Hard bike sprint

Pushing 90º at my house late this afternoon.  Nothing but 90º weather and dry days in the forecast for this week.  I was feeling bad about gaining some weight so I did a hard bike sprint.   Perceived effort felt close to max, very hard, but still 14 sec slower than my previous, although HR data very similar.  Seat was too low, had it adjusted for Roya but I'm off the seat about 20% of the time anyway.

2.5 mile mountain bike sprint - Laurel Branch Trl

Time - 9:53

Avg speed - 13.8 mph

Max HR - 172

Avg HR - 160 (inc 1 min recovery at end) 

HR over 156 - 8:37

HR over 170 - 2:21

Night before last, I stayed up til well past 4 am practicing.  I've reasoned it's not good to do that and lose my entire morning, so I think, be to bed by 2:30 ish, unless I'm recording in the church.   

Will work on my diet.  The problem is I often use drinks like tea and ices coffee as appetite suppressants. Not the healthiest thing.  

145.8 after workout.  3.4 lbs heavier than when I did the same workout 9 days ago.  My Hume pod still tells me I'm at 12.2% body fat which is bogus.  When I'm lighter it says higher.   

bike climb, easy

 It had been a 5 days since I was on the bike.  Still doing the daily pullups and pushups but a lot of time on my butt practicing, the musician lifestyle not as conducive to fitness than the full time sprint training lifestyle.  I've often said there are great parallels between music training and athletics, but where they are different is time.  Even in the most intense week of sprint training, I might up put in to 12 hrs a week between track, bike, and weights... 6 days a week.  For concert preparation it can be easily 30+ hrs a week and always 7 days a week.  There are no days off.  It's repetitious and methodical.

Have gained significant weight.  Was waking up at 142-143.  This morning hit a month long high of 146.8.   I'll be able to correct that.

Bike climb yesterday was not "easy" ... never is, but I didn't push hard as I did last week.  Wanted to keep my HR lower.  It was cooler, heat index in mid 80ºs instead of mid 90ºs.  

Roark's Cove bike climb

Total time - 25:10

Avg speed - 5.6 mph

Max HR - 176

HR over 170 - 4:54

Avg HR - 159

Last weekend, HR on this climb was over 170 for 11:37 vs 4:54 min by comparison, and over 180 for 1:36, and almost 3 min slower.   Afterward I went to the track and did a little stretching.  

I need to do a more 2.5 mile sprints on my road.  On Thurs had a weird issue with my left knee, I did some squats before I went to bed and it was sore when I woke up, almost bad enough to cause a limp.  It went away and feels fine now. 

Weather continues like summer, 90ºs forecast and no rain for the coming week.

Bike interval sprints, running test on turf, WMAC

Cooler today, 70ºs by evening.  Got the bike out to campus to do the 400m sprint intervals.  Hard workout and not as fast as usual.  I even failed to remain standing for the full 400m on the bike.  Did go hard though. 

4x400m bike sprints w/ 2:30 rest

top speed: 27.6, 26.1, 26.0, 26.2

Max HR -164

Interesting that again, max HR recorded after reps, not during. 

At the track, did my usual warmup and stretches.  Then put the offloader brace on for some run testing.  Started with some drills and high knee running on turf.  Then accelerated out of the high knee drill cautiously for short distances, 20m of actual running.  Felt fine.  Did it again.  Felt real good in fact.  So I did the same thing one final time and accelerated to sprint speed and held it for about 40 yds.  It was awesome!   Felt zero pain for the first time running in a while.  I really wanted to do more but I shut it down.  

Hopefully, and cautiously, more running to come.   However, my return to running is going to be super slow, especially as I enter concert season.  I'm thinking once every 2 weeks or so, maybe something like 4x50m on turf w/ 30 sec rest to test the waters.  Then ramp up slowly.  

Ate REALLY poorly last night, carbs.  It put me down into a very sound nap, I woke up at 9pm, made tea (gave up my caffeine fast), and practiced for 3+ hrs.  Then at 1:30am, went to the Cathedral to play my program, got home at 3:30 am, finally got to sleep about 5am.   Musicians lifestyle not real healthy.  Got to fight that.  It was my first test of the high strung guitar in All Saints.  I'll post some video on my other blog at some point.  

Just a day of poor eating and I gained a few lbs,  was about 145 when I woke up.  

WMAC:

I've heard people saying that if more former elites were involved in Masters track, people like myself wouldn't be winning championships.   Probably true, but here's an interesting data point: 

This year's WMAC M60 400m champion, Tim M. was an elite, part of the World Championship 4x400m relay team for the Bahamas, and Bronze medalist Olympian.  His winning time in Daegu was 56.24 at age 60.  I ran 56.23 at age 61.   Just saying.... 

bike climb, hard and warm

When I left the house, the heat index was over 105º, but I really think it was at least 10º cooler on the N side of the mtn where I bike up Roark's cove rd.  This was a strong effort, I think my 2nd fastest of the yr.  

