Marathon Trainer Ride

Last night I decided that I would ride the trainer for 3 hours today since I didn't have school and the weather sucked. Therefore, I woke up at 8:30 and ate some whole wheat pancakes. At 10:30 I hoped on the bike and started pedaling away. I rode the criterium dvd, then climbing, and lastly the sprinting workout. I felt great and was amazed at how well 3hrs on the trainer really feels. After my little jaunt of a workout I enjoyed a bit of Endurox. I cleaned off then endulged myself into a tuna sandwich and a few strawberries. Later in the night, my legs were starting to hurt and I am hoping that they feel good tommorrow so I can push weights.

I recived my new shoes in the mail today after my old ones had a buckle problem and were sent back in. My birthday is on Friday, so I hope the weather is good so I can do a road ride. With my b-day money, I am going to buy some EggbeaterTi pedals and also some Ti spindles to stiffen and lighten them up. They are going to be SWEET!!!

Well, Wednesday, I did another Road Ride at ILRA and Kensington, but my back was killing. I have done tons of core work and stretching, but my back still hurts. I plan on seeing the doc for a referral to the orthopedic guy or physical therapist next Wed. I came home and did leg weights and tons of stretching and Pilates.

Thursday I rode the sprinting tape since my legs were sore and I needed a little break. It was nothing special, just more training.

Friday I had the day off school for mid-winter break. Since it was in the upper 20's I decided to try the MTB trails at ILRA. The blue was good except for a few spots that the sun was on. I jumped off of blue about a mile in and rode a 2-track back to the park road. Then I rode the first part of yellow, but jumped off 2.5miles in since the sun was beaming and I couldn't stand all of the pizza cutters on the trail. It was weird conditions. Part of the trail was dry, a small portion was wet, and others were snow/ice covered. After the small trail ride, I rode the roads at the park for a while to get a decent 15 miles ride in. lAte ron in the night I had to go work, which was horrible. It was some of the worst Bantam AA hockey I have seen.

Saturday was a good training day. I did Pilates then a hard leg weight program. Later on I road the climbing tape while watching the Russia vs. Czech hockey game. It felt good, but I am sure my legs will hurt tommorrow when I go ride at Stoney in between my brothers MSU hockey games.

Cleaning Day

What a beautiful day it was today. Sunny and upper 30 degree weather. It was just gorgeous. My legs were sore from the weights, so I took the day off of riding and plan on riding a lot the next few days.

Since the weather was so nice, I decided that I should clean al of the dirt and salt off of my road bike. As you can see in the first picture, the frame, cranks, and derailluer are speckled and dirty and the drivetrain is BLACK. After some love and care, a few minutes later I had a clean smoooooove runnin' bike again!!! (2nd Picture)

I also re-routed my rear brake line on the Yeti and re-cabled the front derailluer. Now all I need is some warm weather and dry trails so I can take it out before Fruita and Moab in Mid-April.

Come on SPRING!!!

Today was a high of 29 degrees which is great weather for winter. I decided to immediately jump on the bike and go for a back dirt road ride(which are very scare is SE MI) for 25 miles. I rode my dad's Litespeed Niota (my Tomac warranty replacement bike) to give it shot and see how it rides. His stem is way too high and the bike felt like it had a top tube too short for me. I rode about 12 miles which ended up being 45 minutes of the shitty potholed up roads. I gave up and decided to come home and do weights. I did three sets of lunges, leg extentions and leg curls. Later on I decided to do Pilates and keep my core strength up.

The weather is supposed to get into the high 30's and low 40's later this week, so I am looking at some road bike opportunities!!!

FINALLY A BEAUTIFUL SUNNY DAY IN MI

Wow, was it ever gorgeous today. The sun was out and there was not a cloud to be seen in the sky. I would have loved to have ridden today if I didn't have to work and go to my party. There was one problem though, the friggin' temperature. The morning temp started out at 1 degree and hit a high of something like 12 degrees. The windchill when I checked was at -17degrees. Damn, that was cold. I opted to stay inside and do Pilates, Plyometrics, and some hamstring exercises.

