Riding (okay, spinning) the Tour de France

Stage 3 of the 2011 Tour de France. Live on Versus starting at 05:00 local time here. Naturally, I have to get up and watch it.

But, I also want to get in a spin workout. What to do ... what to d.... HEY! I just had a GREAT idea! I'll spin, and WATCH at the same time!!

In fact, what I did today was to get up a little early, fuel, hydrate, change, and warmed up while watching the pre-race stuff, then when they went to the live action I was ready and in the saddle. Did a zone 2 (mostly with a few minutes of 3) spin ... originally, I was aiming to be in the saddle and spinning the whole time they were racing, but wasn't quite ready for that much spinning. Did make 2 hours and 26 minutes though, plus warm up, stretching, and warmdown, and frankly it was a great spin. Thinking back on it, I think I could have done the last forty-five minutes or so if I'd been a little more judicious with fueling during, but can't be sure until I have more data.

Tomorrow: sprint practice (on the trainer. During the tour).

Weigh-in

I almost forgot. Last week's Tuesday morning weigh-in was 230.8 pounds, and today's morning weigh-in was 229.1 (-1.7 pounds).

Zone 2 spin from today

Today's workout was a Zone 2 spin. As I noted in an earlier blog I planned the spin to be 90 minutes, with the intent of making it a full two hours to make up for the missing 25 minutes from Sunday's spin, and I did indeed make up that difference, and then a little bit more. Total workout was 2:05:00, not including an eight minute warm up, stretches, and a five minute warm down. This time, I was able to track my heart rate in real-time, and I'll tell you how.

First, remember that I have a Wii, and then I should tell you that I have the EA Sports Active 2 game for the Wii, including all the accoutrement that go with it. I had been looking at a way to use the game for the HRM, but hadn't really seen any easy way to do it; so I ... "hacked" it. Sort of kind of.

What I did was I created a custom workout of 38 consecutive sessions of "Mountain Bike" from the "Activities" selection, which is the maximum allowed (not sure if it's a time or a number limit, but I think it's a time limitation). Total, that amounts to about 59 minutes of workout time, give or take how long it actually takes to complete each "activity." I then did my warm up, stretches, put on the arm band (which is also the HRM) and the leg band, and started the workout. With this system, I was able to do about an hour and fifteen in actual time (I didn't stop pedaling just because the "activity" was finished and was loading the next), then when it finished I did a quick create on a new workout of 19 of the same activities (about 29 minutes of listed time), and finished off the workout (took about 45 minutes of actual time to do). I was able to keep pedaling in Zone 2 at the end of the workout when it shows the summary, and then did my warm down and finished.

All told, I was able to keep my HR in Zone 2 for about 2 hours and 3 minutes, with about 2 minutes spent in Zone 3. I never let it drop for more than a few seconds into Zone 1, and spent most of the time in the middle of Zone 2 (for me, Zone 2 is 130-143 BPM, and my average for this workout was 136). Felt good at the end, a little tired but not too bad. I was able to fuel with a couple of gels partway through and a bottle of HammerHEED, so I never bonked nor got hungry. Good times.

