Training on Tunnel Road

Having taken Monday off for various reasons, I decided to fit in a training ride today. I thought about doing hill intervals and, thankfully, Morgan had the same idea in mind. On our way over to Tunnel Road, Morgan and I discussed the type of training we would be doing. Since Morgan had to be back home by 2:30, we decided to climb Tunnel only two times.

I decided to ride up Tunnel the first time at a pace that would keep my heart rate in the 160's. The start point was Lookout Point and the finish point was the Observation street sign at the top. My hr started at 161 and progressed to:163, 166, 168 and 171. I finished my first ride up the hill in 17:45.

Morgan and I decided to throw in some sprints on our second ride up the hill. Unfortunately, I only had the power to throw in three 15-second sprints. Since I didn't have the energy to fit in more sprints, I tried to keep my hr above 165 for the rest of the ride. I arrived to the top in 18:27 and with a hr of 178.

I had fun training up Tunnel today. Hopefully, I'll be able to learn some hill intervals that will help me get stronger climbing legs and lungs. Who knows, I just may end up doing the Grizzly Peak century with the 8,000+ feet of climbing.

Climbing & Sprinting 500 Meters

On Saturday morning, Morgan, Laura and I decided to go on a ride. Originally, our plan was to ride to Diablo's summit. Unfortunately, I woke up with a case of the runs so we postponed our ride until 11 a.m. Given our time constraints at this point, we decided to skip Diablo and do the three bears. So, off we went: Broadway Terrace, Tunnel, Grizzly Peak, Toyonal.






When we were done descending Toyonal, Morgan informed us that she wasn't feeling well. She offered Laura and I directions to do the three bears loop but, given that Laura and I are not good with directions, we decided to skip it and climb back home via Wild Cat, Shasta, Grizzly Peak. Although this was a short ride, there was a good deal of climbing involved. And, turning left onto Shasta in the wrong gear really sucks! Nonetheless, I was glad to get some riding in before our Gold Sprints.

Although Beth had explained to us how the Gold Sprints worked, I was still very curious to see how this event would play out. Although I could see how much suffering the riders that preceeded me had to endure, I still was unsure what kind of pain was in store for me. Well, I found out soon enough! The first 15 seconds felt bearable but, after that, it was pure hell! Seconds never felt like such an eternity!










Being the numbers-oriented person, I wrote down the TO women's finishing times:

Beth: 21:59 in the first heat and 21: 60 in the winner takes all heat
Me: 25:49 (two women tied for first with a time of 24:89)
Laura: 26:34 (winner in her heat won with 24:44)
Lauren: Unfortunately, this was the one time neither I nor the official time keeper wrote down but the winner in Lauren's heat won with a time of 23:82.

This short effort shot my heart rate up to 171 and made my legs feel like friggin' rubber immediately afterwards. Still, I had a great time and I'm so proud of Beth's win. You rock, Beth!!!!

Playing the numbers game

When I walked into my spin class today, I figured it'd be another regular class. Little did I know that I would get to ride a bike with a power meter! I did the first 45 minutes of class on a regular spin bike. Then, the spin instructor announced that the bike with the power meter had become available and invited the gym members to give it a whirl for the second half of the class. I looked around to see if anybody would take Jim up on his offer and sprinted to the other bike as soon as I could. I've taken VO2 tests and done work on a computrainer before but I'm always game for measuring my cycling strength on any computer that can give me measurement numbers.

The class was formatted as follows: 6 minutes of "flat" riding, maintaing a minumum of 90 rpms; 6 minutes of a seated climb maintaining or slightly raising your hr from your previous effort; and 6 minutes of a stand-up climb, really pushing hard in the last two minutes of the interval. After a two-minute rest, we repeated the three six-minute intervals.

During the flat portion of the ride, I averaged between 93-100 rpms. My wattage during these efforts were in the 150's & 160's and my hr was an avg. of 161. During the 2nd interval, I tried to maintain a minimum of 60 rpms and my wattage jumped to 170's & 180's. My hr went up to 163-166. During the 3rd interval, my rpm went down to the 50's and my wattage went up to the 190's-200's. Unfortunately, my dang hr became inconsistent during this 3rd off the saddle interval (i.e., the monitor would read 00 or 36). I decided to ignore the hr number and tried to increase my wattage during the final two minutes of my 3rd interval. I pushed myself into the 230's both times.

I kept an eye on my avg. wattage. When I saw that I was at 155, I became determined to finish at a minimum of 160 (although, I have no friggin' idea if 160 is even a solid number.) Still, I pushed myself and my avg. wattage was 161 by the end of the class.

I'd like to think that I might have posted better numbers were I not still dealing with this congestion in my chest. Maybe I would, maybe I wouldn't. Nonetheless, I LOVED having that monitor in front of me because it kept me motivated to maintain a certain rpm or a certain wattage.

Perhaps a wattage expert (ahem, Mike Hardy) can enlighten me with the meaning of wattage numbers and how to know where one falls on the fitness scale when they have a set of wattage numbers.

My first Marin county ride.

After being sick for seven days, I was so looking forward to my first Marin county ride on Saturday. My friend and I met at the Embarcadero and started our ride from there. We stopped for photo shots at Fisherman's Wharf, Golden Gate Bridge, the top of the Marin headlands and Sausalito. We had some coffee and pastry in Sausalito before continuing on with our ride.





