Fixie Commute On National Bike to Work Day
I had a couple different meetings today outside of the office, so I jumped on my fixie and pedaled around town to get where I was going. The good news is, there was no way I was above zone 2, the bad news is, I probably wasn’t even in Zone 1… I’m determining that it’s hard to get to the Zone 2 training I’m supposed to be doing when I ride on the streets of Seattle. Traffic: cars or pedestrians just don’t allow me enough room to get up to an appropriate level of effort.
I did have a couple of short steep hills to power up… and on the way home, the streets were filled with cyclists… that was nice to see. All in all, it was an ejoyable ride, even if it wasn’t a workout.
Workout:
- Type: Cycle
- Date: 05/16/2008
- Total Time: 1:00:00.00
- Average Heart rate: 120
- Max Heart rate: 150
- Distance: 15 miles
- Average Speed: 15 mph
Filed under: Bike to Work Day, Cycle, fixed gear, fixie
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Mellow Run with Tyler
Got out for a quick run with Tyler after lifting weights.
The pace was low for me, but Tyler was ready to fall over… I think he’s average heartrate was 170…
Both of us are out of shape. Time to get serious.
Workout:
- Type: Run
- Date: 05/14/2008
- Time: 22:00:00
- Total Time: 00:58:13.50
- Average Heart rate: 140
- Max Heart rate: 168
- Distance: 6 miles
- Average Pace: 9:42.52/mile
Filed under: Run
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First Strength Session in a LOOOONG time
Tyler came over for a “quick” set of weights and then a run…
For me this was 25 pullups, a bunch of decline oblique twists, a bunch of dumbell bench/chest presses, and some barbell curls (21s).
Workout:
- Type: Strength Training
- Date: 05/14/2008
- Time: 21:00:00
- Total Time: 1:00:00.00
Filed under: Strength Training
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Zone 1/2 Run?
So, what does it take for me to Run in Zone 1/2? That was today’s experiment.
I have been told that your training zones are often exercise specific, and that usually people have higher training zones for running than cycling. So, I’m really only estimating my running HR zones. I figure that relative to the standard age formula, my cycling zones are higher than most people, so using them as my running zones seems like a reasonable place to start.
So today I did my typical “short” 6 mile run. Frankly, I can’t really call this typical since I’ve been so lazy lately I’m not doing much typical exercise… but that’s a whole other blog post. But, my run went something like this:
Mile 1 - Starting out easy, not thinking about pace, listening to my iPod Metronome, to help keep my 180 cadence. Not paying attention to my HR yet. Since my house is at the top of the hill, this means I’m running down hill, so mostly it’s keep my feet moving quickly, keep strides as short as possible, and just let gravity pull me down the hill. I almost feel as if I’m doing little fake ballet soft tippy toe steps…. but the point is, it’s not too much of a workout, so it’s a reasonable “warm up”…. time: 8:10, 143 avg, 155 max - Let’s call that top Zone 1, bottom Zone 2.
Mile 2 - On the flat, focus on cadence, warmed up, but not yet thinking about watching my heart rate, just running. Time: 8:11, 152 avg, 155 max. - Let’s call that top Zone 2, bottom Zone 3.
Mile 3 - Slight up hill, couple stops for lights, thinking more about trying to keep the HR low, but not really slowing down on purpose. time: 9:07.7, avg HR 151, max 155 - We can call that high Zone 2, spikes to zone 3.
Mile 4 - Turn around heading home, mostly a slight down hill, but now I really want to slow down. I’m going to see if I can get my HR to low Zone 2 possibly Zone 1. What will my pace be? Time: 9:28.9, avg HR: 144, max: 147 - We can certainly call that middle to bottom Zone 2.
Mile 5 - Keep HR down, maintain pace, mostly flat at this point. Time: 9:11.5, Avg HR 146 - Sounds like a Zone 2.
Mile 6 - Ok, lets see if we can run a mile at the bottom of Zone 1 - Time 10:09.9, Avg HR: 139 - Solid Zone 1 run, barely aerobic Not a bad pace considering.
Last Quarter Mile or so is up a steep hill to my house. Time: 2:35. Avg: 151, Max: 156.
So… I guess this tells me that I ought to be able to condition myself for a 9:00/mile that is solidly in the lower Zone 2. Now, can I work toward consistently running that pace after a long bike ride? If so, and I could hold it for an Ironman run split, then I’d set a new Ironman Run Split PR while basically staying in Zone 1/2… that sounds like a good goal to shoot for!
