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Training Week in Review

Work Summary

Monday: Convict Conditioning New Fish: Wall Pushups (3x20) & Knee Pulls (4x10), Swings 1x15, C&P 1x(1;2;3) & Swings again 1x20. Cycling: 10.8 miles.

Tuesday: Pumps, Halos, C&P 3x(1;2;3).

Wednesday: Rest, though cycled about 8 miles

Thursday: Halos, C&P 4x(1;2;3), Swings 2x20, Snatches 5 each hand, Swings 1x10. Grip work: 3 attempts to close my CoC "Trainer". none successful. Dangit.

Friday: CC New Fish: Vertical Pulls 5x20, Shoulder-stand Squats: 1x10.

Saturday: TGUs 5 minutes. Snatches 10 each hand. C&P 5x(1;2;3) (maybe 6 sets, I wasn't sure), Swings 3x25.

Sunday: Rest. Cycled 12.4 miles at a fairly lazy 11 mph pace.

Salient Commentary

Halos are fun, but I like TGUs to warm up my shoulders better. I can't always get to them though, so when I can't, I can just do 4 per side, since that's about how many I can get in within 5 minutes.

Shoulder-stand squats will be the bane of my existence. I know this because I have to hold my gut up in the air, and it sucks. I'll work on it better next week, damnit.

Working out later in the day means that I sleep better, but I think that working out first thing in the morning means that I feel better throughout the day. Not sure which is better.

Kelly pointed out that my feet were more splayed out than I thought (closer to a 60° angle than <45° like it should be). Will have to work on that.

I thought early in the week that I'd lost a lot of the conditioning & strength that I had built up in the past. By the end of the week I think I didn't quite loose as much as I thought I had, but sure as shit my Snatches needed work early in the week. We'll see how it feels next week. I plan to Grease the Groove those pesky Snatches until they feel better. Goes back to something that Dan John said: "If it's important: do it every day." Snatches are important to my progress, so I'll be continuing to work on them. Plan on earning a new Kettlebell within the next 4 weeks, and getting up to the standard 24kg (probably going to order it the first week of February, if not before...

Programming through March and long term naval gazing

I just spent most of the morning doing my workout programming through the first week of March. I'd go further, but that's when I expect the weather will start getting warm enough for me to begin adding in cycling to the mix, and that's likely going to cause re-structuring everything again. Note that I haven't stopped cycling per se, I've just reduced my mileage to "back and forth to work with fun rides thrown in when it's warm enough". Once the weather hits in the upper 30s lower 40s I can start adding in 10-ish miles per day until it actually gets warm out. Then the milage will increase, and we'll see what happens with weights.

Basically my plan is to basically restart my training program moving Kettlebells to a Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday plan with Monday and Friday as Bodyweight days. I'll be keeping to those days for bodyweight stuff until I complete the New Fish requirements from Convict Conditioning.

New Fish basically takes you to being able to do up to "Step 6" in Pushups, Pullups, Squats, and Leg Raises. My pushups need work. I've never been able to do a pullup. I can squat thanks to years of martial arts, but I figured I may as well "put it in the bank", as they say. My lower abs are weak thanks to years of carrying around extra weight in that region so I'll be starting from square one in all four of those calisthenics exercises. I'd like to get to "master level" on at least one of the "Big 6" from the book by the end of the year (my money is on the Pistol, a.k.a. one-legged squat, but we'll see), though I'm not in any rush.

Fun things that will be worked up to in the program: Graduating from 16kg to a 24kg Kettlebell (which should happen mid January), 200 two-handed Swings (end of January), 100 16kg Snatches in 5 minutes (end of February), 100 1-handed Swings per hand, and maybe if I'm strong enough, getting up to 5x(1;2;3) Clean & Press with the 24kg Kettlebell by the first week of March. Then I'll likely re-program for finishing the "RKC-Rite of Passage" by the end of May. I'll probably re-evaluate my progress and see what I've accomplished and what continuing goals I've yet to achieve.

I'll also be summarizing my weekly training, and also putting in a weigh in once per week along with everything else. Stick around. I'm going to make 2010 my best year ever.

Feels like forever

It feels like forever since I've both worked out and since I've had a chance to update the blog. I've got some really cool things coming down the pipe for 2010, and I'm excited about them. I'm not sure how much of them I can divulge yet, but I'll be a busy boy that's for sure. So what can I talk about?

I've got 3 planned 100 mile bike rides on the calendar (100 Miles of Nowhere, the Philly Livestrong Challenge, and the 2010 AIDS Ride for Life. That's going to be a lot of biking to train up for, but I think I'll be able to do it, considering I haven't really stopped biking this year, but I'll have to look at my schedule and when these three rides are to make sure that I don't totally burn out between them all (shouldn't really be an issue).

Fitness Goals for 2010

I thought it would be a good idea, since this is my fitness blog, to put down some quantifiable goals for this coming year:

• Drop to 15% body fat. — last time I checked I was still around 30% so this would be a good thing, as heart disease runs pretty rampant in my family
• Complete the RKC-RoP with a 24kg Kettlebell
• 1 strict tactical pull up
• 1 pistol, each leg
• RKC Snatch Test with a 16kg Kettlebell
• Bike all three 100 mile routes on my calendar
• Bike 3000 miles in 2010

Looks like I've got my work cut-out for me! This is gonna be a treat!