Roark's Cove bike climb

Total time - 22:14

Avg speed - 6.3 mph

Max HR - 181

HR over 170 - 11:37

HR over 180 - 1:36

My post op PR was back around Memorial day when I did a 21:38.  I was pretty tired toward the end of this and didn't do much stand up sprinting.

Was pretty light for this climb which helped, probably about 141.5.  

Today, I have a miserable job to do when I should be protecting my hands and practicing.  Have to go to Murfreesboro and clean out my newly rebuilt shed and throw a bunch of stuff away while the dumpster at my house is still available.  It's not even noon yet and the heat index is already 111ºF.   Better to do this today and not closer to my concerts.  First concert 3 weeks from Tues.  

hard bike sprint

Went out into the hottest part of the day to do a hard bike sprint.   Heat index over 100ºF.  This one was closer to a max effort and I have now resumed stand up sprints on the bike.  I didn't do the entire 9:39 standing up but maybe 15% of it on the climbs.  

2.5 mile mountain bike sprint - Laurel Branch Trl

Time - 9:39

Avg speed - 13.8 mph

Max HR - 172

Avg HR - 162 (inc 1 min recovery at end) 

HR over 156 - 9:46

HR over 170 - 2:23

My 3rd or 4th fastest run of this circuit, and hard due to the weather.  Just 18 sec off my PR.    

I feel I can now do stand up biking without stressing my knee and can do it often.   This is my 4th biking workout in 5 days.  

142.4 lbs this morning.    Did my usual workout, 22 pullups, 35 pushups, dumbells.  

My body fat is at 12.2% according to the Hume Pod.

Things are coming together, I have now 5 concerts set up in the 4 weeks beginning Sept 29.  More on MUSIC and GUITAR that on my other blog.  Actively posting again on Bill's TN Paradise.

Biking in the heat wave, WMAC

Did my usual 2.5 mile bike sprint course today and yesterday, not all out but hard.  The heat index briefly hit 101º today when the temp spiked to 94º hottest since July 3.  

Yesterday's seated bike sprint 

2.5 mile mountain bike sprint - Laurel Branch Trl

Time - 10:38

Avg speed - 12.9 mph

Max HR - 171

Avg HR - 155 (inc 1 min recovery at end) 

HR over 156 - 6:37

HR over 170 - 0:04

Today's bike sprint with a little standing 

2.5 mile mountain bike sprint - Laurel Branch Trl

Time - 10:11

Avg speed - 13.4 mph

Max HR - 164

Avg HR - 152 (inc 1 min recovery at end) 

HR over 156 - 4:12

HR over 170 - 0:00

It was well over 90º heat index but it didn't feel like it on my shady road.   

Been eating carbs again.  Had a paella yesterday and quinoa today.  Was over 144 lbs today for the first time in a while.   

Heat wave is supposed to continue and peak on Friday or so.   Temps in the mid 100ºs in Murfreesboro, could reach the mid 90ºs here.  I like the heat.  Maybe I'll do a bike climb during the hottest part of the day Friday.  

Last two tests came in, ApoB high 127, Lp(a) low <10.   About what I expected.   May test homocysteine on Thurs to see if my coffee / tea abstinence had any effect.  

WMAC Daegu

My age group 400m finals were as expected,  WR holder John W. ran alone winning in 57.71.   Second was Richard W. in 60.07 and Christian S in 3rd with 61.46.   If I had recovered as I had hoped, easily would have medaled considering I was running 62 with just 6 weeks of training 10 mo ago.  

bike climb, long swim

Saturday did a bike climb in 90º+ heat index, and a long lake swim on Sunday.   Summer continues, forecasts of 90ºs this week on the mtn, 100º down in Murfreesboro.  

Roark's Cove bike climb  

Total time - 23:39  

Avg speed - 5.9 mph  

Max HR - 182  

HR over 170 - 6:38 

HR over 180 - 1:09  

Avg HR - 160

Seated the whole way, almost exactly the same time as last time, slightly slower, slightly longer duration high HR.

We went to the far end of lake Jackson and swam the entire length and back, taking it easy.  Roya did well.   It was a great swim.  

Lake swim - Lake Jackson

Length - 1218 yds

Time - 53:00

Avg HR - 107

 

Still light, 141s - 142s have generally been my daily weigh in.

I see my PCP this Thurs.    Going to try and make the case for a CCTA.  Also should probably get my skin checked by a dermatologist, get a referred to a nephrologist, and maybe revisit the CA19-9 test to see if there's any changes.