Allegheny Jet

Today marked the first day of the indoor group bike workouts my coach conducts. 45 cyclist of many abilities all suffered for two hours under controlled torturous schemes listening to angry German music and watching well known dopers race bikes on the big screen. I actually did very well in the class today. For some reason I assumed that since I'm a year older I might not be able to do the A level efforts and could be demoted to a B. Fortunately that was not the case this season.

AzTallRider

45 Cyclists indoors? That's a whole lotta sweat. Where do you all fit, in an Amazon warehouse?

Hermes

A'Jet, Is there a fee for that indoor session?

A local level I coach, that I used for a couple of years, offers an indoor evening peloton at a bicycle shop. I did the workout a couple of times but thought it was too far to drive and too expensive. His fees are: Full Series VIP package $500, 10 session package $200, 5 session package $125, $30 for drop-ins (if space available). That is in addition to monthly coaching fees and you bring your own equipment. There were a couple of fans but not enough for all.

There was no music just him on his bike in the front of the room giving commands.

Allegheny Jet

The class fee is $10 a session for everyone with discounts to his athletes. This year the class moved to a fairly large fitness center. There are large fans that caused some to complain but others, like me, needed more air. That will get worked out as people adjust to the new venue. I have been attending the sessions for 6 years. We used a Cross Fit venue the past few years but it became too crowded. The new location is further from my home but still only 30-35 minutes away. My wife, who is a recovery pace specialist, did the program the past three years but declined on this years program. She said she would rather go to the dentist.

Here is the link to the program with details: https://www.4thehealthofit.net/indoor...r-cycling.html

Cleave

I first met Roger Young at a club meeting. Our Race Director at the time was vetting potential coaches for our race team. He didn't really know much about Roger and I didn't know that Roger was in the area. We ended up with Roger (surprise, surprise). At the time, Roger was working out of the back of a bike shop. He actually had a lot of space with two floors. He had something like a dozen or more of Lemond spin bikes. A few of those bikes are at the velodrome today.

We had spin classes for our club led by Roger. It really wasn't much different than the intervals at the velodrome today. He played music and had us do different intervals and, since we were on spin bikes, we did some high resistance, low cadence, out-of-the-saddle reps. It was all good, but the velodrome intervals are better.

I don't know how many bike racers in SoCal know how lucky we are to have the velodrome and Roger Young.

I'll be at the velodrome again tonight.

sarals 

Rub it in, Cleave.

AJ, I remember the video you linked to last year on those spin sessions. I loved it! I wish we could do that here. Ex is concerned, rightly so, that when I do spin classes, because the bikes have no power meters, that we're flying blind (we are). I'd love to bring my bike and trainer to the gym for a class and work out on that so I have the metrics. I don't know that the gym would let me, though.

Hermes - 31 at my house right now. I'm not used to that! Going out for some climbing, but I've been admonished to keep the power low.

Yesterday was a cadence test. Pace, 10 minutes of cadence testing, recovery. TSS 84.5, IF .929, NP 137 watts, Avg Cadence 87 RPM.

Hermes

Cleave, I hope Roger had better music at his indoor peloton than he does at the Velodrome. The Beer Barrel Polka gets old.

Hermes

Gym workout last night. Upper body and jumping. I added a plyometric component to all my lifting. For example, when I do a set of chest presses, I follow it up immediately with a set of throwing the medicine ball against the wall via a two handed basketball style chest pass or do pushups where I pushup exploding off the floor and clap my hands. At our gym, we always have a trainer who is floating around the gym looking bored. I use them to play catch with the medicine ball. I end up with six sets of each body part - 3 for strength and 3 for power. I box jump until my legs turn to jelly.

What I really need is to throw the discus, javelin and shot-put and the hurdles and high jump.

AzTallRider

I know someone who could teach you that stuff.

First intervals today (A2 and SS1 for those in the know), and somewhat related; first lung butter. Woohoo... almost like real training!

Hermes

In my late 20s, I had a cycling friend who was also a decathlete. He showed me how to throw the discus, shot and javelin. It is a lot harder than it looks and I could also throw the foot ball 50 yards back in the day. Fast forward to today, and I would have to retrieve my arm along with the football that would be about 10 yards in front of me.

