Slacker? I Think Not!

So I was alerted to the fact that due to a lack of blog posting, that it must mean I'm not working very hard in my training... Oh how far from the truth that really is... Perhaps I'm just keeping all of this training I'm doing a secret? Or maybe I am being a slacker and skipping workouts? Oh please, you all know me better then that... don't you?!

Ok so I'll catch things up...

Yeah still doing the KMA cycling class at Coach Greg's school of pain and suffering twice a week as well as Roberto's a pound of pain equals a pound of muscle strength training every Saturday morning. Once Roberto is done with us we head over to the KMA Pain and Fitness center for a two hour trainer ride workout.

So safe to say training is progressing although scheduling has been a bit weird with all the other stuff. Hard to believe this is week 8 already!

Last night's KMA class was heavy on the off the bike leg work with several rounds of single leg speed squats rolling right into iso squats. On the bike time consisted mostly of the big gear grind it out stuff. A set of Leg Cranks was thrown in just for good measure.

• 5 min ez spin warmup
• 3 x 30 sec w/30 sec rest high cadence S17-15
• 4 x 1 min w/30 sec RI, B23, B21, B19, B15 standing
• 1 x 5 min hard build to 85-90% max
• 1 min ez
• 3 x 45 sec single leg w/15 sec RI
• Off Bike: 4 x 1 min single leg, 30 sec speed squat, 30 sec iso squat w/15 sec RI
• 1 x 5 min B12 seated 60 rpm
• 1 min ez
• Off Bike: 3 x 90 sec: 60 sec speed squat, 30 sec iso squat w/30 sec RI
• 1 min ez
• 5 x 1 min w/1 min RI: B12, stand 15 sec seated 45 sec
• Off Bike: 4 x 1 min single leg, 30 sec speed squat, 30 sec iso squat w/15 sec RI
• 2 min ez
• 5 x 30 sec w/1 min RI: B12 standing sprint
• 2 min ez
• 1 x Leg Crank series
• Stretch and Done

Good stuff and legs toasted. Still, managed to make it out for an hour run in the dark mist this morning. And surprisingly I felt pretty good. Managed to hold a decent pace and still keep my heart rate down.

Run Stats: 7 miles, 58:24 (8:21/mi), 144 avg HR (67%)

Whew, okay pretty much caught up on the last couple of days... Still left out the super secret training though. ;)

Super Saturday

Started the day with a workout with Roberto at his gym with a small group of cyclists and triathletes. Now that KMA has started, we have moved our workout to Saturday mornings through February. Really going to do most of our work on glutes, hamstrings and core. This way we can still get a long ride in later without trashing out the quads before we even get on the bikes.

Roberto does a really good job of keeping things fresh with new exercises and keeping our bodies guessing. I have seen a definite improvement in my core strength since we started back in October. Today's workout was, as usual pretty tough, but very fun!

Warmup and Core:

• Jogging circle around gym mixing in jumping jacks, push ups, skips, tin soldiers, sprints
• Burpie's w/jump w/medicine ball
• Burpie's w/push up and jump w/medicine ball
• Standing circles w/med ball
• Back extention to forward bend w/med ball
• Abs: w/medicine ball
• V-Ups, Bicycles, med ball on shoulder and crunch to opposite knee
• Abs: no med ball
• Plank raise opp hand and foot
• Side plank with crunch to straight leg
• Rocking crunches: Lay back w/arms crossed in front and bring knees to chest. Now rock up to sitting position KEEPING YOUR KNEES TUCKED! rock back down. Dont' let feet or shoulders touch...Repeat for 60 seconds

Dumbbell/Kettleball Work:

• Front raises, two hands, squat with weight between feet, stand and raise weight overhead with straight arms
• Front raises, single arm, squat with weight between feet, and stand and raise overhead with arms straight
• Wood choppers
• Turkish Get Ups: lay on back dumbbell held straight up, sit up, opposite hand on floor and push to squat position, stand holding weight above hand, arms straight! OUCH!! Five per side
• Turkish Get-Ups into side plank: lay on back, dumbbell held straight up, roll onto side and into side plank position, same side foot off ground entire time! OUCH part two!! Five per side

Station work:

• 1 - Dumbbell chest press on swiss ball bridging onto elbow 2 x 10 reps
• 2 - Sledge Hammer on tire, 5 different hammer sizes, 10 reps per hammer
• 3 - Hamstring Curls on swiss ball, 5 two feet, 5 single foot (2 sets)
• 4 - Rope Climb and 10 pull ups
• 5 - Bag Kicks w/kinetic bands: outside cresent x 10, inside cresent x 10, bicycle kicks x 20, side kick x 20, per leg

Whew awesome workout, then off to the KMA Pain and Fitness Center for a couple hours of bike trainer time. Pretty good turn out of people, some making up for missed classes during last week and a few familiar faces from previous years that aren't doing the normal KMA class this year.

Coach Greg got us going with the normal warmup and then started some folks on their 20 minute time trial and others on their max heart rate tests. Man was I glad to already have had that done and just needing to get in about 2 hours of tempo riding. So while everyone else got ready for their sets, I settled into a nice steady cadence and once the heart rate was near tempo range (80%) I just put things on cruise control. This is probably my favorite type of riding, especially on the trainer, because it simulates pretty close to race pace for half and full Ironman racing. Spent about 25 minutes at this pace and then a short recovery.

Finished up the time alternating between low (70 rpm) and high cadence work (110+) varying the duration. But maintaining that tempo effort heart rate. By the end of the workout I wasn't feeling too bad, but did feel like a good morning of training had been done.

Ride Stats: 32 miles, 1:53:30, 141 average HR (69%)

KMA v 5.0

Kicking off the 2010 version of KMA (kick-my-aaaaanerobic) cycling class tonight. This year will be the 5th installment in the yearly winter time pain and suffer fest. But it's all good pain as coach Greg will have you believe. Big difference this year is we are in a new building. Bike Stop was getting a little tired of us having to move all their bikes around to fit us all in. Plus I'm sure the place was a mess the next day even with us trying our best to clean up when we left.

And it is true... I come out of this class every spring feeling strong and ready to rock and roll. Although no amount of indoor trainer riding can fully prepare you for what wind resistance and gravity will do to you once the warmer days roll around and you're out on the open road again.

But I digress... Tonight's class will feature a 20 minute time trial to set some training zones for future workouts. Should look something like this...

• 5 minute easy warmup
• 3 x 30 sec with 30 sec rest, high cadence
• 4 x 1 min w/30 sec rest, B23 100rpm, B21 95rmp, B19, B15 standing
• 5 min hard building to 85-90% max heart rate in the last minute
• 1 min easy
• 4 x 45 sec one leg drill, 30 sec on w/15 sec rest, S17 80rpm
• 3 x 1 min w/1 min rest, hard effort to get ready for TT
• 3 min easy
• 20 min TT, this will not feel good
• 4 min easy
• 3 x 20 sec fast pedal w/ 40 sec rest, 120 rpm
• 2 min easy
• Finish with some core and leg work, squats, lunges, etc.
• 5 min cool down spinning
• Stretch

Yep that sounds like about it. Should be fun!

ps - first swim at noon today after a week off with the holidays and man did I feel like crap. Like swimming in jello. Weak and slow! It'll will get better now with better consistency.

• 300 warmup
• 8 x 50 drills (finger tip, catch up, paddles & buoy)
• 12 x 100 on 1:50 (coming in about 1:34 today!?)
• 8 x 50 drills (same)
• 200 cool down