Structured Procrastination » training

clawing my way back to peak fitness

Adam — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 15:34:24 +0000

After a fulfilling but slightly unhealthy summer touring around the US, I decided it was time to get back to peak racing form. My fancy new Garmin running watch has been watching me every step of the way as I’ve been ramping up the mileage over the last few months, so it’s pretty satisfying to see how far I’ve come since I got back home:

I’m really beginning to feel the difference too. Today I jumped in the lift to head down for a lunch-time run and by the time it reached the ground floor, my heart rate had dropped from 75bpm to 53bpm Last Friday I did a brutal hill session with the club and peaked 199bpm, which is pretty unusual even for guys in their 20s (though unfortunately that doesn’t mean that I’m naturally fitter than other people, just that I have a high heart rate and can push myself hard …)

Golden Cheetah

Adam — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 18:53:27 +0000

A few days ago whilst browsing the latest news on Quarq power-meters, I discovered that some very smart guys have answered my prayers and written a fabulous new piece of software called Golden Cheetah! Not only is it fully cross-platform and incredibly feature-rich, but it works natively with ANT+ devices via quarqd, and with the Computrainer not just in standard erg mode but also in online streaming mode allowing you train with someone on the other side of the Atlantic It’s becoming harder and harder to resist buying a Garmin Forerunner 310XT and a Quarq Cinqo Saturn … But perhaps most importantly of all, it’s free software released under the GPL. The authors really do “get it”:

We believe that cyclists should be able to download their power data to the computer of their choice, analyze it in whatever way they see fit, and share their methods of analysis with others.

If only companies like Suunto “got it” rather than shipping miserable excuses for software such as Suunto Training Manager… *sigh*. Anyway, looking forward to getting my media PC fixed and trying this out soon… maybe I’ll even find some time to help improve it

CompuTrainer on Linux

Adam — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 18:13:45 +0000

Finally started using my CompuTrainer a bit more. Just rode 20km in the lounge with the computer pacing me at 200 Watts. After so much riding with guys way stronger than me, the temptation to draft the computer is difficult to resist. However in the last 500 metres it spontaneously decided to make a sprint for the finish line – the bloody cheek! Obviously I couldn’t allow a bunch of transistors to beat me so I sprinted after it and hit the finish line 0.05 seconds ahead, narrowly avoiding embarassment. Next step is to start doing brick sessions …

By the way, in case anyone googles for computrainer linux, I am actually running it under VMware Workstation on LinuxMCE 0710 which is based on Ubuntu Gutsy. It works great with the unfortunate exception of the Interactive Real Course Videos (IRCV), which seems to be due to missing support in VMware Workstation for VMR9. I’ve posted about this in both VMware Communities and the RacerMate Forum but noone has been able to suggest a solution so far.

UPDATE 15th February 2010 – great news! Check out this fantastic new piece of software called Golden Cheetah!

100km ride (“Death By Cedric”)

Adam — Sat, 30 May 2009 16:03:56 +0000

This blog is in danger of turning into an anthology of cycle routes…

View Larger Map

post-flu 100km

Adam — Sat, 23 May 2009 17:25:39 +0000

Today was my first ride since the monster 200km two weeks ago – the swine flu seems to be under control at last. Didn’t feel great until a well-timed second wind just before that absolute **** of a hill near Braested. Hard to believe it was only half the distance!

View Larger Map

Cycling to the beach + late night clubbing = no immune system

Adam — Sat, 23 May 2009 16:56:34 +0000

Two weeks ago (9th May) I did a merry little 140km jaunt to Hastings with the tireless MWS, followed by fish/chips/pasties/coke on the beach, and a little 60km warm-down to Ashford before catching the train home. This was actually the longest single ride I’ve ever done (just over 200km = 125 miles) and my body wasn’t quite ready for it. My body definitely wasn’t ready to join Becky’s birthday party/clubbing expedition soon after – as a nice thank-you for staying out drinking till 3.30am, it rewarded me with something quite similar to swine flu, which has taken the best part of two weeks to shake. Bah.

By the way, when Matt got back, he promptly went for a 10 mile run with his mates, and apparently followed it the next day with another 20 mile run and an appearance at the swimming session…

View Larger Map

Thanks Matt for providing the .tcx file of the route recorded by his Garmin, which I converted to KML using this converter. I also recorded the route on my phone as per normal, but it was so damn long that the phone ran out of battery before it finished recording…

Another 120km – definitely getting stronger

Adam — Sun, 03 May 2009 14:07:23 +0000

Amazing what a difference a week makes (or was it just the Snickers bars?) – I felt so much stronger than last time.
It was a beautiful ride – sunny and very scenic route (thanks MWS):

View 2009/05/02 120km with Tritons in a larger map

Another 112km down…

Adam — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 14:50:00 +0000

Another great ride this morning – the weather just about held and we even got some sun. I was quite pleased that I felt noticeably stronger than the monster 140km last week and managed to stay with the guys except for the end of the two brutal hills. Man, Cedric is fast.

View Tritons 112km in a larger map

That’s about 350km I’ve covered over the last 3 Saturdays, hope I can keep it up…

140km – ouch

Adam — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 16:50:00 +0000

Tip for all you club riders out there – if, at the beginning of the ride, the leader happens to be an accomplished Ironman triathlete and asks what kind of ride you want, don’t say things like “long” or “I’d like to go some new places” unless you have a seriously masochistic streak!

It was Matt’s “taper ride” only 8 days before he runs the London marathon, so we thought it wouldn’t be too taxing (somehow we forgot he is hoping to run it in 2:40) – but 3 hours in, we started to see signs for places on the coast like Hastings, and then everyone was like “ummm… shit, where ARE we exactly!?” followed soon by a realisation that we were at least 3 hours away from home. On the plus side, I remember some truly beautiful scenery from the bits which weren’t blotted out by pain.

There’s a chunk missing because we were out for so long that my phone went into low battery mode and switched GPS tracking off…

rain – good or bad?

Adam — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 21:29:09 +0000

My triathlon training has totally sucked so far this year, what with being away a lot and having a stupid cough for ages. Then just as I was beginning to get back into running I got a weird kneecap ache thing, probably through doing a 12-miler while out of shape. So still at my heaviest ever, around 72kg! Noone seems to believe me when I tell them, so there’s still a bit to go before I’m an official fatboy. The “pack-o-meter” is currently in the danger zone with readings around 4 rather than a healthy 6, any closer to 1 will represent a state of emergency… Beginning to get back into it now though – did manage my first gentle swim in ages in the hotel, and a quick run early with no knee ache at all which was encouraging.

Time for an early(ish) night then maybe up at 7am for the usual 80km with the Tritons but the forecast is cold and possibly wet so I may opt for a much-needed lie-in instead and then attempt to compensate via the CompuTrainer which I finally got up and running.