Nov 23rd - Nov 29th: Training Ramblings...Thanksgiving Version

No 'cross racing this weekend so it was a chance to get a longer endurance ride in with the usual crew of Mike F and Ace, with Ali tagging on for Zone 2 for some miles.  Well, what a day to choose!, 25mph winds giving a windchill below freezing. Fortunately we had a planned coffee stop at Sidamo on our way to Maple Lawn via the Tridelphia Reservoir in Howard County. The coffee shop was about halfway through the ride and after 1hr 50mins to get there, the wind propelled us home in 1hr 25mins.  Overall it was good to get out for an extended ride and it was an awesome route.

http://ridewithgps.com/routes/3691259

Bowie to Fulton and back

The rest of the week was great, had good motivation, knocked out most of the runs on the treadmill due to the weather, including a 12miler (thank heaven for IMTalk podcasts). Had a solid powercrank ride on Thanksgiving morning and then a steady group ride on Black Friday at the 3rd Annual Parvilla Cycles Cranksgiving Ride.

Cranksgiving Ride at Parvilla Cycles

So with the couple of days off work, it gave a bigger training week than the November average.

Total: 171 Miles / 13 hours 29 minutes

Swim: 5,500 yards / ~3.12 miles / 1 hours 56 minutes

Bike: 135 miles / 7 hours 45 minutes

Run: 32 miles / 3 hours 47 minutes

Nov 2nd - Nov 8th: Training Ramblings

The week didn't start off too well, as I came down with a heavy cold. So much for getting a longer ride in on Sunday morning, typical! It was a weekend off from 'cross racing and we decided to tick off some of the house projects while we had the chance.  I did manage to get an hour on the rollers with the powercranks, the longest ride yet on them and I came off with jelly legs.....the first time that has happened in a while!

In the end the week was pretty consistent and I was able to hit the weekly goal of 8 hours even with the cold which was still lingering around at week's end.  As you can see in terms of splits between the sports it was relatively even, that will gradually change once 'cross season is over and can get some longer rides in over the weekends.

Hopefully the cold is now done for the winter :-)

The good element of this week was that I was able to get my first decent treadmill workout done.  The running legs are slowly coming back after a few easy weeks in September and the treadmill workout (ramp to lactate threshold) was the first time they had some 'pep' in recent efforts.

Obviously the bad from this week was the cold and missing out on the longer endurance ride......

My weekly swim, bike, and run totals:


Total: 89 Miles / 8 hours 01 minutes

Swim: 5,370 yards / ~3.05 miles / 1 hours 50 minutes

Bike: 63 miles / 3 hours 30 minutes

Run: 22.6 miles / 2 hours 40 minutes

Oct 26th - Nov 1st: Training Ramblings

 This week was fun.  A slight increase in the hours, not the 8 hours that I wanted but close and it included some good time with our visitors!  The week started with ABRT's annual cyclocross race, so much of Saturday was spent down at the course making sure that was all set for the following day.  I raced twice on the Sunday, once early in the 35+ 3/4 race and then the last race of the day, the 4/5.

With a zero-dark thirty start, it was a long day and the final race just beat me down with a few laps to go.  The good news was that I took a 4th place finish in the 35+ 3/4 race (a few more upgrade points) I had a poor start but managed to claw my way back through the field to outsprint teammate Mickey Thaxton for the 4th spot.  The course was almost perfect for me, lots of power section and only shorter technical sections where I typically lose time.  The later race started well, into 2nd by the end of the first lap but I just couldn't hold on.  The legs were done and I ended falling to 7th by the end of the race.  Overall a fun day and the team did an awesome job hosting the race.

Hitting the barriers at AACX (Credit: Alex Pline)

The rest of the week was nothing special.  Computrainer classes have now started for the Fall/Winter at Parvilla Cycle & Multisport so that gets me riding early in Tuesday mornings (and potentially some other days).  I did manage to get a couple more shorter sessions on the rollers at home with the new powercranks.  I'll write more on them in the future, for now I'm just getting used to them. 

Although I didn't run a bunch this week, I did feel better on both the 60min sessions.  That's a good sign as I plan on increasing the volume over the month of November so that when the vacation to the UK in December comes, I am in a good place to lay down a serious 14 day running block.


My weekly swim, bike, and run totals:

Total: 69 Miles / 6 hours 36 minutes
Swim: 3,100 yards / ~1.76 miles / 1 hours 03 minutes

Bike: 51 miles / 3 hours 30 minutes

Run: 16.42 miles / 2 hours 03 minutes