Brief notes on this past week's workouts

Realized that I hadn't blogged the last couple of spin workouts, and I'm trying to do better! The short of it is that I sat down on the 17th and 19th of June, settled in to watch the Tour de Suisse, and did a spin while it was on. For the 17th, I whipped up a 40 minute Tempo (Zone 3) spin, with a warm up, stretch, and warm down thrown in, and realized that it's just a ton of fun to watch professional road racers crank in these events. It's quite inspiring to see that with hard work and dedication (including getting on the trainer when it's 110° F out) that goals can be achieved. Me, there's almost no chance that I'd ever get to race in the Tour de Suisse, let alone win a stage (and forget the Tour de France), but it's fun to think about while spinning ... otherwise, spins get BO-RING. Real quick.
I kept up a nice high cadence with high gearing, and since I don't have a heart rate monitor at the moment had to rely on perceived exertion. I didn't feel any burning sensation in my legs so I'm pretty sure I wasn't at my Lactate Threshold (LT; some people use Upper Training Threshold or UTT), I didn't feel like talking though I could probably have said two or three words if needed, and it felt like something that I could hold through the entire 40 minutes but not a whole lot longer. That's pretty much the Zone 3 criteria, so I kept things there, though I did drift a little up and down when I got excited about what was happening in the Tour, or was paying less attention like during commercials. Overall it went very well.
On Sunday, I again tuned the Tour for the final stage (an Individual Time Trial) and settled in for a Zone 2 spin with a warm up, spin, and warm down, originally planned for 1 hour 30 minutes. I had to cut it short, because I had some personal obligations to attend to, but did get in a 1 hour 5 minute spin. My exertion level there was quite easy to maintain, Zone 2 with a very short period in Zone 1 at the beginning. It was tremendous fun to watch the time trial, trying to keep a good cadence on the spinner on low gearing while not getting too excited about what was going on, something made worse when one of my favorite racers, Levi Leipheimer, rode a beauty of a Time Trial to win the Tour de Suisse overall on the final day. I did succeed, however, and it was a very good day!
As for the physical discomfort ... mostly, it's the feet. I hope someone reading this has some insights and possible solutions, but if it continues I may have to seek a physician's opinion because I'm really kind of annoyed with it. Anyway, what happens is I am fine on the saddle for the first ten to fifteen minutes or so. After that amount of time, often I start to get a numbness or tingling in my toes that gets annoying enough that I have to stand out of the saddle for a few seconds, and then it occurs over and over again througought the rest of the ride, no matter how long.
Now, as a paramedic, I know the symptoms point to a perfusion problem, and not a neurological one (if it were nerve-related, it would probably happen immediately when I either pinched/sat on/otherwise confined the nerve, and not slowly appear over time). The real question is going to be which vessels? And why? If it's a tamponade of the femoral arteries, that's a more significant problem than the tingling of the toes; that would pose a serious perfusion threat to the quads, calves, hamstrings, etc. and would make cycling a much more difficult activity. I suppose it's possible that it's a consequence of a too-high saddle (or, alternately, too low) with the popliteal artery being involved. In any event, if anyone has any ideas please feel free to pass them along.
Later today I will be doing a Zone 2 spin; I plan for it to be 1 hour 30 minutes, and I also am intending to make up the 25 minutes I had to cut out of the previous Zone 2 spin, and if I'm going to do a 1 hour 55 minute spin I might as well do two hours! I will be back in a few hours to report on that.

Workout, and a plea

Did a nice, Zone 2 (with a little bit of 3 mostly by accident!) spin workout on the trainer this morning.

The workout itself was quite nice. I tossed my iPod on my arm, set it onto my workout mix, and put the Race Day DVD on the TV to have something to watch. Watched the whole DVD, from warmups through race route walkthrough and the race proper to the warmdown and post-race interviews. The DVD is pretty cool, to be honest, and I would love to find more like it; I would (as I suspect many people would) pay good money for a live, in-race DVD (or, more likely, a set of DVDs) from an entire Tour de France, or even something smaller like the Amgen Tour of California, the Paris-Nice, or the Tour Down Under.

So anyway, I did a warmup, stretch, and a few more minutes of additional warmup, then cranked into a zone 2 (by RPE ... my HRM is out of commission, which is detailed in my plea below) spin. At a couple of points in the DVD I noticed my effort and RPE to be rising (because I was getting into the race portion!), and did a quick manual pulse check: too high! Slow back, get things back to zone 2 range, and chill out. All told, I was in Zone 4 for just a few seconds, Zone 3 for a few minutes, and all told was in Zone 2+ for 1:30:00. Did a warm-down, stretch, and then refueled with breakfast.

I've noticed a few things that are uncomfortable while spinning ... or sitting in the saddle too long, even. First, after a while my toes start to tingle and go a little numb. I've ruled out the shoes (I have tried several different shoes, tying them differently, and even once did a spin with sandals on, and it's not the shoes), and I've tested my IT band flexibility, and it seems reasonable for my fat body (in fact, my overall flexibility is quite good for a racing age of 42 and being obese). So, I think I've narrowed it down to two probable culprits: lower back nerve impingement (probably at the spinal ganglion level, likely caused by excessive pressure exerted by the fatty and muscle tissue in the retroperitoneal space, or possibly at the disk level), or sciatic nerve impingement in the gluteal area. In addition, there are other occasional numbness issues, not related to the feet but to more sensitive areas (something which is not uncommon to cyclists); this I believe is also related to the existence of both subcutaneous and visceral fatty tissue impinging on nerves and blood vessels in the gluteal/perineal region. Seems to me, at first glance, that the simplest solution for now is to continue rising out of the saddle occasionally, work hard to get my weight and body fat percentage down to reasonable levels, and see if that helps. I have also thought about my saddle; when I originally bought my older bike in like 1999, I bought a saddle with gel sit bone areas and a perineal groove; with the extra padding I have, I think this may be too much "soft" ... meaning that if the saddle (or my butt) were harder, the existing padding would be enough to relieve pressure but with the two sets of soft (my backside, and the gel saddle), they're actually creating pressure that wouldn't otherwise exist. So, the next saddle I get will be a much harder racing-type saddle, and I will also see if that helps.