Two weeks in Review

Man, it feels like ages since I've actually done anything beyond going to class and teaching at Wells. According to my records it's now been almost 2 weeks since I've really done anything with my Kettlebell, and it's really frustrating me. The good news is that I found a chiropractor who gave me an hour or his time to adjust my back and fix (likely for now) and address some of the imbalances and oddities in my body. He suggested coming back into the office in 2 weeks for another adjustment and "as needed" or "6-8 weeks to make sure you're still in the right spots" for future follow-ups.

The man is built like a tank, which is quite the change from my last chiropractor who is quite skinny, though highly skilled. Dr. Alise spent about an hour with me, going over everything he was going to do and really took the time to understand what I needed. I would highly recommend his services to anyone who is thinking about needing an adjustment in the Ithaca area.

So, onto the plan. Since it's been a few weeks since I've been active with my weights, I think I'm going to join a few other folks on these interwebs with the December project of Turkish Getups and Swings. I think scaling back my workouts and concentrating on working through some of my body's issues will allow me to get back into it this month. Next month I'll restart my Clean & Press work and gradually try to get back on track again. I'm thinking about taking whatever moneies I get for Hannuka this year and put it towards a 24kg Kettlebell...either that or a hand-full of books from DragonDoor. If I get enough monies though, I'll probably do both!

Who remembers what week this is, I don't

This morning's workout had a minor setback at the "end" of my C&P practice. Had the Kettlebell over my head in lockout and felt this click right between the shoulder blades. Hurt like a sunofagun, but feeling a bit better now. Cats woke me up bright and early around 5ish so I figured I'd make use of the early start to actually get back into a groove.

Today's plans include going for a bike ride to try out my new ThermoGnars from Swobo, cleaning my bike up and maybe getting in another set of swings later, depending on how I feel.

I think my 2 weeks off are going to make me scratch my Snatch goal date. I think I should "finish" my current set and bell weight, move onto the 24kg Kettlebell and "start over" with the Program Minimum for 2 weeks with the new bell. Then I should do the Rite of Passage again. By then, if I can stay healthy and complete the RoP, then I'll look into the RKC Snatch test.

What then? I'm not sure. We'll have to see what's doing at that point.

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Workout log for today

Warm up: RKC-Arm Bar 16kg 3x each arm.
TGU 16kg x 10 minutes — yes, I decided to up my TGU time. Practicing slower movement and feeling every fiber. Quite the difference in terms of technique, but I think I like this way better.
Goblet Squats 16kg x10

Workout: C&P 16kg 3x(1;2;3) — click in spine at the end. Decided to go low number wise since it's been a couple of weeks since I actually lifted.
Swings 5x20 before pain/cats took over.

Winter Gift Giving Holiday Wishlist of Random Stuff

Here's a list for anyone who may want to get me anything for holidays. No particular order should be inferred.

• Swobo L/S 753 Jersey size L
• EW&R Boston Bike Polo shirt, size L
• EW&R Riddle Me This, size L
• Spud Inc. 24kg Kettlebell
• CoC Griper No. 1
• CoC Griper "Sport"
• Strong and Healthy Hand kit
• Strong(er) LS T-Shirt, size L
• Viking Warrior Conditioning Book
• IronMind tough as nails MiniBag
• Tough-as-Nails Mini Duffle
• Tough-as-Nails Duffle
• Tough-As-Nails Sandbag Set
• The Rest of Buffy that I don't have
• Lift Strong Shirt
• Size Large Strong(er) long sleeve shirt
• Train! Large sweatshirt (any color)
• P3 Hoodie Size L
• A new wallet

Ouch!

Just when I think I'm getting into a roll, I have some sort of setback. A couple weeks back I managed to sprain (or worse, but this is my unprofessional medical opinion) my right elbow, which has kept me from doing any lifting. This has also made jujitsu class painful, but I've been trying to tough it out anyway (in Jujitsu that is).

This morning, I managed to actually do a little workout before my elbow twinged and I almost dropped 16kg of Kettlebell on my noggin. Good thing I dropped it back into the rack before I dropped it onto my skull. Ah well.

I've decided I'm going back to the Program Minimum for a week as rehab. Also, my calluses are virtually gone from being off for 2 weeks and that's going to play murder on my first set of Snatches, I can tell.

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Workout numbers for today

RKC-Arm Bar x2 each side

Pumps x 5 just to warm up the body

C&P 2x(1;2;3) — elbow tweaked, abandoned after evened out on Left side

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The plan now is to do the Program Minimum for the rest of this week and see if I can re-do my Light day on Saturday.

ETK: RKC-RoP Week 5: Light Day

Hands felt fairly destroyed after the workout below. Had a hard time getting warmed up since it was a little chilly in the house when I started. My Snatching form today wasn't as good as I would have hoped, but the numbers were a bit better than I recall from my last set of efforts, despite having to walk away from my Kettlebell a couple of times to remove a kitty from some place she shouldn't have been. May have been able to get in 50 if not for her this morning.

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Workout numbers for today

Goblet Squats 16kg x 5 — Warm up

RKC Arm Bar 16kg x 5 per arm

C&P 16kg 5x(1;2;3) — found myself counting these weirdly today: the last 2 sets were more like 1;2;3 on the right and 2;1;3 on the left... probably just because it was < 6 in the morning when I was starting.

Snatch 16kg 40 x 5 minutes at about 60% effort — noticed that I had a tendency this morning to let the bell sort of fall onto the back of my hand at the end of the Snatch. I'll probably play with my snatching tomorrow for Variety to see if I can clean up my form.

ETK: RKC-RoP: End of Week 4: Heavy Day: in which Kelly totally shows me up in the Swings deparment

Once again, Kelly is totally showing me up in the swings department... she's already at "150, bitch!" and I don't think she's stopping (10 minutes...she says she's going for 250). I'm going for my 100 Snatch challenge, starting on Monday, and we'll see how many I can do on Monday, and we'll adjust it from there.