IBOHUNT

Yesterday:
At dinner it was 57 min of all about cadence. Avg Cadence 115. IF 0.8, TSS 63
After work 1:40 of Z2; IF 0.71 TSS 85

Allegheny Jet

I've forgotten more about the decathlon than you guys would ever want to know. Throwing stuff was always fun and I got to do grunts just like the big dudes. Once during indoor track I was chucking' shot puts back at the throwing ring which was located at the edge of the track. One of the shots was the hard solid plastic type with loose lead shot inside. Those shots would bounce unlike the yellow soft plastic model that would "hit then roll". I launched a better than usual throw back at the ring and it bounced over the ring and right through the shot guys behind it. Well as luck would have it, the distance runners were running intervals in their tight little pack and the wayward shot took out the lead runner bringing down the rest like a bowling pin strike. I guess I didn’t forget everything.

I just don't understand why Hermes wants to do the decathlon at his age? You will always be hurt.

sarals 

Thursday ride with my training partner. I kept the power output low. Cold ride, 43 degrees. I worked on my cadence and on being smooth. I am finding out that I am a "choppy" rider, I do not have a smooth power delivery, and that works against me. TSS 63.9, IF .876, NP 129

AzTallRider

My version of that is unsurprisingly related to basketball. At the peak of my limited leaping prowess (college), I could hit the rim about 2/3 of the way up my forearm. Flatfooted was a whole nutha thing... could barely dunk. But fast forward to my initial effort to get in shape about 7 years ago, and my goal was to once again dunk a basketball. I paid for some personal training, and when I stated that as my goal, I was asked "How many guys over 50 do you know who can dunk a basketball?". My response was "How many guys over 50 do you know who are 6'6"?". I never got there, with the biggest issue being that, until I started racing bikes, I was packing way too much extra weight for my feeble muscles to launch that high. Plus I hated the plyo that would have been needed... that too was likely weight related. Isn't everything? In any event, the net result was I got to where I could just barely dunk a tennis ball, but was nowhere near close with the basketball. I was, however, able to keep my limited leaping going for entire games, so I was something of a rebound monster in the gym pickup games. As I've always told the short quick guys: "As we get old, you'll slow down, but I'll always be tall."

Hermes

When I was in my teens and early 20s, I could hit long jump shots on the basketball court. Today, I am stronger as measured by lifting in the gym, but I cannot get a basketball to the rim from the top of the key; forget the pro 3 point line - pathetic. This mini back in the day discussion gets to one of the factors we face as we age. The muscles lose their ability to fire fast. What plyometrics do is neurologically retrain the muscles to fire fast and command certain muscles to relax fast. Hence, jumping is great for cycling as it creates power. The flip side is that older tendons, joints and muscles are susceptible to injury and faster contractions may lead to more injuries. So I am taking the plyometric component of my training easier than a 20 something might and not seriously taking up the decathlon... but you know I want to.

Allegheny Jet

At just under 6" I dunked a basketball on my 40th birthday. I was still playing ball then. A few years later my feet went south on me and I took up cycling. Maybe white guys were not meant to dunk basketballs?

revchuck 

I was relatively tall (6'2") in high school but far too uncoordinated to play basketball - that's why I ended up in track and cross country.

Last week of base training. Recovery ride Monday (TSS 20), 2:36 Tuesday with a hrTSS of 127, 4:05 yesterday (TSS 220), 4:03 today (TSS 215). Tomorrow is a day off due to weather, and then I get to see if I can HTFU enough to do another four hours Saturday with wind chills in the 20s, plus another four hours on Sunday in the balmy 40s. I'll end up with a TSS of ~1,000 this week...or not, depending on how this weekend works out. Next week is recovery...about time!

It's going to feel weird going back to intensity.

shovelhd

Does not compute.

sarals 

It's comparatively speaking.

IBOHUNT

+1. Barely chilly enough for leg warmers.

IBOHUNT

Yesterday was again, broken up into two rides.

50 min middle of Z3 - IF 0.96 TSS 77
1:06 top of Z2 - IF 0.85 TSS 80

20 min stretching.

AzTallRider

Wow. That's an average for the week of 143: totally off the charts.

AzTallRider

I've been thinking of taking advantage of the gym membership I never use (purchased when asked to take my groaning, sweating self out of the family room for weight training) and getting back on the court again, as I miss it. But I leave the 3 pointers to the little guys, Hermes, focusing on defense, rebounding, and short jumpers. Although last time I really got energetic defending, it ended up with some pushing and shoving, as the gunner of a guy really didn't like being blocked and made to work for his shot.

revchuck 

That's if I do the two rides this weekend at the level I've been putting out. I frankly don't know how long I'm going to hang tomorrow with the wind chill in the mid 20s, I just don't have the gloves for it. Even if I do finish up as planned, I don't see myself doing this again, at least not at this level of volume.

Hermes

IMO, you would enjoy the book the Sports Gene by Epstein. It is about the role that genetics and environment play in developing athletes. It has quite a bit of material on basketball and tall people.