Now for the plea ... my HRM has died. If anyone knows someone who has one they no longer use, particularly if it is an ANT+ compatible HRM (Garmin, Adidas, others make them), shoot me a line. I really need to pick one up ASAP.

Saguaro East from the Cactus Forest Loop Road

Today's hike was through a new (to me) part of the Saguaro National Park East. Earlier hikes, of course, had started at the Douglas Spring Trailhead, off of Speedway BLVD near Tanque Verde Ranch. There is another trailhead into the Park on Broadway BLVD, not too far east of the intersection with Freeman RD, and of course there is the main entrance to the park off of Old Spanish Trail RD just north of Escalante RD. This main entrance has the visitor center, support buildings, and the main ranger station at the entrance to Cactus Forest Loop RD. This is a paved road, about 2.5 miles long, which loops around a portion of the southern part of the park. In addition to several trailheads along the road, the road itself is a multi-use paved trail through the park, essentially. Bikes, cars, hikers, runners, whatever, they all use the road.

For today, I elected to park at the visitor's center and hike along the road to the Mica View picnic area, then head north along Mica View Trail to the Broadway trailhead, loop south along Cactus Loop Trail (North), and hook back up to Cactus Forest Loop Road for the hike back to the visitor's center.

First, allow me to say that if I do hike down off this road again, I'm driving to the trailhead rather than hiking along the pavement. My knees and feet are terribly unimpressed with my decision-making today. Second, on the whole the area is fairly flat, although the road has a couple of pretty good hills they were pretty easy to traverse.

Third, and most importantly to me, the area is, on the whole, fairly flat. I know I said that already, but I repeat it because I don't think I like that kind of hiking. It seemed to me that these were not hiking trails per se, but rather lazily meandering trails. So much so that I was able to maintain a near 3 mph pace for the 8 miles I hiked today, and that's just basically flat-road walking. Not that there's anything wrong with that, I just prefer my hikes to have some variety :D

The trails that I saw offered intimate contact with the desert flora, a distinct advantage to this network of trails. Yes, the trails are wide, easy to follow, and generally flat and boring (to me), they are basically a way to immerse yourself in the Sonoran desert and its denizens. There are no real views to speak of; I didn't come across any places that offered a good perspective on the Tucson basin or the immense expanse of land that our metro area covers, but what it lacks in the kind of views I prefer it makes up in the ability to, if one should so chose, curl up in the desert and hide ones self (not literally, of course. Don't leave the trails!). Almost like throwing a blanket of the environment over yourself and snuggling up.

Now, that's fine and dandy for lazy meanderings (yes, I said it again), but when I go to hike, I kind of want to HIKE. I want to strap on the boots, grab the hiking pole and go chew up some hills! And some valleys! And, at about the halfway point, I want to be up high enough that when I stop to breathe (and eat my snacks) I can see the curvature of the Earth. Maybe that's overstating it ... I do like to be able to stop during my hike, and stare off in wild amazement at the sheer size of my planet. Which makes me feel like my problems, my life, my everyday struggles in my version of reality are really quite manageable when you take the bigger view.

So, although I enjoyed my hike today, I will definitely enjoy my hike Tuesday morning even more for the experience, as I go back and trek down Douglas Spring Trail again. Maybe this time I'll try to get all the way to the campground, just to see where it is.

Oh heck yes

Good workout today.