We rode through so many towns I've never been to before: Ross, San Anselmo, Olema. The temperature was just right and the sun shone brightly.

There were times during the ride when I found myself extremely surprised to have to shift into my small chainring. Seriously, where did those hills come from??? Looking at the road ahead, it didn't seem like an ascending road but it sure as hell was!

By the time we got to Stinson Beach, I was ready for some serious fuel! I chowed down on a vegetarian wrap, a yogurt, OJ, and a soy latte with a double shot. I was good to go again.

Forward and onward to Mt. Tam. Although I'm 95% recovered from my flu/cold, I still have some blocked airways because I found myself coughing during the climbs. Still, listening to U2 tunes and looking at the beautiful views kept me motivated. We didn't climb to the top of Mt. Tam because it was getting late. Plus, this was only my 2nd long ride of the year and I'm slowly building up my endurance pace. Next time, though, I'm going to the top!




The descent from Mt. Tam is awesome! The road is smooth and the turns transition nicely.

We were back in SF at 7 p.m. just in time to watch my friend's capoeira group perform in that little park in North Beach. Having cooled down from our ride, we got cold pretty quickly but managed to borrow some jackets while we joined the roda and watched the capoeristas.

It was an awesome day!

Oh yeah, measurements:
QUADS: 56 CM (DAMN ILLNESS!)
CALVES: 38 CM
BICEPS: 27 CM

Let'er Rippppppppppppppp!!!!!!!!!

I got hit with the flu BIG TIME last Friday. Although I have some residual coughing and runny nose, I've regained my appetite and energy. And thank goodness too because I was scheduled for a brazilian wax today. I would've hated to miss out on that fun! :P

For those of you who have not had the pleasure of experiencing a brazilian wax, let me share with you the joy of getting hot wax spread on your privates before a cloth strip is applied over the wax and hair on your body is RIPPED from your body.

First, you're escorted to the torture room, I mean, treatment room, by the beautician. She hands you a robe and instructs you to disrobe from the waist down. Once you've removed whatever lower extremity garments you had on, you lie down on a table where the beautician evaluates your, mmmmm, privates, and asks you how much you want taken off. Once you've agreed on the amount of hair removal, she proceeds to apply talcum powder over the area to be waxed (this prevents the hot wax from sticking to the skin).

After application of the talcum powder, liberal amounts of wax are applied to individual segments of your privates. Hopefully, the beautician will have the wax temperature just right. If not, you'll be dealing with the pain of scalding hot wax on your privates before any hair is even ripped from your body.

Assuming the wax temperature is just right, you take a moment to take a DEEP BREATH, close your eyes, and hear the sound of the strip cloth go RIPPPPPPPP, which is then followed by an audible puppy-like cry from you (although, it's not uncommon to unleash a thread of expletives instead of an audible outcry.) This process continues in painfuly small segments. Ohhh, and to add some variety to your salon experience, the beautician will take a tweezer and pluck individual stray hairs from your privates no matter how deep she has to go in to pluck them out.

If you thought this salon experience was like a massage in that you just lay there while getting serviced, au contraire mon ami! You will be asked to lift your legs this way and that way while the beautician rips away.

Don't be fooled when she starts to apply soothing lotion on your front privates. The experience is not quite complete. She'll then have you turn onto your stomach and ask you to spread your cheeks while she goes to work on your posterior. (However, my experience has been that the posterior hurts much less so it turns out not to be a big deal.) Once she's done with your posterior, the beautician applies lotion back there and congratulates you for getting through the experience without tears (assuming there weren't any tears).

Some of you may ask, why, oh why, subject yourself to such torture. Different reasons for different people. However, it may interest you to know that having a brazilian wax may enhance your sex life due to the increased blood flow and sensitivity to that area (or so I've read!)

So, if you decide to indulge in this joyful experience for yourself, don't forget to take two advils an hour before your appointment. It should minimize the pain during your session. Unless, you're into pain. Then you'll just want to skip the advils.

I found another hobby!

Last November I saw a capoeira perfromance for the first time and was mesmerized by it. (For those of you unfamiliar with capoeira, capeira originated in 16th century Brazil by African slaves. Capoeira is a combination of martial art, dance, and game and it is performed to music. You can see a sample of it at this youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCZ9YP06f34

Having thought about it for a while, I decided to take my first capoeira class tonight. The instructor's (mestranda in Portuguese) name was Julianna and she was so nice (and fit! you should have seen her lean abs!) She had us do stretches for warm-up before she began the class. The first movement she taught us is called ginga and it is a basic capoeira movement that allows for an easy entrance to an either offensive or defensive action. From there, the moves became increasingly more complicated. Still, Julianna made sure to work with us individually whenever she saw one of us struggling.

Towards the end of the class, mestranda Julianna taught us some basic beats on tambourines, had us do sit-ups, and had us get into the bridge pose. Now, this is where the miracle took place because I have tried unsuccessfully soooo many times to do the bridge pose in yoga class. Tonight, my body decided it was time I get with the program and up my body went into the bridge pose. Hot Damn!

The class tonight was fun but challenging at times. I really liked this class and think I'll be doing it on a regular basis. Viva Brazil! (Oh yeah, measurements: Quads = 58 cm, Calves = 38 cm, Biceps = 28 cm)