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

Wow I have not blogged for a long time!

It has been a while, quite a while, since I have written! Since then I have paddled in Yellowstone, and in the San Juan Islands. I have finished the front half of the roof. A new school years is well underway.

As often happens with me in mid to late summer I loose some of my motivation to train, and this year was no different. But I am back riding again, have been for the last few weeks. My first cross race of the year was yesterday, and like most races, I do not measure my accomplishment so much in terms of how I place, if I did I would quit! So I was 7th out of 10. Not all that good of a place but I felt good and I am glad I was there. It always seems that I need some sort of event to keep my riding, or paddling, or whatever going.

Here is my heart rate data from the race.

A Kinder Gentler A Group and Saved by a Train

I rode with the Bike Tech "A" group again tonight, and for the first time I pretty much stayed in contact for the whole ride, that's a first. Wel,l I was helped a little by the train that crossed the road east of Finchford, but all the same I did not fall competely off the back (like usually happens :-) We did the Finchford loop, the group pretty much stayed together until the sprint up the hill into Finchford, I couldn't hold the pace and I dropped back into the second group, and stayed there until we caught the leaders waiting for the train. Then the was a nice fast ride into Janesville and back into Cedar falls (The group split in Janesville (I guess some wanted the fun to last a little longer). Tuesday night's group ride

On Monday night I rode out to Dike and around through Hudson and Waterloo for a nice easy 48 miler. (It did wonders for my crabby attitude). Monday night's ride

Saturday I rode with the Owatonna Group. I was lazy and was not able to convince myself to get out of bed to go with Kathy on the 7:00 am coffee ride, so I joined the 9:00 group and we did the 4 churches loop for windy 40 miles. Saturday's ride