Workout:
- Type: Run
- Date: 05/10/2008
- Time: 08:10:00
- Total Time: 00:56:55.10
- Average Heart rate: 146
- Max Heart rate: 159
- Distance: 6.25 miles
- Average Pace: 9:06.28/mile
- Max Pace: 8:09.8/mile
Filed under: HR Zone Training, Ironman, Run
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Riding a Bakfiets (Cargo Bike)
Today I did another ride with my sister. But it was a really busy day, so my schedule was particularly tight, and with my wife neck deep in preparation for the annual school fund raiser I had to play Mr. Mom, while making time for two business meetings, and helping my sister out with a training ride.
The biggest challenge was picking up the kids from school, and finding a way to do a training ride with my sister and two kids. Plan a: call Recycled Cycles and see if they have a two kid trail-a-bike. Nope, someone bought it. Plan b: call Montlake Bike Shop and see if they have a Medium/Small tandum, that I could hook a trail a bike up to…. Nope, someone bought it. Plan C: Google “Seattle Bike Rental”… Hmmm, this shop is near our house… Dutch Bike Co., sounds interesting, what bikes do they have available.
WOW! Check this out….
Oh my god… I have to ride that thing! That will be perfect. The girls probably won’t want to ride with us… but this bike is sooooo crazy they’ll love it just because it’s different.
Ok. So, jump on my fixie funny bike to meet Lisa and a potential client for a sales pitch. Meeting goes great. Cool. Jump on the bike and head home. Lisa calls me from the road while I’m still pedaling home. Bad cyclist takes call while riding… who needs hand brakes when you can just stop pedaling. 
Get home, quickly write note to sister so she knows to meet at the bike shop, so we can start and finish our ride from there…. Jump in the car, drive to school to get kids, tell them the plan… grumble grumble… “Oh, wait till you see this bike” I promise, it is soooo coool.
Driving to the bike shop, worried we won’t get there in enough time to enjoy a ride before they close, worried that sis won’t get the note… ok, cool, we find the place. Jump out, show the girls the bike. Looks like fun! Get a quick lesson on how to handle the bike, Strap the girls in the front (yeah, there are two seatbelts and a little bench seat in the front of that thing). Sis arrives, jaw drops, no time for that, let’s hit the road!
Ride down the Burke Gilman trail… everyone is checking us out. Oh yeah… we have the coolest bike on the road! Oh yeah.
Stop by Speedy Reedy to ask if the parts are in for Sister’s bike… They can’t believe this bike… I tell them… yes, this bike could actually justify owning a 6th bike… I mean, c’mon… look at it! It’s soooo purdy! They agree.
Turn around, head back to the Dutch Bike Co. I ask the girls if we should do STP (double century from Seattle to Portland) in this bike. Oldest daughter thinks it’s a grand idea, says she could read her book the whole way. Youngest daughter realized 15 hours in this bike would not be nearly as fun as 30 minutes.
Ok… I didn’t wear my HRM, but I’m sure this was another sub-Zone 1 workout… but… still… it was lots of fun!
Workout:
- Type: Cycle
- Date: 05/09/2008
- Time: 22:22:26
- Total Time: 00:55:00.00
- Distance: 11 miles
- Average Speed: 12 mph
Filed under: Bakfiets, Cargo Bike, Cool Bikes, Cycle, Dutch Bike Co., Montlake Bike shop, Recycled Cycles, STP, Seattle Bicycle Shops, Speedy Reedy, fixed gear, fixie
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“The Rat Has Escaped!”
Ok, I will admit, I’m not big on grooming. I don’t mean to say that I’m a complete slob… I mean, I do like to get “dressed up”… and when I was in a more formal work environment, I actually enjoyed wearing a tie to work. But I also enjoy riding my bike, wearing three quarter length pants and my cycling cap or baseball cap. I don’t hate getting my hair cut, but I just don’t think of it as something I need to do…
That is, until “The Rat Escapes”…. that’s what I say when the hair which should normally be contained by one of my hats I am almost always wearing finally escapes out the sides and begins becoming particularly unruly.
Well… I had to finally admit it. The Rat had indeed escaped.
Maybe it was the fact that I had a bunch of business meetings and a big school fund raiser dinner/party this week, but it was also starting to become hard to put my hat on… it was either loosen the band of the hat, or get some hair cut off.
I chose the hair cut…. So I jumped on the Shogun….
and headed down to my favorite Seattle Barber Shop.
The best part of the hair cut was that my barber was totally digging the Shogun so we started chatting, and that mostly meant me blathering on about my fixed gear STP ride from last year. And, anyone who knows me, knows how much I love to hear myself blather on.
