Category: Training Notes

Just a quick recap on training as I haven’t posted anything in this department for awhile.

I had a bit of a lapse in training for awhile but am slowly working back towards a two day cycle.. two hours on Day One, weights/ flexibility on day two.. and then start all over again.

Age kinda creeps up on you and I do remember Goerge in Gym class at Woodroffe High School belching on about how, if you go in to old age as a sedentary being your joints will get tighter and tighter and your posture will deteriorate.. I didn’t want that. That’s one reason why I decided to build my life around cycling.. but that changed when my wife and I launched our hand crafting business.

Now, when I wake up.. my commute to work is a scant 12 feet away.. so I get up.. get things started at my desk.. grab my coffee.. and start making product.. 8 hours later I’m still sitting there making product. And with it being the Pre Christmas Market Season.. I don’t really have the luxury of taking breaks.

But.. one thing that I’ve noticed.. I’m getting fed up with visual entertainment!

It used to be that I’d spin for two hours only if I had a good movie to watch. THing is- there aren’t many good movies any more. So, I started listening to long songs before switching to shorter movies.. but that got tiresome. 

The past half dozen or so sessions.. I’ve listened to long song after long song.. for the entire training session. I guess it’s good “training” since I won’t be watching movies as I pedal my boat around the world.. will I?!?!

Anyhow.. I’ll try to keep posting from MOBILEness as I meander through the insanity of the next few weeks.. but it’ll be sporadic.

I’ve been watching the original Point Break.. ever since it was a theatrical release.. 

I remember Lyle Herrington.. he was an usher at the Banff cinema.. and he “turned a blind eye” when my friend Lorraine and I decided we wanted to catch this new Keanu Reeves flick.. so we went in gratis. That was the way things worked in Banff back then.. one hand washed the other.. one minimum wage sales clerk helped another with their shopping. It apparently was common practice, as well, on Robson St. Vancouver.

Anyhow.. I remember the first time.. watching the shrimp and fries shack with amazement as I had just been there.. and then the Surfer Fight.. I had camped right there. I was watching a movie that showed me scenes of my journeys that had JUST taken place.. I had hitched down to Phoenix and bought my Rockhopper to cycle to.. Los Angeles.

I always get flashbacks of my youthful journeys when I watch Point Break and it definitely warms my heart.

Spun pretty hard for 120 minutes today and made no notes except mental ones about the seat build and positioning of the URT… and how the heck will I get a SECOND person on to that boat… in Kamloops (and Kelowna) I”ve got a few photo shoots and I’d love to pedal to a secluded spot.. ponderance of the day.

An hour seems so short now.

I’ve been spinning at 2 to 3 hrs for the last year or so.. only occasionally doing an hour and a half.. so, an hour.. 60 minutes.. seems like such a short period of time to be spinning.. I barely got in to the movie I was watching when.. I had to get off and pull some weights.

But.. it was a good, difficult spin.. 

There are many different “types” of riders.. myself, I consider to be a “Chunder” rider. The word “Chunder” coming from the latin To Chund (j/k).. I actually can’t remember where it came from but it predates my Triathlon life such that I inspired it’s use on the COP hill climbs. Another way to say it- I’m a “clydesdale” cyclist.. a bit heavier than those skin and bone riders and my legs rotate at a slightly slower speed.. but I push big gears. A lot. I’m the type of a rider that cracks frames by pushing them to and beyond their limits. I am, right now, overweighted but generally I’m not that bad.. 

Anyhow.. I spun.. but in my normal chunder gear. That means I tried to have a pedal rotation of over 90rpms but in a pretty high gear. Legs felt it after.

Then I went and did an intro triple set of free wieghts to finish things off. My upper body is showing signs of my work (I’m a handcrafter.. needle felter so I sit at my desk and.. poke wool fibre all day long.. nothing like I’m used to as a commercial painter or bike courier).

Feels pretty darned good.. now, on to web work….. yay. 

Training notes have been on hiatus the past little while.. trying to be more consistent so…

Carnage Visors
If you’ve never listened to that song it’s the soundtrack to a movie of the same name by a band called The Cure. If you’ve never heard of The Cure.. you should hear the sickness;) Anyhwow.. many movies come in at just under or just over 120 minutes.. which is, right now, my max spin time (max time I can allocate to spinning.. I’d go longer but work has it’s demands I have to attend to). So, instead of having to re- start the movie or move the playhead back.. I’ve taken to listening to Carnage Visors for 20 minutes.. it’s a good warm up time frame (I’m usually warmed up by 5 mins… but I try not to stop/ pause spinning until my first water “break” at just over 20mins so.. it really works well). And if I start the song before I start spinning, I know I’ve got a cushion of about  8 minutes before I need to be on the bike and spinning.. just so things work out if you know what I mean. 

But I’m kinda digging spinning with the music instead of visual distraction.. it allows me more time to think and think clearer. Who knows.. I might do some training with nothing but music.

Todays training was kinda tough.. chose a pretty hard gear- harder than I’m used to at any rate. And I was on the bike for 120 mins… at that hard gear. SO, my legs~ while not “wobbly” like I was whenI had my Vetta trainer~ are kinda soar.

