Not Much to Write about...

There isn't a lot to write about since my first/last post here. I haven't raced at all yet, as the cycling season is over for the year here in Minnesota. 

We had an excellent autumn: several weeks of mornings with temperatures in the low 50's and upper 40's (Fahrenheit), then afternoons in the 70's. I commuted by bike a couple times a week, which I found to be a lot more convenient and refreshing than I ever imagined. It's about 9 miles one way. After a few weeks, I left earlier in the morning and extended the route to add some mileage. I'm fortunate enough to have accessible showers and lockers at work, so getting sweaty is not an issue. I'm not die-hard enough to bundle all the way up and sweat it out in the freezing temps, but I'm really looking forward to next spring. I'd like to shoot for commuting at least 3 days a week. I don't see myself commuting by bike everyday due to activities after work with my son, and my wife works one or two nights a week, getting home around 8 am. If I were to bike to work, I generally wouldn't be at my desk until after nine, and that's just a little too late for my taste (and my boss' taste, I'm sure). 

Winter finally came just a couple weeks ago, and with one last weekend ride outdoors (29.5 miles), with the afternoon temperature reaching a high of 33 degrees, I decided to officially switch the rear tire to the bright orange trainer tire. The bike is now mounted into a stationary trainer like this:

The whole set-up:

I've started my own training regimen, that consists of elements snatched and pieced together from different cycling blogs and forums. Right now, I'm taking a shot at intervals, trying to boost my power output. I have no idea what my current power output is, so I have no before/after stats to compare, but I'd like to think that the burn is helping something. 

I typically do a 10 minute basic warm-up, consisting of a couple minutes at an easy spin with very little resistance, then slowly build up the resistance (by switching to higher gears) one minute at a time, then take 2 minutes of an easy spin at the end, then hop off for a very quick, light stretch. 

The two different interval sets I'm trying are 1x1' (one by one minute) and 2x20' (two by twenty minute) intervals. 1x1's consist of one minute at near-peak exertion, then one minute at a low resistance spin for recovery. I usually start with 30-45 second intervals at first, for 4 or 5 sets, then bump up to one minute sets until fatigue, which is usually after 7 or 8 sets. 

For the 2x20's, I typically spin at about 70-80 percent of my perceived exertion (as that's all I really have for reference) for 20 minutes after the warm-up, then take a 5 minute recovery at a high cadence/tempo with very little resistance, then do another 20 minute interval at a slightly higher resistance. 

I've already seen vast improvement in my level of comfort in just three weeks of doing these intervals, rotating them every other workout, just two days per week. What's nice about these is that each workout only takes about an hour, including warm-up, stretching, cool down, and stretching afterwards, and I'm pretty spent at the end of each of them. Anything longer than a hour of staring at the wall and out the window, and I think I might go Jack Torrance on my family. 

This is hockey season as well, and I'm still playing in a "competitive" men's league once a week. So I've been counting that as some lower body cross training. I also get some short runs in about every other week, and get some high-rep upper body lifting once or twice a week to keep the core and auxiliary muscles in shape for other activities. 

Right now, I'm setting my sights on my first bike race for Mid-April, as that's what I'm seeing as the beginning of the racing season around here. 

For the record, my goal is to achieve Cat 4 level by mid-summer (which simply consists of racing in 10 mass start races), and entering at least two sprint triathlons this summer. The first triathlon is in late-June back in my hometown in southern Minnesota. Haven't picked out a second yet. 

The swimming is going to start sometime in January. That is my worst event in the triathlon by far, and my least favorite for which to train.  But I did see progress last winter through my very limited training, so I'm kind of looking forward to tracking my progress this year as I have a little better idea of what I'm doing. 

So for now, don't expect many posts. If I come across anything that I add and find interesting or worthwhile, I'll write about it. 

Otherwise just assume that I'm spinning away in my basement with my earbuds and playing beer league hockey.