I had to work at 1:15pm, so I watched the CANADA vs. SWITZRLAND hockey game which was sweet. The CANADIANS Lost eh!!! I went to the rink to skate for my three game set, and it was not much different than the temp outside. The first game was cancelled which sucked, then the second game my body was warm, but my hands were about numb. The third game was still cold, but my hands still had feeling even though my feet were frozen.

At 5pm, we gathered at the Pool House to swin and eat for my birthday which is in 2 weeks. It was fun to see everyone and I had a great time getting some laps in and playing in the water.

Back on the Trainer

Yesterday was a day of leg fatigue, so I took the signs of overtraining after a partial way into the MTBing Carmichael DVD. Instead, I took the time I had to do some Pilates and Plyometrics. I ended up doing 100 jump lunges, and 100 hindu squats.

This morning I woke up only to notice that thos eplyometrics don't just work your quads, but your calves also. I guess that jumping is done with the calf muscles! I left school and hour early today since i don't go to assemblies, and I rode the trainer. What kind of weird teen am I...Leave a school pep assembly for riding a bike inside. Yeah, well thats me. I actually care about one thing in life; Mountain Biking!!! So, I rode the MTBing DVD which felt aawesome, then I did a little upper body workout of bench press, bicep curls, tricep raises and pull-ups. All of the weights I did was 3 sets of at least 15 reps. I am just toning and strengthining the upper body muscles to keep my bike under control and climb better. Later on in the night, I jumped back on the trainer and rode mostly the climbing DVD and a little of the sprinting DVD while watching the Olympics again. This whole Olympics thing is cool; I actually have something to watch on the 6 stations on TV!!!

Finally a warm day in the Cold Week

We finally got a little cold weather relief today as the high hit in the low 40's. It hit 43 degrees yesterday, but I had to go skate, which was a great workout. I rushed home from school, threw the road bike on the car, got fressed, then headed out for ILRA. I had planned on riding 40 miles, but once I realized my legs were tired and sore, I took an easier ride and ended up putting in 32 miles. The temperature never dropped, so it was very comfortable and the sun actually popped out for a "few" minutes. The weatherman says it is going to rain and be in the 40's tommorrow, then it will drop into the 20's for Friday with a light all day snow. The weekedn is supposed to have a high of 20 on SAT and 25 on SUN. Looking ahead, I think I will be hitting the trainer, then riding the SS in the snow and falling snow, riding the trainer again, then ending the weekend with a ride on the SS again.

Rough Day

Yesterday was a fun day trying to sell extra bike accesories and wlaking around and checking out new stuff at the Annual MMBA Expo. It was fun and nice to see everyone during the slow winter days. The only problem I had was that I stood almost all day and my legs were aching.

I didn't have the ambition or time to train yesterday, so it overlapped to today. I did weights at school, then came home and did Pilates, then more weights(Leg Extention, Lunges, Hamstring Curls). After that, it was off to work for me for an hour, then back home and I jumped on the trainer to ride for an hour. I did various types of riding from high cadence intervals o ten minute muscle tension intervals. All of this was riding to the Olympics!!! It was fine until NBC only showed FIGURE SKATING. I immediately tuned into the Canadien station for some speed skating(yeah, I want thighs like those guys).

ACT & ILRA

I had to get up early this morning to get ready to take my last ACT test!!! I hate those damn tests because I could be doing other things for four hours such as... RIDING. I got out just before noon, went home and refreshed by mind and body with some food. I sat around for a while until I headed out with the whole family to ILRA for a MTB ride. I had planned on riding the blue and yellow trail, but opted out for a double blue since yellow has many low hanging face smacking branches. The blue trail was great and was totally different than Murray Lake yesterday. The trail was packed down and fast from the snowmobiles. I was actually spinning too much on the SS, and needed at least a 2-1 gear ratio. I rode the first loop quick, then met up with Jon Heft, Lee(LVD on the MMBA Site and Krug for a ride around the blue. The pace was a little slower until Jon and I hammered it out as I spun out my legs for a while. I could not believe how fast it was. I can't wait to go back.