But I’ve started (a few days ago.. er, week ago) mixing things up a bit. I’m trying to get to the point (with work) where I’ll be able to spin every day. My body can handle it.. my work schedule can’t. I used to commute each and every day.. sometimes as long as 45 minutes each way.. sometimes from South Granville all the way up to the top of the British Properties.. passing co- workers at Georgia and Seymour.. and arriving at work ahead of them.. well ahead of them. I loved the daily challenge.. and at the end of the day I loved blowing off steam (the descent from the British Properties, specifically, was awesome).

Anyhow- the “mixing it up” brings in some weights. I’m shooting for a 2hr spin on day one and a 60min spin with weights on day two.. weights are light right now as I’m so totally not a fan of weights but.. it’ll help my overall stature and abilities.. learned that when I was competing as a triathlete.. 

AND Work on The Magazine…
I thought about (for a REALLY long time) setting up a newsletter but I kept on “humming and haw-ing” as I felt something was *missing* in the concept. Finally.. I’m about to officially launch “Savage Progress” as a monthly digital magazine w/ quarterly print output! Maybe I’ve mentioned it already? Well, the Sample (I’m calling it the “Lorum Ipsum” issue as I’m using jabberqocky as text place holders.. and all the images are from my own corral as.. visual place holders.. all laid out as example, only). One page or two to go.. and it’s time to fine- tune the promo package and ad rates.. and get back in the saddle of Print Publishing!

I’m SUPER psyched.. I love publishing. So.. here we go.

It’s been a busy few weeks.. a lot has happened and a lot is about to take place.

I’ve been super focused on getting my support magazine ~ Savage Progress~ off the ground.. and it’s coming along wickedly.. a sample layout is almost done that’ll provide.

So, while I haven’t been training as consistently as I need/ want.. I have been on the bike a few times recently. And, this might sound odd but.. I’m setting tasks for my training..

In the past, cycling has been The Method of mobility.. so, I never really thought about it. Well, except when I was training for triathlon competition. That was decades ago.

Now, I’ve got some pretty specific goals so.. I need to make them a reality.

First goal is cutting a hole in the bottom of Boat #2 and building a “cowl” so that the water doesn’t rush in and I can install the Pedal Drive and.. pedal around on the water. The goal for this is Mid June. I want to put in at Bowness Park Pond for minor water trials.. but I really am hoping to roof- top the boat all the way to Kamloops to shoot with Phoebe at/ around Canada Day and then take the boat down to the Okanagan to see what it’s like on that kind of water.. what the gearing is like and all that.

The next goal is to get the lower half of the hull, for Boat #1, enlarged (taller) and the cockpit floor completed so the main or overall hull form is dialled in and I can cut through the floor to make the thru- hull for the Pedal Drive. While this will take more time.. I’m hoping it’ll be done by the end of the summer.. as I want to start showing off the boat and what she can do next spring.

Baby steps are important.. and so far I’ve been ambling along and mostly just “hoping” that things will come together. I think, with these two clear and not major steps, that I’ll be well on my way.. and I’m also hoping that by the end of this summer I’ll have a few other people “on board” to help out.

A day late.. that happens when you have a small home based business to worry about sometimes..  and yesterday was exactly that- a worrisome day that needed a lot of hands- on work which meant.. skip the training.

But today.. now that’s a different story… a different kind of training apparently.

I’m one of those folks that suffer from various allergies. Before leaving Vancouver in 2012 I had some tests done and we found out that I’m allergic to pretty muh every animal except horses. I can have a horse.. but nothing else. Great. Horses are cheap, aren’t they?

Fast forward.. one of my allergies is seasonally oriented and the season has started already.

Calgary doesn’t slowly warm up.. it doesn’t slowly get colder.. it goes from -20 a few days ago to +10 right now which is a wonderful environment for the breeding of.. snow mold.

Don’t get me wrong.. I’m not complaining.. I love this city- my neighbours are absolutely awesome and I love love love Calgary in general.. one time I was out on The Felt.. spinning down a hill (I think it was Nose Hill Road) and just burning along.. and as I was gonna turn at the next light what did I do? Shoulder check, signal.. change lanes.. somewhere in there a BIG black truck sped past me and came to a stop at the lights.. 

I came to a stop behind the truck.. and then the driver flipped it in to park and got out and I was like “Oh no.. here we go..” but…

“MAN!!! DO you know how fast you were going? You almost hit 70kmph!!!!” and he came up and shook my hand.. I think my jaw was on the ground.

Don’t judge a book by it’s cover they say and well.. this proves it. Calgarians, in general, are super nice.. sure, there’s a few nut jobs but there’s nut jobs everywhere.

Anyhow- the training today was difficult as allergies make it harder to breath smoothly, make my mouth “pastie” and a few other issues I won’t go in to BUT…. the gear I chose for the 120m spin was one harder than the last ride and.. my legs are telling me about it now. I thought I was in the same gear as last time but.. apparently not. One harder. Which is awesome.

Post St. Paddy’s day.. weekend ending.. 