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Workout numbers for today

Goblet Squats 16kg x 5 — ass to ankles

RKC-Arm Bar 16kg 5 x each side — I love this exercise!! Wow!

TGU 16kg x 6 min

C&P 16kg 5x(1;2;3;4) — next week, totally going to try for 5!

Swings 16kg 50 x 3 minutes

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Edit: Kelly hit 250 in ~15 minutes. She's totally rockin!...and I'm totally jealous...but we're going for different things. And then she tried climbing the stairs and her legs said, "Ow!".

Goal Setting

Wiser people than me have pointed out that it's a good idea to write down goals. Wiser still folks say that you should have attainable goals, and only a few of them within a year. I'm going to take it 1 step further for my lifting goals. I'll come back to this in a moment.

Inspired/reminded by a recent blog post by Dennis Gill that the best way to increase gains is by cycling (no, not the kind I normally do), but by a gradual increase in weight with an end result in mind.

So what's my goal? Well a good start for me would be the 100 Snatch test with my current bell. I'm going to focus on one specific thing beyond the general Enter the Kettlebell RKC-RoP workout that I'm doing: I'm going to attempt to pass the RKC-Snatch Test, with my current bell: 16kg, as a precursor to being able to do it with my target kettlebell. How to do this?

Well in my last snatch workout I documented here I hit ~ 35. I think the last time I did snatches I hit bigger numbers than that, but that's a good starting point if not. So the goal being 100 in 5 minutes, and adding 5 snatches a week, I should be able to get in 100 snatches in 5 minutes by adding 5 reps per week until January 23rd. I'll update again on Monday when I've actually got my Snatch day, and we'll see if this goal may be sooner than I think!

ETK - Medium Day, or "Failure is not an option!"

I believe it was Ed Harris in Apollo 13 who actually got to say the words "Failure is not an option!". I approve of both the sentiment as well as the training philosophy, and in this morning's workout I almost hit failure, but backed off instead. Is there any good reason to actually "train to failure"?

Going to get more of a workout tonight at Wells. Hopefully it'll go better than Monday's classes...which I feel were disastrous. Better next Monday for sure!

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Workout Madness:

Naked RKC Arm-bar 1 rep each side — I stumbled across a great video on Straight to the Bar on Monday, and I just had to try it out. Next time, I'll try it with my 16kg kettlebell and see how it feels!

C&P 16kg 4x(1;2;3;4) & 1x(1;2;x;x) — The protocol for today's workout was supposed to include 5 sets, but the rule that I've read in Pavel's books can be paraphrased as if you hit failure, you're done for the day, and I really like that idea. So after I couldn't Press that bell on that 5th set, that's it for now.

Swings 16kg 30 in 2 min. — again with the low numbers! My phone clearly doesn't want me to burn a lot of fat this week...

RKC-RoP — Week 3something: Heavy Day

Man, oh man, this one was a total burner. I'm totally smoked, but the best part of this? Kelly did her workout right after me: 200 swings with her 8kg kettlebell in 10 minutes. I can't believe she beat my numbers (she says she wasn't even trying to do so)! I'm so proud :-D

TGU 16kg x 5 minutes — Warm up.

Goblet Squat 16kg x 5 slow reps, ass to ankles — more warm up.

C&P 16kg x 5x(1;2;3)

Swings 16kg 90 in 5 minutes.

Too many donuts today, but needed the heavy workout to minimize the damage...

RKC-RoP Week 3somethingish — Medium day

After being sick for my weekend workout (and doing my heavy day's C&P anyway), I didn't have enough breath on Monday to actually do a workout. Yesterday wasn't much better, but at least I wasn't actually still sick. So this morning, I grabbed my Kettlebell for the first time in what felt like a week and got in a workout. How do you spell relief? I spell it S-N-A-K-E E-Y-E-S, aka: 2. Why 2? Part of the RoP protocol is to "Roll the Dice" for your time at Swings and Snatches (or at least such is my understanding), and I just when I needed a day to not totally kill myself (I still have to head to Wells tonight for Cardio Kickboxing and Self Defense), I got it: 2 minutes on my Swings. So Swing I did!

16kg TGU 1 x each side — Warm up/wake up

16kg Goblet Squat x 3 — more WW-Up

16kg C&P 4x(1;2;3) — Could have done 5. Next week, I'll start in on the actual RoP! Yes!!

16kg Swing 36 in 2 minutes.

Been a while, but training has been happening!

It's been a while since I posted, but there has been a-trainin-goins-on. I've gotten up to 4x(1;2;3), and if my memory serves me correctly, I'll be hitting 5 ladders come Monday's workout (which means I'm just that much closer to earning my 24kg kettlebell, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. Still have to do wacky things like save enough money to be able to afford to buy it in the first place, which may or may not coincide with me ordering a whole bloody slew of them (a 12kg for Kelly, who's already finding the 8kg ones she's working with on the light side, and perhaps a "full set" — another 16kg a 24kg and a 32kg for myself — though that will depend on package deal prices, how much I have available to me, and where I'm ordering them from...and whether or not she actually wants the heavier bell.).

Where was I?

No weight workout today

Knee/ankle pain from last night's classes certainly didn't help my cause, but I tried doing 1, yes 1, FTW squat and almost yelped in pain in my left knee. So taking it easy today and skipping putting any extra load on my knee/ankle.

If I'm feeling up to it tomorrow morning, I'll likely do today's workout tomorrow.

