Sighting in the Conquest Pro

Ok, so here is the deal. I was thinking about going deer hunting this weekend (emphasis on the was). I have not been doing much hunting lately, but I needed to pick some things up in Duluth this weekend, and it is deer season in Minnesota, and I was pretty sure my friend Steve would have thought it was a fine idea. Being a little impulsive, I came up with this plan last Thursday, and got it approved by the family powers that be. Then I got sick and basically slept for the whole weekend last week (that means the garage still needs cleaning), and Kathy pointed out that we eat red meat maybe once a month and if I actually got a deer it would be about a 10 year supply, not to mention that she and Linnea are not all that fond of venison to start with so it would probably last even longer. So the deer are safe from me this year! But there was a nice tree stand just off the loop we were doing our intervals on today so I decided to mix sports a bit...

Today's workout was suppose to be 4x90 second race paced intervals which John and Kat rounded that up to an even 10. This was my first real workout since getting sick, apart from and intermittent bloody nose, it felt pretty good. We did them on the usual loop in George Wyth Park and put one set of barriers in the course. I apparently pushed the wrong button on my monitor so I did not record my HR data but my heart rate was lower than usual, but my perceived effort did not seem less than usual.

It is nice to be back riding again!

I Had a Nice Ride on Thursday and Have Been in Bed Ever Since

I decided to come back to Owatonna on Thursday, because I had a full weekend of things to do back in Iowa. After doing the interval workout that was planned I met up with a couple of guys from the Owatonna group who were planning a night ride. They showed up on road bikes (I was on my CX bike) and after trying to hang on at over 20 mph in the dark I decided to let them go. I came back into town at a nice easy pace but about 20 minutes after I got home it was clear, I have the flu! I had the chills, and a headache, and a cough, and almost all of the H1N1 symptoms. Now it is Sunday and I have really not been out of bed since Thursday night. I am really glad to have the opportunity to slowly build my immunity to this particular virus!

On a non-training note I have started to shape the Stand Up Paddle board. I have done enough to observe that surfboard shaping is a really messy job! This feels so much like when I made my first sea kayak. I had never been in a kayak when I made my first. I have never tried Stand Up Paddling. It could be could be I will not like it or I will not have enough balance to stand on the thing :-) I do think it would be funny to see a group of them coming down the Cedar River. . .

Woah Today's Workout Counted!

Monday was a nice easy recovery ride. We stayed on the roads, didn't work all that hard. It was a bit windy but the ride was excellent.

Tuesday we were back into the real training again. The plan called for intervals 2 mins. on 2 mins. off; 1:30 on 1:30 0ff; then 1 min. on 1 min. off, then 3o seconds on 30 seconds off. We did 3 sets of these intervals on the practice fields behind the dome. The grass was wet and the ground was soft in some places. We were suppose to be in zone 5b-5c. When I look at the charts for the workout I am not sure I made it, I had 2 minutes in Zone 5a. The 5a time all came at the end of the 2 minute intervals so I wonder if this might be a matter of my heart not catching up with my effort. I sure hope so, because I cannot imagine pushing much harder. In fact it was good that John and Kat where there or I might have pushed a lot less :-)

Today's Interval workout

I am still trying to decide if I am going to go for the run that is on the plan for today. It is so easy to skip them, but I do think they help.

Red Barn CX Classic

I was in Minnesota this weekend, so I looked to see what races there might be. (The Twin Cities is not far away). I saw this race, and when I looked at the flyer it said it was at the Erickson Bros. Tree farm near Taylor's Falls, and I was thinking "hum, if I remember right I there was this guy name Erickson who started a tree farm with his brother somewhere." When I looked a little closer I saw that there was a Erick Erickson who was the race director, and I was thinking "hummm if I remember right, Paul Erickson had a son named Erick." So I didn't know anyone at the race except one of the tree farm bros. and the race director who was about 6 mo. old the last time I saw him, but at least I knew someone!

It was a nice race course, about 1 3/4 miles per lap. It was mostly flat, winding around the Christmas trees, there were 2 run ups, one short and muddy the other long and steep. There was an interesting technical section of 180's on the septic system mound, and a few mud pits. All and all it was a fun course. I was quite a was down among the finishers, BUT it didn't get lapped by any of the 45+ riders.

Red Barn CX race data

A Recovery Week

This week was a recovery week. Thursday was a high cadence, low heart rate workout. I tried to keep my cadence around 100, but I found myself getting a little impatient with the low effort and my heart rate climbed toward the end. It is great to have John and Kat to train with, especially on a grey day just before a downpour. It would have been pretty easy to roll over and go back to sleep.

Thursday's Cadence workout

Friday I was back in Owatonna, and did a short 10 ride in Kaplan's woods. It has been windy the last couple of days so it was great to be in the protection of the trees. My calf muscle is not completely healed, and I spent a fair amount of time running up the hills.

Friday's workout in Kaplan's Woods

The Last Week or So

Last week was one of those stressful weeks where the race on the weekend served more as a stress reliever than a chance to perform well. On Tuesday we set up a practice course at Washington park and as we were pre-riding what was suppose to be a race simulation, something that felt a little like a big rubber band snapped in my left calf muscle. Needless to say that was the end of the race simulation. The injury does not appear all that bad but the rest of the week was so busy getting ready for the annual lock-in we sponsor for 400 middle school and junior high kids that I did not have another chance to get out riding. So I came in the the race lacking both training and sleep. Still, all and all it was a pretty good race, the course was excellent. It would have been really fast if we had not had as much rain as we have had. As it was it was pretty slow and soggy.

Psyclofest Heart Rate and Speed Data

On Monday Kathy and I had a nice easy ride on the roads around Owatonna. It sure is getting dark early these days. We came in with our lights on. Tuesday I did some easy riding in Kaplan's Woods Park in Owatonna.

Neither Rain nor Snow.....Hummm...... Actually............

I would not be winning any blogging awards lately! But my training is hanging in there pretty well, around rain storms and snow falls anyway. Today was a great day in Iowa, and the plan called for practice starts. Where you get clipped in and go as fast as you can for 90 seconds. We did 2 on pavement, and 5 on the trail north of Black Hawk park. The trail was rough in places with plenty of recently fallen leaves and sticks to make for an interesting time: Tuesday's Bike workout.

Later I did a nice easy run on the trails in Hartman Reserve. I was looking for some hills to run on and there were enough there to get my heart rate high enough. Tuesday's Run.

This past Sunday I raced the Vande Cross in Moline IL. The race was 60 minutes. I think that is the longest cross race I have done. The course was great, I stayed under control for the whole race-- it was a good day! Vande Cross race data