeze, what to do?

Buy some yeast, get some bread flour and go home and bake some. It’s really easy. I make ciabatta that takes forever to setup, but you know, bread is bread. You can make decent bread in a couple hours. You can even use a bread maker. Below is an easy recipe from Caprial and John’s here in Portland. I leave out the bleu cheese.

2) When you’re shopping, look at the ingredients. If it has partially hydrogenated anything, don’t get it. You don’t need it.

Rolled Blue Cheese Bread
Makes 1 loaf

1 ½ cups warm water
2 teaspoons dry active yeast
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
About 3 cups flour
2 teaspoons salt
4 ounces good quality blue cheese
Sea salt

Place the water, yeast and olive oil in the bowl of a mixer fitted with a paddle. Mix and allow to stand until the mixture starts to foam about 5 minutes. Add about 2 cups of flour and mix well. Add the remaining flour a bit at a time until the dough starts to clean the side of the bowl. Add the salt and mix about 5 minutes. Remove from the bowl and form into a ball. Lightly oil a large zip lock bag with olive oil and add the dough. Let rise about 1 hour until doubled in volume. Remove from the bag and gently form into a 6 x 12-inch rectangle. Sprinkle with crumbled blue cheese. Roll like a jellyroll and pinch to seal the ends. Let rise about 30 minutes. Heat oven to 425 degrees while the bread is rising. Place the bread on a stone and slash the top and top with a bit of sea salt. Cook until golden brown and reaches an internal temperature of 200 degrees. Remove from the oven and allow to cool before slicing.

taken 08/11/2006 at the Health Net Crit in downtown Portland.

Sweet Innovations. This E-motion roller from gets a Cycling Rocks Award for awesomeness.

Look at their video page for instance. I like the one where he has the rider kick it up a notch. Amazing. Can’t really do this on regular rollers or trainers.

I first saw it on the web somewhere, then saw it live at the Healthnet Crit downtown.

Puttin’ this on my Christmas wishlist.