RKC-RoP — Week 2a: Variety

Spice of life, huh? Was thinking about doing some TGU work this morning, but decided to cuddle a sleepy kitty on the couch instead after she woke me up at 5 this morning. That's okay: kicked some butt last night at Wells, and abs are feeling good today!

Tonight: Classes!, Tomorrow: Medium day!

RKC-RoP — Week 2a Light Day

The protocol for increasing your C&P is to start with 3x(1;2;3) (or even 3x(1;1;1)), and work your way up to 5x(1;2;3) for the Light Day's workouts. I'm just now doing:

C&P — 16kg 4x(1;2;3)

Snatch — 16kg 31 in 5 minutes — Did something a little stupid on my left shoulder, where it does this roll out of the joint thing when it's at full extension & loaded & and I haven't sucked it into the joint. I wish there was a CK-FMS near me, and I don't know if any PT would cover this kind of problem...

Wells & SToIC tonight! It's gonna be a rough day, I can tell already since I'm the only one in the office with Don on Vacation. Gotta remember to bring my Kettlebell with me to New Hampshire this weekend so that I can get in my Heavy Day before the wedding.

RKC-RoP — Week 1b Heavy Day

Kelly and I biked down to the Apple Festival this morning to meet up with Helena. That was fun, though a little too much food (homemade Apple Fritters from the German baker on the commons + 1.5 Chicken Salad Sandwiches at Simeon's = Good food but lots of calories!). 4.68 miles of cycling with Route 79 in the way...

Warm-up: TGUs 2x5x16kg in 5 minutes

C&P 16kg 3x(1;2;3) — 30 seconds of jogging in place between ladders

Swings 16kg 72 in 7 minutes

Tomorrow is a rest day, and then on Monday, I'm upping to 4x(1;2;3), since I felt like I could go again after I hit the end. I think we'll call it Week 2a. We'll go thorough week 2b then by the time I get to Week 3 I'll actually be hitting up 5x(1;2;3)! I'm looking forward to it!

RoP — Week 1b Variety Day

Man do I ever need about 12 more hours of sleep! Taking today as a rest day, since I've got classes tonight, and I'm feeling last night's workout in my legs and triceps (stiff, but not "sore", though I'm not sure how much is from Wells and how much is from the RoP workout from yesterday)...if I'm feeling like this, I wonder how the kids at Wells are feeling??

On the menu for tonight: Karate/Jujitsu/Gungfu/Sword, with 6-12 miles of biking thrown in for good measure!

RoP — Week 1b Medium

C&P 16kg: 3x(1;2;3)

Swing 16kg: 30 x 2 minutes. Why do I keep getting low numbers? Just lucky I guess... maybe I'll hit 10 minutes for Saturday's Heavy day :)

Wells tonight, no SToIC. I can use the rest time, that's for sure.

Class last night was off the hook! Jujitsu was fantastic, and painful, but Gungfu was wonderfully hard. One of our students decided to ask a really inappropriate question about money to Shishou, and we all paid...which is to say that he told me to warm them up, which ended with me totally dripping.

RoP — Variety Day

This morning I couldn't seem to get warm once I got out of bed, so I decided to crank out 5 solid minutes of TGUs. That helped quite a bit!

Classes tonight for the rest of today's "Variety" regimen. Need to find a Vit-C and maybe L-Lysine source for today...feeling tired/drained and the last thing I need right now is to get sick...though a good chunk of that may be from nocturnal-kitty related events through the night.

RoP — Week 1b: Light Day

I was still feeling a little stiff from Saturday when I grabbed my kettlebell this morning at 5:30. 30 minutes later, I was sweating and feeling much better. There's something about this workout that makes me feel good and challenged at the same time, something I wasn't getting from dumbbells. I don't know if I can explain it, but whatever it is, I like it!

C&P 16kg 3x(1;2;3)

Snatch 16kg Rolled the dice, and got lucky today (since I was sore anyway): 25x 3 minutes.

Okay, now time for shower/shave/dishes & getting to work.

Rest Day and Quick Recap

Today, Sunday, is a rest day.

Yesterday was spent basically working on Grip Strength wrist strength via a 7 hour sword seminar. Lots of fun was had: 1 hour of "cuts" with Tanren Bo, Suburito and Bokken...not in that order; 2 hours of forms practice; 2 hours of padded weapon drills; 1 hour of sparring practice & and drills, and 1 hour of Tameshigiri. By the time I got home, my left shoulder was basically incapacitated & all I wanted to do was hooverize just about everything in sight...which I pretty much did by eating way too much dinner out.

Tomorrow's workout is "Week 1b", since last week didn't quite get in all of the workouts, and I think I need to drop down to 3x(1;2;3) on the C&P for another couple of weeks. Man did that hurt last Wednesday!

Up for today: maybe a bike ride and/or a hike, since it's shaping up to be beautiful out there!

RoP — Wk1: Variety Day

Today is going to be a rest day, since I kicked my own butt last night in our Kickboxing class at Wells, and have a Dr. apt which is about 6 miles or so round trip. Gonna be a 12+ mile ride day, so that should suffice for a little Variety.

Classes tonight! Looking forward to it!

RKC-RoP Week 1; Mediuim Day

Wednesday Kettlebell:

16kg C&P — 1x(1;2;3;4), 1x(1;2;3;x) — x= 4 reps right side, 2 on left @ failure. When we hit failure, that's it we're done for the day. I think I have to adjust down to 3x(1;2;3) for a week. Also, I felt something go tweak with sharp pain in my left upper shoulder area towards my neck. Not sure if I just tweaked it because I was trying to move a cat at the same time, or because I snapped my head in one direction, then the other...Oh well, it'll go away with heat/woodlock...oh yeah. I wasn't supposed to try for 4 reps yet. Oops. Oh well, at least I have a baseline.

