Ok...so I am sick.

The weather on Monday was second to none (for Minnesota in March that is). 75 degrees and sunny made for a wonderful day to commute to work by bike and get a nice ride in the park with the kids (total about 1.5 glorious hours). The perfect recovery day...except for the allergies which turned out to be a cold when I spiked at 102.4 degree fever Monday night and again on Tuesday and recovering again today? I'll keep my fingers crossed!

Schedule...

Just off a wonderful weekend that didn't include much on bike time but wonderful family time!

Put in a hard hammer around Elm Creek Park today (Snow's all gone!:-). 1 hour full out and attacking each section and hill. Oof Da!

Back into the schedule

I love my folks and when they come to visit. We all have a great time and the kids get spoiled! They left today after a 1.5 week visit. It does, however, goof up my training schedule and eating schedule and I definately felt it on today's ride and at the gym.

Exercise: 2 hour 15 minute ride hooking up with the Loon State crew out of Trailhead Cycling and Fitness. avg HR 143. max HR 189. Below Zone 1 for 14 minutes. Zone 1 for 32 minutes. Zone 2 for 50 minutes. Zone 3 for 32 minutes. Above Zone 3 for 11 minutes. Lots of wind on the way back made for a fair amount of work with some hard tempo intervals and a few sprints. The legs didn't feel so bad but I did seem to get winded easily (like I was at altitude). I know the body does weird things with a disrupted schedule, but eeesh!

Strength Training:
I haven't lifted much for the past week so I eased back into the typical full body routine with slightly fewer reps but still focused primarily on legs and back.

Prairie Roubaix II Wha Hooo!

Couldn't have asked for a better day to play in the country!

Neil, John and I rode out to Fletcher for the PR II and rode back. Check out the full story on the TSH Blog!

Exercise 4.5 hours. -3800 kcal. 1.5 hours Zone 1( +below). 1.5 hours Zone 2. 1 hour 20 minutes Zone 3. 6 minutes above Zone 3. Avg HR 131. Max HR 184.

Nutrition: yeah...lots (my folks are still in town)!

White out!

Nice little double header today with a 2 hour outdoor ride with 4 other Loons (double entendre intended) and 2 hours indoor.

The outdoor ride started pleasant enough with a bit of a stiff SW wind and clouds. It started snowing when we got to Fletcher and turned into a flat out, white out blizzard conditions when we hung a right onto CR144 all the way to Dayton! Surreal indeed. Is it wrong to feel a sense of pride when the people in the car next to you at the stop light are looking and laughing at you?
:-D

Exercise:

4 Hours (2 out, 2 in) Avg HR 134, Max HR 185. Several hard tempo efforts during the outdoor. 44min below Zone 1. 1 hour 24 min in Zone 1. 1 hour 15 min in Zone 2. 36 minutes in zone 3. 10 minutes above zone 3. -3500kcal

Nutrition:
400kcal grapenuts and banana
200kcal coffee and creamer
100kcal oatmeal
200kcal muffin
300kcal cheetos (I forgot my lunch money today...)
100kcal oatmeal
350kcal peanut butter and jelly sandwich
150kcal Hammer Recoverite
1000kcal Hammer Perpetuem (mixed my first 4 hour bottle and it went down smooth...very cool stuff)
1000kcal chicken strip leftovers
300kcal peas and carrots
150kcal crackers
4250kcal total

Energy balance: negative -750
intake 4250
expenditure 5000

Elm Creek Road TT

Another beautiful day in the neighborhood today! 60 and sunny for early March is awesome up here. Got outside for a 1.5 hour spin on my cross bike and a couple of hard efforts on a roughly 3 mile out and back on Elm Creek Road between Goose Lake Road and Fernbrook. The road's a bit rough but has some nice features that keep it interesting. Start/Finish is at the Stop sign onto Goose Lake Road and the turn around point is the last big crack about 50 feet before the stop sign on Fernbrook. Neil was thinking we should mark it sometime.

For what it's worth, my fastest time was 12:38. My HR monitor was not working so I couldn't tell how hard I was working or how close to VT i was.

Elm Creek Road TT Course

I went inside after that and put in 2.5 hours on the trainer. Played with Hammer nutrition. The Pertpetuem goes down easy and I could feel the impact.

-3100kcal

Nutrition:
1000kcal Perkins breakfast (eggs, hashbrowns, bacon and toast)
200kcal Coffee
900kcal PF Changs Oriental chicken salad
600kcal Apple Struedel
500kcal Hammer Perpetuem
100kcal Hammer Gel
150kcal Hammer Recoverite
600kcal Beef, Veggie and Noodle soup
4150kcal

Energy balance: Negative -450kcal
intake 4150
expenditure 4600

Strength Training

Strength Training:
3x15 Squat 65%RM
3x20 Calf Raise 65%RM
3x15 Hamstring Curl 65% RM
3x15 Quad Extention 65% RM
3x15 Good Mornings (95lbs)
1x25 Bench Press 65% RM
1x25 Seated Row 65% RM
1x25 Lat Pull Down 65% RM
1x25 Shoulder Press 65% RM
1x25 Shoulder Raise 65%RM
4x25 Crunches
2x15 Torso twist on Free Motion Cable
3x15 Hanging leg raises

Prarie Roubaix II Preview

Took a nice, long recovery ride today in the glorious sunshine! Rode out to Fletcher and did a couple of laps on the Prarie Roubaix II course. It's going to be fast! The dirt sections were pretty dry, hard and smooth.