Got to Clements at about 6:50, got right into the basketball court, and did an hour of warmup, stretching, shooting drills, Miken drills, free throws, and then ran the two-on-one and three-on-two break. It was a good long session! Went into the weight room, did upper body (7:55 to 8:25), and then finished with thirty minutes of intervals on the elliptical, and a cool down.

Basketball: 5-minute warm-up; stretch hams, quads, glutes; Miken drills; jump shot drills; free throw drills; run the two-on-one break; run the three-on-two break; three-point drills; finish with free-throw drills.

Weights:

• Chest Press: 70# x 12, 80# x 12, 80# x 10
• Lateral Row: 80# x 12, 80# x 12, 80# x 12
• Preacher curls: 60# x 12, 60# x 11
• Tricep pulldowns: 60# x 12, 60# x11
• Shoulder shrugs: 60# x 12, 60# x 12
• Military press: 60# x 12, 60# x 11

Elliptical: 30 minutes of variable resistance and incline, with intervals of 0:30 90% efforts interspersed with 1:30 @ 30% effort. Cool-down.

All in all a really good workout.

Brief note

Today's workout was from the Wii EA Sports Active 2, and it was quite awesome. I had the game create a workout for me, did a half-hour of it, and it was nice and tough without being impossible. Very impressed.

Also, I did one yesterday on shift (GASP! HORROR! SHOCK! You mean you were 1) at a station where workout equipment exists, and 2) had more than SIXTY SECONDS to be in quarters? Yes. That's what I mean). I was at one of the new Green Valley Fire stations, and we were in quarters for a good solid sixty minutes. Of that, I was either on the treadmill, lifting wights, or on the nordic track/elliptical machine for forty-five or so. It was quite refreshing. Between the two days I've burned probably 650–750 additional calories, did probably three, three and a half miles of running, and got a full upper-body weight workout finished. I am quite impressed with myself.

I'm trying to figure out how to get EA Sports Active's website to let me link my workouts to either Facebook or my blog, without success. If anyone knows anything about this, please drop me a line.

Reposted from The Fat Cyclist

Saw this article on The Fat Cyclist's blog today, it's an article about a man who lost more than 350 pounds by cycling.

I.
Have.
No.
Excuses.

Seriously.

Restart!

It's been a long time since you and I talked. Too long.

Recently, I had a friend turn me on to hiking, and have been doing a fair amount of that while trying to rediscover my workout mojo. I added some walk/jog workouts occasionally, and then added a couple of body weight workouts.

Now I think I've got a pretty good handle on how this can work. Nearby, there is a regional center from City of Tucson Parks and Rec, the William Clements Recreation Center. They have a large, full-sized (plus) swimming pool, a modest but complete weight room, cardio equipment, indoor walking/jogging track, and a full-sized indoor basketball court. The fees are CRAZY reasonable ($2 on a daily basis, $51 for a quarterly pass, and $195 for an annual pass). The gym was not crowded but there were a few people there (I was there @ about 0700).

As part of their package, you have to take a short course to certify that you can use the weight room equipment (it's basically a familiarization course, not really a "certification" per se, but you get the drift). So I took the course from a lovely and knowledgeable young lady, got certified, and hit the basketball court. Forty-five minutes later, I hit the weights, and then finished with a twenty minute power cardio on the elliptical machine. Did a five-minute cool down, and then headed out.

First impressions: I can totally see myself coming down here three or four days a week when time permits, but at a bare minimum I can do two days on my off days. There are quite a lot of choices, too, so the boredom factor should be minimized.

Today's workout

Basketball: 5-minute warmup, 40 minutes of running drills, shooting drills, dribbling drills, and specific activity practice (running the two-man break, rebounds, curl-and-shoot). RPE: 8/10
Weights (all upper body):

• Chest Press: 50# x 12, 50# x 8
• Low lateral row: 50# x 12, 70# x 12, 85# x 8
• Preacher Curls: 45# x 8, 45# x 6
• Tricep extensions: 40# x 12, 40# x 12
• Shrugs: 60# x 12, 60# x 12
• Military Press: 55# x 12, 55# x 12

Elliptical: 20 minutes of intervals (90/10 for 30 sec/1:30), 5 minute cooldown. RPE: 6/10

All told, 60 minutes of cardio and about 35 total in the weights plus warmup/cooldown. Not a bad day's work.

Estimated Calorie Expenditure: Just on the two cardio activities, about 950.