Roll the Dice: 16kg Swings — 36x3 minutes — probably could have done a few more, but the cats were being underfoot and too close for me to keep going. I'd train outside, but it's still dark/there will soon be cold too...

Tuesday's classes & other spew

Last night's classes were pretty awesome. Karate was good: got a chance to play with some new kata-type stuff that Shishou and I had talked about before. Also worked on our Yellow-belt Kata until the little kids couldn't focus anymore. Then onto Jujitsu where we did some Koshi Nagi Waza and Shioku Waza. Dropped Scott on my big toe a couple of times...that hurt (Scott is ~350 lbs and at least 6'-3"). To quote Pavel: "Remember: quick feet are happy feet!".

Spent about half the time in Gungfu reviewing the first half of the JannDou LongHou Gungfu Quan #2. The other half was spent working on basic Chin Na off of a punch (Break Wild Chicken's Wing & Turning Heaven and Earth). Something was up with Chuck, who wasn't his normal jovial 17 year old self, and he resisted attempts to draw him out. Fine, that's cool. Then before I knew it, class was over and I was heading home.

Once home, Kelly was watching "The Biggest Looser", which always seems to motivate her in a good way. She was telling me that they were using Kettlebells during the show, and she didn't realize how core oriented they are. She saw them doing some drills (from the final 2 seconds that I caught, it looked like they were doing "Renegade Rows", or another type of push-up/row drill). I also saw that they're doing Prowler and Rope work this season. Wow, it's like all of a sudden they've taken all of the popular Diesel Crew/Punch Gym stuff I've been looking at, and added it to the show. Next thing you know, they'll be doing Bending!

Kelly said that she wants to get a pair of Kettlebells, and I suggested these to her. I had a recommendation from another user, and they're quite a bit less expensive than DragonDoor's offerings. I'll have to see how they stack up once she orders them. I've made remarkable gains through the Kettlebell, and I can't wait for her to go on this journey with me :). Once I get through December, I may order this set for myself, though I think I may hold off on that until after I've earned it with being able to do 5x(1;2;3;4;5) with the 16kg bell...

RKC-RoP Week 1; Variety Day

A little sore from last night's extra workouts so going to take a little R&R today (since the cats decided that my company was more important than my own sleep), and it's far better to ease into an intense workout routine than it is to completely burn out and never come back.

Last night's Kickboxing class was predominantly a leg workout, which I didn't really need, but that's not the parts of me that are sore (shoulders, lats, and biceps). My best guess is that's from yesterday's RoP workout.

I should point out that for me taking a little R&R implies that I'll still be biking at least 6 miles and going to classes tonight where I'll burn likely around 400 Calories per class, if not more. I missed classes last week preparing for the bike ride, so now I've got to make up for it with some nice hard work today. Oh, and I've got to look around for my spare bokken to bring with me to SToIC for next week...I miss my bokken whenever I use a public one like last night. I also need to find my spare sword bag, otherwise I'll have to think about buying another one...and we all know how I don't need yet another bag for something...

RoP - Light Day, Week 1

16kg C&P — 3x(1;2;3)

16kg Snatch — 38x8 minutes

Sweating bullets, but feeling good. Wow, what a workout!

Got my bike commute to work in an hour or so, and later on tonight I've got Self Defense and Cardio Kickboxing at Wells. Gonna be a long, but great day!

2009 AIDS Ride for Life Ride Report

What follows will be a loose account of biking 100 miles around Cayuga Lake, and the feelings before and after

Friday: Prep

I took Friday off from work, because in the past it's been too hectic to go to work, only to have to rush home after registration and have no time to do things like clean my bike, pack everything and hit the hay. This year I decided that the stress from the last year was too much, so I took the day off instead.

Great idea! Kelly is still recovering from Bronchitis, and she was up for a good portion of the night before coughing, so I let her sleep in a bit before waking her up. I probably should have sent he boss an email letting her know that she still wasn't feeling up to snuff but, c'est la vie. I wake her up, and I drive her over to work, and for lunch at CTB before heading home to clean the bikes and get in a quick 1.5 mile ride before packing and heading down to registration.

This was by far the easiest and best registration we've had yet! This year rather than have everyone sit through safety lectures/videos we did it online before hand in the form of a YouTube video that we had to watch in advance followed by an online quiz. So when we got there to check in, all we had to do was tell them who we were and since we had completed the fundraising before the ride check-in, all we had to do was pick up our packets which had our bib numbers (mine was #1, Kelly was #2)! SO much better! In and out in short order (stopped to say hi to our friends), and headed back to the car to drive to dinner.

Dinner: Sushi, extra fried rice, tea and soda. Probably should have skipped the soda, but I wanted something cold and bubbly too. After eating, we drove home to make sure that all of our intended ride clothes still fit as we expected and call our parents, then off to try to get some sleep (both of us didn't really sleep well and fell asleep around midnight...which is better than last year for me when I just didn't sleep at all. Listening to the rain and Kelly had a massive asthma attack. Things were not looking good for her ride day, and she vowed to just go as far as she could.

Ride Day

Woke up at quarter to 5, fed cats, got dressed and ate. Coffee. Pack up car, and head on down to Stewart Park all within an hour of waking up. While we went to sleep listening to the rain, the sky was just cloudy and there was a little spitting on us as we were driving down. I had been fretting that were were running late (call time was 6:00, and I don't think we got there until 6:10), but there was still plenty of parking. Unloaded the car and went over to the rider check in. Then milled about for a while, bumping into friends and such. Soon it was go time for 360+ riders!