Come out and play on St. Patrick's Day! Ride the PR II!

The south wind was a huge pain but was wonderful when going back north again on Oakdale and Trail Haven. 25mph on the dirt without effort!

Exercise:

2.5 hour easy spin outdoors. avg HR 127. max HR 153. -2000kcal

Hard Training Ride with Ride 2 Eat

It was great getting out with 4 of the Ride to Eat crew today! It's been about a year and it was great seeing Zabby, Toolboy, Gumer and Kostik.

As expected, Greg and I wound it up to near max on most every hill with a few sprints sprinkled in for good measure. I know its a bit early in the year to go so hard but...what ya gonna do? It was great fun running down and blowing past some poor roadie on Summit at 25 mph with me on my cross bike running studded tires and Greg on his mountain bike! Ah...spring has sprung!

Exercise: 3 hours moderate/hard with near max hill intervals, sprints and pulls. Avg HR 140. Max HR 186. -2750kcal

Schedule crunch

Sorry for the brevity...

Only had time to lift legs today.

Strength Training:
3x15 Squat 65%RM
3x20 Calf Raise 65%RM
3x15 Hamstring Curl 65% RM
3x15 Quad Extention 65% RM
3x15 Good Mornings (95lbs)

Training Day

3 hour easy to moderate indoor spin. avg HR 124. max HR 142. -2400kcal

Nutrition:
400kcal cereal
200kcal coffee and creamer
100kcal oatmeal
300kcal cheetos
400kcal peanut butter and jelly sandwich
400kcal peanut butter and jelly sandwich
200kcal yogurt
500kcal chicken
100kcal popcorn
300kcal cake
400kcal grapenuts and banana
100kcal popcorn

Energy Balance negative 500kcal
intake 3400
expendiuture 3900

Training Day

Exercise: 3 hour endurance ride on the trainer.

First 1:30 avg HR 124, max HR 146, -1100kcal
Second 1:30, avg HR 139, max HR 160, -1400kcal (sustained intensity 5min in/out saddle)

Nutrition:
400kcal cereal
200kcal coffee and creamer
450kcal cookies
950kcal lasagne with salad and bread
100kcal dessert
1000kcal dinner
400kcal cereal
100kcal chicken

Energy balance: negative - 600kcal
intake 3400
expenditure 4000

318 Ride

The weather couldn't have been any nicer for the 318 ride today! Chad and I had a few small detours through and around some unplowed sections in Excelsior.

The legs felt a little rough from yesterday's snow day festivities but we kept the pace reasonable even though the heart rate data argued otherwise.

3.5 hour 318 ride. Avg HR 147. Max HR 202 (anomoly since my max is 192).
Below Zone 1, 5 minutes
Zone 1, 30 minutes
Zone 2, 1 hour 40 minutes
Zone 3, 1 hour 10 minutes (must've been the headwind on the way back)
Above Zone 3, 2 minutes

3500kcal total

Nutrition:
400kcal grapenuts
200kcal coffee and creamer
200kcal sandwich
300kcal peanut butter and jelly sandwich
450kcal bacon, egg and cheese muffin
250kcal rhubarb bar
150kcal sprite
300kcal meat sticks
1200kcal burrito
500kcal fast food leftovers
400kcal icecream
4350kcal total

Energy balance: negative -650kcal
intake 4350
expenditure 5000

Snow Day!

We LOVE snow! Especially when it comes in large installments.

We spent most of the morning making this huge snow fort with a tunnel, multiple platforms ideally suited for snow ball throwing and a large ramp for sliding.

Snow fort digging, 4.5 hours, -1000kcal

Pulling Alli and Chrissy in the sled behind my bike for 30 minutes, -300kcal

Lifting at the club - 250kcal

Indoor cycle with 5 minute, hard tempo intervals at Ventilatory Threshold (172 bpm) 60 minutes. Avg HR 135, Max 175. - 850 kcal

Strength Training:

3x15 Squat 65%RM

3x20 Calf Raise 65%RM

3x15 Hamstring Curl 65% RM

3x15 Quad Extention 65% RM

3x15 Good Mornings (95lbs)

1x25 Bench Press 65% RM

1x25 Seated Row 65% RM

1x25 Lat Pull Down 65% RM

1x25 Shoulder Press 65% RM

1x25 Shoulder Raise 65%RM

4x25 Crunches

2x15 Torso twist on Free Motion Cable

3x15 Hanging leg raises

2x60 sec. Plank

Nutrition:

400kcal grapenuts

200kcal coffee

500kcal chicken salad sandwich

600kcal mac and cheese

300kcal corn and tomato soup

400kcal cake

250kcal chicken

500kcal fries and hamburger

300kcal cereal

3450kcal total

Energy Balance: Negative -450kcal

intake 3450

expenditure 3900

Training Day

Exercise:

3 hour moderate spin with 5 minute tempo intervals at VT. Avg HR 135. Max HR 176. -2600kcal.

Nutrition:
400kcal grape nuts and dried apricots
100kcal coffee and creamer
500kcal chicken ceasar salad with extra veggies and chickpeas
400kcal crossaint rolls
600kcal yogurt
500kcal steak
200kcal asparagus with sauce
2700kcal total

energy balance: negative -1400kcal
intake 2700kcal
expenditure 4100kcal (1500base+2600exercise)