W20 Thursday

 To bed early tonight!  I refuse to get hypnotised by the screen.

Tempo bike - left the house about 6:20 a.m. Cool after some dawn rain. My husband rolled out of bed to ride with me.   The assigned range for a "Temp Bike" was 124-134. I averaged  128.   It was easy to go over and easy to relax a little too low.   I aimed to stay at the upper range of the zone and tried narrowing the HRM range to help me avoid going over. I'm not sure it made staying in the zone easier and may have made me too cautious.    I need to mount the HRM on my handle-bars. It's not possible to check my wrist so often.  I had a lot fun on the ride.  There are nesting swans in one of the lakes I pass.  Beautiful.  My hands were ice-cold for the first 20 minutes.  I love my new bike clothes.  Ave speed for the hour: 19 km/hr. Max was 37 km/hr.   

I researched lane-swimming times in pools around the Hague and found some closer to my house where I can lap swim in the morning or on weekends.  I've now visited four different pools and can read the Dutch words and spot the right swim times for what I want to do.  I might be able to get my coach's permission to swim earlier, before the public hours. But it's possible to swim at 7:00 at a pool halfway between home and my office. I think I could get to work by 9:00.  Or maybe a long lunch? Less likely.

This first week of living in the discovery zone has given me a lot of ideas about being efficient about my training and just getting it Done.

I found a public bus route to the pool in the south of The Hague  - the one where I always get so freaking lost when I drive there. That's a possibility. Plus I could ride my bike when the weather is a little better. I'm not keen on riding in the dark and the wet. Pick One!

Food today hasn't been enough or organised enough.  So far: pre-workout: banana & egg smoothie, post work-0ut: bowl of mueslix and milk, at work: bagel, lox and cream cheese; pork tenderloin slices and apple sauce; watercress soup, yogurt; hb egg; navel orange. Time to go home and eat!

I will do my core stretching and stuff at home, but it is SO NICE to train in the morning. I feel good and relaxed all day - Sometimes I'm a little sleepy in the afternoons, but that's better than feeling anxious about still needing to do my workout.

The last bit is that I continue to learn.   With lower intensity training, my nutrition needs on the bike or a run change:

1. people generally have enough stored glycogen and body fat to workout well at an aerobic (fat-burning level) for up to 90 minutes or even two hours without taking in nutrition during the session.
2. the body needs some glycogen to burn fat.  without taking in some additional carbs, you run the risk of metabolizing protein at the end of a longer workout.
3. bring a gel pack (100-200 calories) in case you start to sag at 90 minutes. but you won't spoil your being in a fat burning by eating a modest amount of carbs. 

When I'm working out at a "low enough" heart rate, I don't need to eat gel or sip a sports drink throughout a workout of moderate length.  But above all I should pay attention to how I feel and adjust.

Tuesday - body awareness

Tuesday morning started early with a dog walk on the beach (clouds!), then a 90 minute bike ride. I learned to tune into my body and notice my heart rate and my breathing. It was magical.   Then back into the kitchen to eat.  I enjoyed a relaxing afternoon. Then off to the gym to lift with my son. We had fun together until one of the staff asked if I had arrangements to bring my child out on the floor with me.   We had finished our workout by then anyway.  

Here's a link on the kind of heart rate monitor training that I am following with Mark Allen's coaching.  We exchanged emails today, and I'm smitten. I'm not prone to hero worship, but I can make exceptions. His gentle spirit comes shining through his writing.

Food: normal. Yesterday's calorie count and ratios ended up being exactly on target without a lot of advance planning.

Today so far:  pre-workout smoothie (mango, banana & protein powder), gu-gel and sports drink on the ride,  bagel, cream cheese and smoked salmon, asparagus, apricot smoothie (with eggs & coconut) before second workout. Dinner: ostrich steak, seared in olive oil with shallots and tomatoes. Wilted spinach.


Weight is down two lbs since last week. 

Boretti Cycling Amsterdam

Yesterday's bike entry


I had such a fabulous time I don't know where to start.  

Basics: 2.5 hrs
55 km (had some issues with the watch, so I don't know the whole distance - it shut itself off while I was waiting for the drawbridge to finish).
AVR Speed:  22 km/hr
Avr HR 149

Cool, overcast and wet. I will have to invent a better way to eat on the bike.  I goofed around and produced a video short from the photos I took.  Hopefully I will be able to upload it!  Voila! I made a goofy video and uploaded it here.  It's about 90 seconds. 

Now you'll have a voice to match the face.  I felt strong the whole ride. I tried to keep my heart rate down, since I will be training by heart rate. It's hard to do!  My legs are so much stronger from running that cycling feels very different.  Most of the time I was riding alone. Sometimes I was in a pack and drafted behind a group. I could tell from the drop in my heart rate how much easier it is to ride at the same pace when others are in front leading the way.  

Cyclists are very friendly, I think. I stopped to put on my booties because my feet were cold, and immediately another cyclist stopped to see if I needed any help. Another cyclist stopped when I paused to get some food out of my riding bag.  I stopped to help another fellow, who unfortunately had to drop out when his back wheel stopped turning properly. There was nothing I could do, so I continued on after checking that he had a mobile phone and the aid number to call. 

I rode the end of the tour with a young woman who had just bought her first road bike and was out for her second ride.  It was fun to have her company, although we both got lost and took a couple wrong turns at the end. The route was marked with small pink cardboard square that seemed to have disappeared at the last 10 km of the ride!  I certainly would enjoy doing a ride like this again. 

Like at a foot race, the atmosphere was very exciting. I know very little about bike racing. I didn't stay to watch the afternoon's events in the velodrome. N is playing at a friend's house, E's on a bike trip for a couple days and J's away for the weekend racing sail boats. I had said I would pick up N in the late afternoon, so I came back. As it turns out, he's been invited to stay for dinner. I'll have the whole afternoon to myself. All I want to do right now is NAP!  Oh, and eat.

I am just so excited to begin tri- training. I love learning new things, and exploring my potential.  I really enjoyed the sprint tri's I did back in Oregon, and cycling was where I felt strongest.  Now that I'm a runner too, this will be even more fun.

I started listening to We Might as Well Win by John Bruynell about winning the Tour de France with Lance. He's a fabulous coach and the book got great reviews, even from people who don't like bike racing.
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Well, I am going to close here.  I want to eat some more and do the dishes and so on. I have a lot of reading to do about the training program. It's fabulous!  And there's a dog  snoring on the couch who wants some snuggles. 

Oh! I forgot. I got bike clothes. Boretti had a table of great technical riding clothing for sale at cheeeeap prices. I don't have a proper riding coat and wished the whole morning for one. Plus my favorite bike pants are too big now that I am smaller. They pinch.  Problem solved:  They had a special for a whole set of gear --- long pants, shorts, leggings, wind jacket, shirts, arm warmers, and even a coat that has removable sleeves. All kinds of stuff to help me ride in the mornings this summer  (when , as it is here, it will be windy and cool).   I laid them out and snapped a photo. I also got a gigantic gear bag to hold all the triathlon stuff:

It is just way too cool. 

Bloom

view from Saturday afternoon cycle to the tulips