The First Hill, 5 miles

Kelly said that she wanted to ride with me, since normally she's about 5mph or so faster than me when I've got panniers and she's on her Terry, and this year she has bronchitis. We quickly got separated in the first roll-outs and I started up East Shore DR with her more or less in my sights ahead of me...which turned out to not be her after-all, as I worked on the first mile or so to catch someone who wasn't my wife. Oh well, I'll see her at the first rest stop, just do my own ride.

Last year the first hill was akin to a little slice of hell for me, since my lowest gain ratio was 3.0 last year. This year, in my middle ring I had 2.0 as my gain ratio. Huge difference that makes (basically speaking, my lowest gear then was more than twice as low coming in at 1.4)! So I could spin pretty easily up East Shore (and eventually Hill 2, but we'll get to that in a minute).

So Hill 1 was not nearly the suffer fest I had last year, and I didn't even tap the lowest of my low gears, just the middle chain ring and my "granny gear". Spun up at about 9 mph, and hit the top and started pushing around 14 mph gaining ground up toward Rouge's Harbour.

At about 1 mile or so from Rouge's Harbour I finally find Kelly, though she was standing on the side of the road, trying not to pass out. She had been wearing her rain coat up the hill, and she took the hill at ~ 12.5 mph, so she was pretty over-heated all things considered. I stood with her for a few minutes, waving off the first couple of motorcycle SAG vehicles that came by, but she said "I think I need a ride", so I flagged the next one for a car. She seemed like she was feeling a little better by the time the car got there, but neither of us wanted to take any chances, since she had said that she felt a pop in her chest followed by "warm feelings" all over her chest, and wanted to pass out. So she got SAG'ed to the first rest stop, and she asked me not to come with her. So once I saw that they were securing her bike, etc. I gave her a kiss, and pushed off again.

The first hill really ends at Rouge's Harbor, where we come to the first traffic light on the route, exchanging Rt-34 for Rt-34B and loosing all 200+ feet that we climbed to get here. Fun downhill, as long as you don't get stuck behind too many riders who are either riding their brakes or who's bikes just cannot go all that fast down the hill. It's here that I get my first top speed of the day at about 35 mph, which I won't break for about another 75 miles.

"Ludloville", or Hill 2, 3 miles

There are really only 5 significant hills on the Ride For Life, and this one is usually the worst for folks who haven't been training either hard enough or long enough. It starts from Lansing Middle School, and gains about 400 feet from the bottom of a gully out. It was on this route last year that a fellow rider lost his life (turned out to be a heart defect which was an unknown time-bomb). In my opinion though, this is not the hardest hill. The hardest hill is the one leading from Taughannock Falls to The Glenwood Pines Restaurant, it's shorter by about a mile and a half, and not even as steep, gaining only about 150 or so feet, but you've gone some 94 miles at this point (if you've elected to do the century ride). It's usually here where you'll see people really hurting...but I wasn't there, yet.

After the fun of the down-hill, we slowly start gaining altitude, and most people will find someone to either glom onto their tire, and/or just keep pushing & spinning up the hill. I found that if I dropped into my lowest chain ring in the front — The LHT has a Mountain Bike Triple on the front, being 26-36-48 — and moved into about the middle of my cassette, I could keep up about a 8-9 mph speed until it actually started getting on the steep side about a mile up the road. As we gain height, I'd drop down one gear in the rear moving from 26x20 at the bottom of the hill up my cassette. Passing where the rider went down last year I continued to spin, rather comfortably actually, up the hill. I maxed out on 26x34 near the top of the steepest point and had passed at least 15-20 riders, mostly kids and a few folks with bikes that they bought at Dick's, Target or some other box store. Once it leveled out, I returned to 26x20ish until I was moving at about 14mph and then swapped into my middle and outer rings to my cruising speed.

The "flats" after Ludloville, 10 miles

Seeing as how this isn't a race, I don't mind stopping to help out riders who flatted. One middle-aged chap I encountered after only a few miles past Ludloville was trying to fit his new tube around his wheel without any air in it. This is really the hard way, so I stopped to help out. A SAG wagon pulled up behind us after a couple of minutes, and I discovered that it was one of the founders of the Ride, who couldn't bike any more for medical reasons. After he told me "I've got this, you can keep going if you like", and I looked at the fellow who flatted, he said, "Go ahead, and thanks!", so I pushed back out towards the first rest stop at King Ferry.

One of the funny things I find is that spending a day on a bike, the time between points isn't particularly memorable. While I'm conscious of the fact that I'm moving along at a good clip (usually about 15 mph on average flats without rolling hills), I always seem to forget that it takes about another hour and a quarter to get between Hill 2 and the rest stop. Luckily, this time goes by pretty quickly, and before I really know it, I'm at King Ferry winery, looking for Kelly.

One thing worth noting is that it's not really flat between Ludloville and King Ferry. It very stedaly continues to go up, but in the form of what cyclists usually refer to as "Rolling Hills"...except that usually implies that there's a down on the other side. These just keep going up.

