Intervals To A New Level
I received my latest issue of Bicycling Magazine in the mail yesterday. The only part I've absorbed from the issue was Chris Carmichael's interval workout called Bust A Gut. It's basically like mine but the intervals are based on time (2 minutes) rather than reaching a certain heart rate and then sustaining it for a certain time. I think it works out to longer intervals and more of them. I definitely hurt more, sweat more and felt like I had ridden harder with these changes.
Bust a Gut!
- 6 minute: warmup
- 1 min.: fast pedal, spinning a light gear as fast as you can
- 1 min.: recovery spinning
- 1 min.: fast pedal
- 1 min.: recovery spinning
- 5x2 min. @ max intensity, w/ 2 min. recovery spinning between each
- 6 min. recovery spinning
- 5x2 min. @ max intensity, w/ 2 min. recovery spinning between each
- 8 min. cooldown
- TOTAL TIME: 60 MIN.
Labels: Chris Carmichael, cycling, intervals
Paces
Here's a breakdown of the current running paces. This week the mileage is pushed up to 34 with a long run of 15 on Saturday.
| | speed workout | tempo workout | long run |
|---|
| mileage | 5 | 7 | 15 |
| minutes/mile | 7:30 | 8:30 | 9:30 |
| heart rate | 160-170 | 150-160 | 135-145 |
| % of max HR | 86 - 92% | 81 - 86% | 73 - 78% |
Labels: Austin Marathon, long run, running pace, training
Working Out The Glitches
I'm getting the glitches worked out of the new running program. As the miles were increasing the knees held up, although the left knee has an issue with the lateral patellar retinaculum, patellar tendon or the meniscus. There was a sharp pain for just a second and then it was gone. It felt like a guitar string being thumped. Once it did it's thing everything was fine. One really bad workout happened on a tempo run where all bones and muscles ached. This has happened at least once every year and I have no idea what causes it. The Sunday following the bad workout, I felt fine getting through 15 miles. No issues.
Since I'm in a strength building phase I've been really hungry, eating a lot of protein and gaining weight. I don't know if all of the weight is additional muscle mass. So to make sure I'm logging all of my calories burned against caloric intake. I've never had to do this in the past but with new cravings it's the only way I can really determine if I'm really in a deficit of calories by the days end, while also monitoring whether or not I'm taking in the proper nutrition to rebuild.
Last night's speed workout went great. I ran 7:33/mile for five miles and then three easy before soaking the legs in Barton Springs. I think my legs would feel a lot worse right about now if I hadn't found out about soaking the legs in cold water.
Labels: Barton Springs, knee, meniscus, running
Homemade Energy Drink
Just as I learned that there are better, cheaper forms of sodium and electrolyte replacements than what can be found in a gel or gu, I've now discovered the same thing with energy drinks. I'm not talking about the ADES, namely Accelerade, Gatorade and Powerade. I still believe in Accelerade with it's 4:1 ratio of carbs to protein for a post cardio workout or race. No, what I think is a rip off are the energy drinks like Red Bull, Full Throttle and alike. Don't get me wrong. They work very well. One of my coworker's boyfriend works for one of the energy drink companies and she brings in samples. They get me through the day just fine allowing me to do two or three days worth of work in one. No, they work. It's just that they cost too much. You have to pay $2.99 per drink and I think that's taking advantage of the hype.
Well today we ran out of the free stock of energy drinks at the office. I've been mixing them with creatine, glutamine and whey protein as a shooter before and after a lifting workout. Today, for some reason I refused to pay the $2.99 per can of energy so I decided to make my own.
- 1 12 oz. can Diet Big Red (30 mg sodium, 38 mg caffeine) $.69
- 1 .3 oz packet of Emergen-C Immune Defense fizzy drink mix (6g Sugar, 1,000 mg Vit C, other) $.18
- 1 tspn Creatine Monohydrate $.17
- 200 mg caffeine $.11
- 1 scoop (24 g) Designer Whey protein Strawberry (1 g fat, 2 g Sugar, Protein 18 g + Potassium, Magnesium, Sodium, and others.) $.40
Great taste, less sugar, more of the good stuff my body needed and a lot cheaper. Total cost was $1.55 for all of the ingredients. And at 238 mg caffeine, it contains more than most of the energy drink products on the market.
Labels: energy drink, shooter, weight lifting
