I've been traveling quite a bit for work since mid November. I'm growing more forgetful these days and have to resort to taking photos of things like my shuttle stop so I will remember where I got on and hopefully where I need to get off and find my car a week later when I return. While some may revel in the traveling-for-work lifestyle, the frequent flyer miles, the exclusive airport lounge, and first class seating, I don't care for it. While it is a short-term necessary evil for work purposes, it increases my chances of getting sick (yes, I am that guy that runs the air full-blast into my face on the airplane), throws off my daily routine, makes me eat unhealthy food, and brings havoc to any sort of structured training.
The pain cave has new meaning after two weeks of nothing but low-end stationary bikes and free weights to work with. I've been experimenting with new things this year during base training (base 1) for the times I have a real bike to ride. Last year I did a lot of hours on the trainer in HR zone 2 which boils down to low intensity and long duration. I watched a lot of movies and got to know my garage really well. I think this really set me up well for long miles (muscular endurance) but I was not really ready for the first few races. I had little in the power department as expected. This year I am planning to fix that to some extent with a little experiment building muscular force during base 1. During my travel, I used a combination of stationary bike and free weights. When home, I have been throwing a few sets of what Joe Friel calls Force Reps (which he describes in this blog post) along with my longer zone 2-3 rides and various interval sets. So far they have been working out well and I feel like I get a lot our of a 45-60min workout without having to do a straight up weight room workout.
No comments:
Post a Comment