King Ferry to "Onion Rings", 15 miles

She greets me with a smile, and a wave. I don't know if she knows how much that smile meant to me, since I was pretty worried that she'd be done with the ride after how she was feeling when I kissed her goodbye. She said she was feeling better, and asked how I was doing. My lower back was starting to bother me, but it wasn't too bad, and I had only drank about 2/3 of my front water bottle on the way (the weather was chilly, grey and misting for most of those first 17 miles). I wasn't really hungry but forced myself to eat a half of a mini bagel and a piece of banana, while I refilled my bottle. Since I hadn't really had too much to drink, I didn't need the bathroom. Also, looking at a line 20-30 people deep made me decide that when she asked "are you ready to go?" I said yes. I decided to throw on my fleece vest because my core was pretty cold at this point, and we pushed off towards Union Springs, or as we prefer to call it "Onion Rings", about 15 miles down the road.

Kelly's normally quite a bit faster than I am, as I said before, but because of the Bronchitis and her earlier episode, neither of us wanted her to push too hard. So we set out from King Ferry at about 12-13 mph. I had been averaging about that anyway because of the hills, and the company through this part was more than welcome. One of the things that usually winds up happening is because Kelly's faster than me we don't do a whole lot of "riding together", rather we'll be on the road at the same times, but she'll wind up meeting me wherever we're going to (when I ride the Surly...on my Fuji XC bike that I've basically turned into a road bike we're closer to the same speed, but she's got less body weight than I do and her bike is lighter than mine, with better hubs, by quite a bit). This time though we were able to do the ride actually together, riding side by side for almost the whole 15 miles to Onion Rings.

One of our friends from last year (who works for STAP) came up behind us along the route and road with us for a few miles or so. He's a racer, so at some point he decided to move along, and left us shortly before the short climb before Wells College. After that fun down hill, and the not so fun navigating Aurora's early morning traffic/parked cars, we were back into the rollers which make up the East side of Cayuga Lake. We passed him again when a chunk of glass ripped his tire, but he told us to keep going, so we did (Todd's good, he helped us a lot on previous training rides so we figured he'd be good, and he was). The rollers rolled right on by, and we found ourselves at Union Springs after about an hour and a half, or so...I don't really remember what time it was when we got there. I swapped out my fleece for my rain coat, since I was getting cold and the fleece doesn't do crap against the wind.

Union Springs to Verdi Signs, 13.5 miles

At Onion Rings, we took a little more time, bathrooming and filing my water bottle, eating a little pb&j action and chit-chatting with the folks who were there. Todd pulled in a few minutes after we did, and went over to the bike techs to see about another tire. We pulled out after spending ~ 20 minutes or so at the rest stop (as opposed to the 10 minutes I spent at King Ferry) and we were on our way again, riding together. Todd met up with us about 5 miles down the road or so, and road with us for a while again keeping us laughing and joking for the whole 5 miles or so he rode with us.

Kelly hit a rather large rock, and wound up with a "snake bite" flat on her rear tire, so we stopped to change it out. Her hands were bothering her, so she asked me to pull the tire off for her (I was happy to oblige, otherwise I'd just be standing there). Todd continued to joke around, and we got her tire all situated and pumped up to 110 psi, and were able to keep on going. Todd left us shortly after that to go catch some of the fast folks who passed us, and Kelly and I were left to our own devices at that point.

We arrived at the 5&20 junction where folks who weren't going to do the century make a left and head to lunch. Since we thought we were doing okay on time, we pushed on to Verdi Signs. It was here that Kelly began feeling a bit faster...or at least was able to go way faster than me.

I think I was halfway to a bonk, since I was getting a headache and was feeling hot and couldn't really go very fast. My hip flexers were starting to bother me, and my back hadn't gotten any worse (but wasn't really any better). Another problem was starting to rear it's head: crotchal numbness. My saddle was supposed to prevent this, but I think the problem was that my shorts actually had too much padding to prevent this. One of the funny things about bike shorts is that too much padding can be just as problematic as not enough. Too much and the shorts will push back against the areas that they're not really padding with just enough force to cause numbness rather than preventing it. Also, my sit bones were starting to get a little sore, but we had done almost 45 miles at this point, so that wasn't unexpected.

Drank about half a bottle of sports drink, ate some orange pieces, pretzels, and a granola bar. Slathered my forehead in Arnica cream, which I think helped my headache, as well as stripping off my coat and arm warmers. I applied some arnica gel to my left knee, which had started to hurt when we pulled in, and we pushed off after about 15 minutes or so towards lunch and Seneca Falls.

Lunch, 12 miles

Montezuma marsh is one of the most beautiful parts of the whole ride. It's a shame that so many people don't think they can do it, but it's here where Hill #3 is...but it's not too bad, since there's a short down stroke before the end of it (it's more of a 3a and 3b), and most don't think they can do the whole 100 miles. We passed a few folks who we had been leapfrogging all day, and arrived at lunch quite tired and in some pain.

I was hurting pretty good at this point, and both of us were doubting our ability to finish the ride, never mind in time. We took about half an hour at the lunch stop, eating Turkey sandwiches, some wonderful minestrone soup, and roast beast for me. We looked at our time consumption, and decided that we'd spend a little less time at the next couple of rest stops, and ride until "they tell us we're out of time and pick us up".

Thee Amish Market, 16 miles

Grinding Hell. That's what I remember about this part of the ride. Kelly was getting stomach cramps almost the whole time, and my hip flexors were defiantly telling me that they weren't happy with this pedaling thing. Kelly found some relief by hopping off the bike occasionally to stretch and walk a few yards before hopping back on the bike. I didn't really get any relief, but we just kept right on going. We weren't making particularly good time, but by the time we arrived we had gone through about 75 miles (for me. She missed about 10 by getting SAGed), and both of us needed a little relief of one kind or another.