Although I’ve been living in Calgary for over 5 years, I have yet to restock my winter cycling gear.. and while living in Vancouver my winter cycling gear slowly evaporated. So, while the weather outside is getting closer to roadwork.. the roads are still populated with rutted ice and the wind is still a tad bit too chilly for my gear. I’ll be fixing that this year.

Being something other than a “fair weather rider” is me, afterall. 

I remember couriering here in this (un)fair city.. it would be -420000 degrees or some such rediculous number and not a Bike Cop to be seen. Once the weather turned a balmy 10 above.. they’d be out there scouring the roadways looking for US… to make up their lost quotas, obvie! I swore I’d never be a Fair Weather cyclist. I guess.. time makes liars of us all.

Today’s training, therefore, was yet another indoor trainer sess. As I may have mentioned previously.. I tend to mount the bike with enhanced tension so, even in light gears it’s a harder workout. But, that got a bit tiresome (?) or, well- my body got used to it. I’ve burnt through many tires on both the Kestrel and the Felt this way.. added friction being added wear on the tire.. but I’ve never~ yet~ purchased/ used trainer specific tires.. probably wont, either.

At any rate- I’m used to pushing hard gears. The last training session was a bit lighter as my muskles were still kinda soar from the previous PUNCH’d spin sess… but this time- my muskles were SINGING as I flipped it up to the Big Ring and down a few.. working hard, my legs felt enlivened and… alive!  Kinda felt like my old self pushing hard gears, sweating profusely.. and loving it!

Today was a tough day.

A tough training session.

I’m in the process of saying goodbye to someone.. that person who thinks he is Less Than,.. who distrespects his own self.. that person that is a victim of abuses untol’d for decade upon decade..

You’d think that someone who just “dropped out” and went on a personal exploration meanderment for the better part of almost ten years would be above or beside the effects of abuses but.. in all honesty, the very reason I had to drop out.. the very reason I needed nearly ten years all to myself. Ultimately, it was time prepping and working to get closer to ME such that I could invite ANOTHER in to my life.

But.. that’s my headspace today. And difficult is as difficult does.. so, today- I turned it up a notch or.. two.

Normally, I’m happy to spin it out for 120 minutes with what ever movie I can find but today.. as I was doing my warm up.. I noticed I was pretty far down the cluster. A lot further than normal (well, one or two gears to be specific). I knew, also, that if I pushed it down another gear I’d be wanting to flip up to the big ring so…

I slipped up to the Big Ring!

So, up till now I’ve been content working on consistency.. spinning for 120 to 180 minutes at a stretch (it’s hard sequestering 180 mins.. so many different things to do and take care of…). I’d keep the gear lower, the resistance higher.. and just sit back and watch.. Shazam! or Deadpool.. or Star Trek or what ever.

But.. at heart I’m a Chunder King..  that means I push hard gears.

I’m not really a “spinner” but.. I am trying to learn how.

So.. today I pushed it down to a much harder gear.. same high resistance on the roller but a pretty tough or tougher gear. Legs were shaking when I got off the bike. Reminded me of that first time I strapped my bike on to a Vetta frame based wind trainer and span for what seemed hours (but the taxi company downstairs said it was 23 minutes due to the noise). Time.. fleeting.. 

Anyhow- training was good today. I feel like progress has been made.

Finally took the time to fix The Kestrel yesterday. It wasn’t a big fix.. but since I have the Felt.. I wasn’t in a rush at all. But- for use on the trackstand the Kestrel is rarin’ to go. So, strapped in and spun away for 120 minutes.. 60 mins in 6th.. 60 mins in 7th. Perceived intensity was upper edge(s) of moderate, nearly difficult. But that’s my perception compared to riding on the Felt.. the nice- ish thing about the Kestrel is that she’s got 700c wheels which fit my trackstand better. The Felt, with her 650c’s, has the resistance roller dialled almost all the way up which means there’s little room  for modulation- it’s either just making contact or.. not making contact at all. With the 700c’s I can dial it in and make the workout a nice difficult one.

Training.. it can be a hard thing to do especially when you’ve got a small company that demands a lot of your time. Trying to “eke” out an hour here, an hour there.. and trying to increase stamina can be worrisome and difficult.

Today while I was on my 120min spin I remembered something that was mentioned in an article generally about the boat Vakita and her captain. Specifically, he mentioned that pedalling the boat was akin to spinning on flat ground in third gear. Third is pretty easy.. I’ve logged 14 hour days in harder gears.. and uphill.. both ways (j/k),.

So, today I checked out what gear I was in.. 6th. And I train indoors on my trackstand/ friction trainer. And the friction is a bit harder than “regular” or flat road work. So, my guestimate is that I’m in about 8th gear spinning for 2 to 3 hours.. 

I also have a guestimate that if I can spin for 3 hours here in training I’ll be good to go for spinning full days around the world. I feel this because I have so much *other* stuff I have to do I can’t sacrifice much more than three hours.. and I’m also pretty well aware that you don’t have to train at full volumes for competition.. I never did as a triathlete. So, training for fractions at higher intensities.. BANG ON!

Long and short of it- I’m pretty solid on the cycling part of things.

And I’m pretty psyched about the mod’s I’ve gone and done to all my websites. The future is looking positive.