Workout:
- Type: Cycle
- Date: 05/07/2008
- Total Time: 00:30:00.00
- Distance: 5 miles
- Average Speed: 10 mph
Filed under: Cycle
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Zone 1/2 Ride
After my VO2 Max test, my PT has “prescribed” that I should try to do 10-15% of my training in Zone 1, and 65-70% of my training in Zone 2. So this was my first real attempt to accomplish this task.
This was almost a whole week ago now, so the details are a little fuzzy, but the headline is that I actually had a hard time staying in Zone 1… as in, my heart rate was too low.
So, I know this might sound a little strange, but it turns out that I think that I may have a hard time accomplishing this goal if I don’t find some better places to ride (or possibly get a CompuTrainer or some other precision bike trainer that allows me to really control my power output).
Basically, I found that riding on the flats, even as speeds of 19-22mph, my heart rate would be bouncing around 130, which is the bottom of my aerobic zone. When it was all said and done, I’d guess that most of this ride was right at the bottom of Zone 1, the one spike to 152 (which is just barely in Zone 3 for me) was up a hill into the wind… and as soon as I noticed I was above zone 2 I coasted and recovered immediately.
Workout:
- Type: Cycle
- Date: 05/05/2008
- Total Time: 1:58:51.00
- Average Heart rate: 134
- Max Heart rate: 152
- Distance: 36 miles
- Average Speed: 18.17 mph
- Max Speed: 22 mph
Filed under: Cycle
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Ride with Sis
Today my sister and I went out for a training ride on the Burke Gilman trail. This was a long hard effort ride for her, and a short low effort ride for me. I say this not because I want to brag about myself, but because I want to brag about my cool sister! I really love my big sister, she is awesome, I’ve always looked up to her. Today I was really proud of her! Because she kept going and pushing, even though this was a really hard ride for her. She wanted to stop and turn back many times, or so she said afterwards, but she didn’t complain, she kept going. And really, it didn’t take much to keep her going. I just gave her a few words of encouragement and she kept going to the next stop sign, or beyond. It was a lot of fun.
We also adjusted her bike, which had a few minor mechanical issues. I was able to adjust her seat to be a more appropriate height, although, it still is probably a little too low. We also switched out her seat to be a more comfortable seat. I was able to fix her brakes (which were fine except that the top pull cable had come out of the lever seat and so the brake wasn’t working at all). And after the ride we switched out her tires to be more “road friendly” since she was riding on mountain bike tires.
For me, the goal was to get in some zone 1 work… which seemed like a good idea, unfortunately, my average heart rate was more like 100… so…. I was actually sub-aerobic. I’m not exactly sure what that means for my training goals. I think it means I didn’t get any training benefit from the ride, although I did get some great personal, spiritual, and family benefit from the ride.
Plus, I got to meet the new baby of the owners of Speedy Reedy, my favorite triathlon shop. She was a real cutie… how can you not have a good day when you get to meet a wonderful new life in the world?
So all in all, the day was certainly a net positive.
Workout:
- Type: Cycle
- Date: 05/04/2008
- Time: 21:13:10
- Total Time: 1:10:00.00
- Average Heart rate: 100
- Max Heart rate: 130
- Distance: 11 miles
- Average Speed: 9.43 mph
Filed under: Cycle
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VO2 Test
I did a VO2 and Heartrate zone test today at my Physical Therapist. It was a really interesting experience… I want to right a more detailed description, but for now I’m just going to log the results.
The headline is that my VO2 is “significantly higher than average”… which results in some nice above average HR zones… Interestingly enough my aerobic zone doesn’t even start till 130HR, which by the classic 220-age estimate for Max would be 72%… Which would normally be considered low to middle Zone 3. (More info on Heart Rate Zone Training). So nice high VO2, and a nice high start of aerobic zone is all nice.
The one thing that we did learn is that my Fat/Carb consumption was not as well conditioned as we’d want to see. Basically my % energy from fat calories was 80% through Zone 1 but started dropping steadily from there. If I was more conditioned, then this 80% fat% would remain through Zone 1-3 and into Zone 4 and not drop until late Zone 4 or middle Zone 5.
The plan - focus on Zone 1 and 2 training for the next couple months.
Workout:
- Type: Cycle
- Date: 05/02/2008
- Time: 14:00:00
- Total Time: 00:30:00.00
- Average Heart rate: 138
- Max Heart rate: 177
- Distance: 10 miles
- Average Speed: 20 mph
Filed under: Cycle, Fitness, Heart Rate Zones, VO2 Max, exercise, long distance triathlons
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