Wednesday, May 9, 2007

More pain and fun. Back off the couch.

Today, I got off the couch and began training again. I wish I could say it was fun. In the beginning it wasn't. The longer the day went on, I became less sore and the workouts became more fun. The ride this morning was not a pleasant experience. My knee hurt, my legs hurt and me bum is still a little sore from Saturday's randonee. I peddled and peddled and finally arrived at work. I guess it took about as long as the the first ride after the 200K. Par for the course.
This afternoon brought the kettlebells and another ride. The strength training workout went well . The ride home was another story. Still sore bum and knee. The good thing is my legs were loosened up and I was able to throw in some sprints. On Saturday or perhaps Sunday I made the determination that I need to get faster on the bike. So, I will have to improve leg strength. The other way I could really improve power is to loose weight 10lbs would do the trick. I will do this slowly as I am in the middle of a season. In fact, I am eating some ice cream right now! It is delicious. What? I earned it today.
Prediction: I will be considerably stronger and lighter for next year's randonee season. Thus my power output will improve dramatically. Heck, w/o strength training and weight loss only, I would see amazing results. In the mean time, I have some other goals that I need to finish achieving this year.
Pullups - I am inspired by Pavel's latest newsletter. I have been doing 16K pullups 7 sets x 5 reps. It is time to increase the weight. Tomorrow I will attempt the 24K I know I have 3 reps for 5 sets. The other part of the pullup I am going to try is to do a hand stand between each set to stretch out the forearms. It is easy to strain the forarms (tennis elbow) when pulling heavy weight or doing high volume. Stay tuned and you will find out how this goes.

Workout(s)
Ride 15mi.
The strength workout is rather low volume and intensity today. Probably smart.
BW squats to feel the stretch. I also did these through the day.
Press - 24K 5x5
Pullup 2x10 (tough following the presses)
Swing 24K 15, 19, 9, 13, 20 (just wanted some randomness)
Ride 15mi. (4 sprints, 2 blocks each)

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