Later in the night I did my Pilates and back exercises, then ssat down and watched the Olympics. They really need snow mountain biking in the winter to watch something cool. I bet the crazy luge racers who slide down the ice @ 90mph probably ride downhill bikes in the summer!!!

Tommorrow is the MMBA Annual expo which should be a blast. Catch up with biking buddies who have been in winter hibernation, and go look at cool new bikes and new parts.

The SS Maiden Voyage

After a late start at school today and an inch of fresh powdery snow, I headed out to Bishop Lake for a ride. I rode Murray Lake Loop which is around 7 miles, but the snow was much deeper than I had expected. There was anywhere from 2-4.5 inches of snow. The first 35 minutes I was in my zone 1(75-85% of MAX) and it felt great to ride. I made it up most of the hills on the SS which surprisd me; my training must be helping!!! I was running a 32-18 gearing today, which is much smaller than my normal 36-16 on that trail. The SS worled great and will hopefully rn better tommorrow at ILRA.

Easy Day

Today I did 10 laps in the pool at school, then came home and did 30min of pilates. Pilates felt great today, which makes it easier, then I went on and did back exercises. My legs are a little sore from weights yeaterday, so I decided to stay off the trainer since this is my "recovery week" after 3-4 weeks of hard training. I did go to work and skated pretty hard to get a decent workout. I plan on riding the SS tommorrow for 2 hrs and then again on Saturday for 2-3hrs.

I get to sleep in tommorrow since I don't start school until 9:45, so I will probably get some rest since then do some simple weights or plyometrics. On Saturday morning I have to got take the ACT test which sucks, but I will be able to ride afterwards!!! I hate standardized tests. Hopefully I will remember my calculator this time!

Building Muscle

I lifted my weights at school today, mostly leg press, calves, biceps, triceps, and the back. I am up to 3 sets of 15 reps of 630lbs on the leg press and I am also doing calf raises on it. I came home and did my leg extentions of 110lbs (3x15), Lunges 70lbs, and leg curls of 50lbs. Later on I went off to the rink to skate for 1.5hrs and got some good skating in. I was going to ride tommorrow but I have to work at 5:30, so it totally skrews up my day. I will probably ride the trainer after work and ride outside on the SS on FRI and SAT.

Slow days, but new BIKE

Friday as I was starting Pilates, the great UPS man came to my door with a large package. My SS came. So, stop the Pilates and go build the bike. I took all night to build up, swap parts around, and make sure everything was great on the SS.

Saturday I had to work at Lakeland Arena(Waterford) at 11:40 am, an 6:40-9:40pm. In between the games, I drove out to REI to get the races swapped between forkes for the SS. I drove through nasty rain and wintery mix. I came home for a few hours so I could finish the SS up and ride it in fresh 2 in. of snow on SUN. When I arrived at work at 6:10, there were wet roads and no snow. After work, 3 hours later, I saw 4 in. of heavy snow on the roads. The 35 min. drive took me 1hr 10 minutes going about 15-20 mph on Hickory Ridge where cars spun out and others couldn't make the hills.

Sunday, I was supposed to ride, but NO. 4 in. of wet snow on top of water, would make nasty trails. So, I did Pilates and back exercises then went to work to skate(cross-train!!!) for 1.5hrs. Later on, I went to Glen's for a Superbowl party.

Monday was a day for weights and riding. After 4-4.5 weeks of hard training and tons of riding, I took the previous days off for recovery. So, I did my squats, leg extentions, leg curls, lunges, then I rode the trainer with a climbing DVD to reinforce the muscle building.

Today, Tuesday, I decided to go to ILRA to ride the new SS. About 1/2 mile into the ride, I lost my chain. I belive it stretched out after messing with the sizing a few days earlier. So I rode the road back to the trailhead and put the bike away. The trails were great with powdery snow covering it and the bike felt awesome and smooth. I decided to go run for 40 min. on the yellow trail for some aerboic workout. I ran about 4.5 miles which felt great. Later on in the night, I did Pilates and more back exercises so I can be faster. Man I LOVE winter training.