Fall Routines 8/13/10

It feels like I have worked two weeks on this fall weekly routines. Keith and Greg worked on this together.

Monday: Mix of Zone 2 and 3 (counts as 15 miles): Spin Class by Ben @6am or Stan @6pm (take it easy on the last 2 weeks)
Tuesday/Thursday: Zone 2 (24 miles): coaching ride with Keith one day
TTh no coaching day options:
Tue group ride: Allen Cycling Club 6pm 20 miles
Tuesday spin class options:
Shelley at 6am (Mockingbird)
Angie at 6pm (Allen 24)
Erin at 6:30pm (Plano 24)
Krista at 6:30pm (Allen)
Thursday spin class options:
Ann at 6pm (Allen 24)
Monica at 6:30pm (Allen)
TTh Spinervals DVD options:
Spinervals 101 - The Starting Line
Competition 1.0 - No Slackers Allowed!!
Competition 6.0 - Zoot Challenge
Spinervals 8.0 - Recovery & Technique
Wednesday: lower body (superset polymetrics)
Friday: upper body (basic stuff)
Saturday: long ride (gets longer each week!)
Sunday: off

Stan's class 8/9/10

This entry should have been written a long time ago! Stan is my favorite spinning instructor. Originally I wrote to Stan to see if he is available for coaching, but as he is not certified, he recommended Keith. Since last June, I have gone to as many as Stan's spin classes I could possibly go. I really feel his classes prepare me for outside ride for cardio capacity. Now that I ride outside as well, some advice he says in class make more sense. I am not quite sure if he has a real job besides being an excellent spinning instructor, but I hope he can keep it doing for a long time! He collects students'email addresses once in a while and sends out "Spin to Win" newsletter. There he shares interesting articles, links to ride information and shares his playlist. Then when I send him email for question or thanking, he promptly replies. How sweet! I don't interact him as a friend, but after a while, as I am in a people-dealing business, I start to see what he is like as a person. His enthusiasm towards the sport can't be hidden. He has enough wit and humor to be likeable, yet enough professionalism to get the business done. I don't know cycling, but I do know teaching. He sure knows how to teach. Maybe Lance Armstrong is a better cyclist, but I think Stan is a far better instructor! I don't probably need to say it because his class is packed! On Saturday morning 9:30 class, people know that there is a line outside of the studio as we have to set up spin bike as the gym does not have a dedicated spinning studio. It is a mad house sometimes and if you don't come early enough, you may not even get a bike!

Let me give you a typical picture of what an hour is like. Stan always arrives to class plenty early. He is available to set up bikes for beginners (I can't say how much I appreciated his help on the first class with him!), giving advice to members (I asked for some today!) and just getting ready for an excellent class. Teachers know there is always technical problem and he checks on his microphone and has always battery backups. He often goes over some paper for review, for the course or script for the recovery talk and his music is burnt on CD. At the beginning he tells us to stop talking and to concentrate on the music. His care for picking right music shows. He picks good music to ride with and the tempo is matched with the cadence that you are supposed to be at.

He explains and delivers a program that lets me use as interval training. Heart is just like any other muscle and you need to strengthen it and rest it and repeat that process to make it stronger. He does not necessarily specify heart rate zone, but with his "course" description and when to make the wheel heavier (turn right) or lighter (turn left), you will get beautiful interval training. The graphics below on the top is my heart rate data from July 25 class (with my heart rate range indicated) and on the bottom is from August 2 class. Both graphics will open a full-size version in a new window when you click. Check it out!

He starts out with warm-up song reminding us that slowing it down, taking it easy with about 85 cadence. From there he mixes up with heavier/slower hills, fast/jogging hills and fast flats. He puts us in an imaginary bike race and I feel like I am riding in a team. Today we were supposed to breakaway from Peloton (yeah, I am in Peloton!) and had us look to the right and to the left to make sure I am not making any dangerous move! Unless he does some special program (you will read later), he usually plans a complete recovery as you see in my heart rate data. As if he were not riding hard enough or not talking and encouraging enough during the training, he keeps talking in this recovery and shares some interesting piece of information, be it nutrition, other sport or cycling. Today he was talking about new way of cheating in cycling where people suspected this year's Tour de France stage winner, Cancellara. Here is a NY Times article about it. At the end, he makes sure we lower the heart rate and stretch. Some of my favorite things he does are: with a Kelly Clarkson's tune, where we have to sprint for 15-30 seconds. Recently he has used this scheme of doing heavy hill climb standing up and towards the end, when I am just about in zone 5, getting closer literally to my peak heart rate, he has us sit down for the last so many seconds and tells us to turn to the right. URGH! He says it is not how you start the race, but how you FINISH it!