Thee Amish Market was one hopping place! While there weren't too many riders there, they had rolled out a bolt of red felt and were blasting show tunes (they also had what they called "VIP bike parking" where they took our bikes from us when we arrived). Refilled my water bottles, emptied by bladder and we looked at how far we had to go and how much time we had left. 25 miles to go, and only 2 hours to do it in. It was cutting it close, but we decided to push off and see how'd we do.

Bellweather Hard Cider, 13 miles

Between TAS and Bellweather lies two hills which really make up one really annoying hill. For the most part, Kelly was off like a bat out of hell...she must have been feeling a bit better. I was hurting units, but I was in a mindset of "Okay, it hurts pretty bad, but I don't think it'll get any worse. Kelly, who's sick is way ahead of me, so maybe I should try to catch up.". At this point, I entered into time trial mode, and tried to step on it a little, rocking a bit more speed. But not for long, as we approached the pain, I mean pair of hills that are right next to Cayuga Ridge winery. After some 85 miles, they hurt quite a bit.

Kelly and I worked up the hills, and finally wound our way to the last rest stop. I see Kelly not to far away, look back over he shoulder (presumably, looking for me) she raises 1 finger, to signify one mile. I think to myself, I can do one more mile. We arrive to the last rest stop at about 4:00. We had only 1 hour to go 12 miles, with that last real climb only 4 miles from the end. We rested, refueled, and attempted our best to refresh as much as possible before the last push.

Cass Park, 13 miles

Kelly was gone like a bullet. I think I saw her maybe twice, both in the first few miles. Once again, I tried to just power through the pain and make it in the 45 minutes that I had...mathematically I averaged ~ 17.5 mph (Kelly apparently hit about 19mph for her time). I also hit my max top speed of 38 mph coming down that hill. Pain is really all I remember, other than hitting that last hill with everything left in my tank...just hard enough to make it to the top as best as possible. Man that hurt, but I also remember saying to myself that it was going to be a "suffer-fest", and just saying it out-loud made it hurt less, blissfully. Then passing the Pines, I thought "3 more miles, just go. You usually do this in <15 minutes and you have little time. Just go. So I went. I crossed the line with about 2 minutes to spare before the 5PM cut-off.

Victory Ride to Dinner, 4 miles

"This was the most pleasant 8.7mph I've gone all day," says Russ as we're moseying along with the police escort. We arrive to cheers, and food-a-plenty. The food is tasty, but I remember little of its flavor (hunger is the best sauce, for sure). We remembered to pack clothes in the car to change into and that was a brilliant idea. We went home to hungry kitties, and glorious showers, followed by a late-night Wendy's run. I think we were both out cold when our heads hit pillows at 10:00.

Things to remember for next year

• Fatty shorts have too much padding for 100 mile rides, crotchal numbness is not comfortable 1 day later
• Carry less stuff. You didn't need virtually 3/4ths of what you packed, though the ability to carry both of your rain coats was very helpful
• Different bag? Maybe something from Carradice, Rivendell, or Minnehaha, and no rack?
• Need faster tires. Have no idea what to do about that though...
• Get a bike fitting

Packing list for the Ride for Life

Here's my packing list for Saturday's 100 mile ride.

• Bike
• Pannier containing:
• Bike tools/patches/tubes/spare tire/spare links/lube
• Rain gear
• spare shorts/socks/jersey/gloves
• clean Shamwow
• Chamois butter
• cell phone/wallet
• emergency food
• hand sanitiser
• On me
• Shorts
• Jersey
• socks
• cycling shoes
• warm vest...forecast will be for ~50F° on Saturday morning
• cycling cap
• Helmet
• arm/knee warmers
• butt butt'r
• long fingered gloves

Ride for Life: 3 days to go & RKC-ROP - t-minus 5 days to the start!

Holy crap, it's almost time for the AIDS Ride for Life! On Saturday I'll be biking with ~ 300 other folks 100 miles to raise money for services for AIDS patients and testing in the Ithaca area. Good stuff for a worthy cause!

Brendan reminded me that I haven't updated in a while, and in truth there hasn't really been anything interesting to report of late. Weight continues to come off, and I'm winding down on the kettlebells to take a weekend "off" to bike 100 miles. So for the next few days I'll be eating a little bit more, drinking a whole lot more, stretching, generally taking it easy. Sunday will be a full on rest day, then Monday will be Week 1-Day 1 of RKC-ROP.

Protocol for ROP is for Clean&Press 3 days a week, Swings on med & heavy day with Snatches on the Light day. The idea is to work up to 5x(1;2;3;4) on the medium day and add & subtract a rung for light and add a 5 rep set on the heavy day. When I can do 5x(1;2;3;4;5), I'll be putting in my order for the 24 kg. bell (though I may do that sooner so that I can work on swings with a heavier bell). As far as how long on those days for swings and snatches I'm supposed to Roll the Dice and do that in minutes. That'll be awesome! I can't wait to be the "lucky dog" who rolls 12 minutes for snatches on my first day :-D. As Pavel says: "Enjoy the Pain".

Likely, I'll start out with 3x(1;2;3) and see if I can complete that with both hands. When I can't do 3, I'm done with C&P for the day. If I find that I can do that on Monday, I'll go for adding the rung on Wednesday. The idea is to practice with perfect form, and get smoked from the snatches. The C&P is about power/strength. I'm looking forward to it.

Tuesday & Thursdays are supposed to be variety days, but I'm not sure what to do there. I've seen some videos online of some fun exercises but most of them seem to involve either 2 bells or some more room than I really have to work out (and I usually do so when swinging the bell without hitting a fuzzy nose may be harder than normal), but I'll figure something out. Even if I have to do the workout after feeding the kitties (that of course will mean that I'll have time for coffee before hand).