That is description of his rather typical class, but sometimes he has special programs and contests. There you can win his special edition one-time only CD and other prizes he arranged with sponsors. One time, he had yelling contest. Other time, he had flywheel temperature contest. Sometimes he skips recovery in the middle. Sometimes he is asked to do LSD like training, staying in zone 2. He said he had to look for elevator music. One time, he had time trial looking program.

I keep going to Stan's class anytime I can! I hope Tony can get to go to his class someday. Thank you, Stan and keep up the great work!

Indoor cycling training 8/8/10

I am a basic gym nut and I didn't ride outside for a long time. I talk about trying half marathon, but I really don't run outside. Now that I have been doing indoor cycling for a while, I would like to write an entry about it. Before I started, I used to think what is so fun about the class. But after realizing, there are not many machines that I can use to bring my heart rate to personal trainer's specification and I am really bad with choreographic moves, I decided to give it a try to spinning class. It prepared my cardio ability for my San Francisco ride last year where I rode up the hills to the Golden Gate Bridge on a hybrid without getting off the bike at all.


I usually see decent bikes, but now-closed Plano Bally's had a bike whose seat didn't slide across and couldn't go low enough. After only one class, it hurt my legs and had to refrain from exercising for a few days. The bike I see anywhere else is probably Spinner® NXT (pictured left). Indoor cycling is a towel hogging activity. Everybody has different set up, but here is mine. I bring a big towel and a small towel. Spread the big towel over handle bar area. Put my water bottle on right and rest a small towel on the left. In the middle, I have a cardboard that has HR number written in water resistant marker. Then on the closest point of the handle bar, I have my heart rate monitor. The monitor is set to display current time and heart rate so that I can count the cadence and keep track of heart rate. I use the big towel to wipe off the equipment and floor before I leave. Small towel is only used to wipe myself. In Allen 24 hour fitness studio, they keep the light so dark, I have to pick a bike by the corner so that I can see the monitor. Also I need to sign in and get a yellow card for reserving a bike. At 24-hour fitness, the towel is not provided, so I will have two small ones and paste the heart rate card with scotch tape.

Classes vary and I understand everybody has different goal. Some times it is talking with friends and sometimes it is doing their own thing by ignoring what the instructor says. Instructors vary, too. Some instructors ask us just to ride really fast (with loud music). Some instructors tell us to be in particular heart rate zone without telling us how to get there. Some instructors assume we all get to AT when they get to AT. Some instructors talk about their family during class. Some preach, some like to encourage. I like my instructor to have a clear lesson plan, how the heart rate range should be arranged for interval training. My favorite, Stan, does not say which heart rate zone, but he is very clever about setting a “course” and specifying cadence. My new favorite, Jason, specifies heart rate zone and makes sure to work in various zones. I will get to describe why I like some classes by posting my heart rate data.

Melon Patch 42 miles (oops), August 7, 2010 8/8/10

Melon Patch 42 miles route at MapMyRide.com

I swear I meant to ride 72 miles at Melon Patch ride . But I ended up taking a wrong turn and only did 42 instead. Tony and I shot the video.
On YouTube .mp4
On Vimeo HD
Please take a look!

As the first 15 miles or so for 18, 42 and 72 were the same, Tony and I rode together. We were at the front with 72-milers at the start. I think what happened was that, by the time I departed with Tony, I was with 42 mile people and I ended up following the shorter route. Tony was one of the first people to finish from 18 miles. Congratulations!

I am rather disappointed that I missed the turn and ended up only doing 42, but I decided to think that it was meant to be. It was a very, very hot day and if I tried to complete 72 miles, it would have been at least 2pm by the time I finished. That would have been triple digit temperature. Tony didn't have to feel rushed getting home as I finished early, so he treated me lunch at Dairy Queen in Stephenville. We also got to pick up Lady on Saturday instead of waiting until Sunday evening.

The strangest part of my ride was immediately after I departed with Tony. I figured I had a lot to catch up and I didn't get lost. So I was riding fast and maybe it was a lot of ascending rolling hills. I started to feel very tight around the chest. I thought maybe I got too big and my Betty Boop jersey feels too small. Or something wrong with Garmin strap. Or my workout bra is too tight. My heart rate was around 160, which is not unusual for me when I ride. Maybe it was heat. Or maybe I ate too much. I realized this was unusual, so I slowed down and gradually my heart rate came down to 140's. The tightness still didn't go away. So I stopped for a moment. Luckily the rest stop #3 was shortly after when I made this stop, so I took extra long rest in the shade. And I decided that if I am doing 72 miles, I had better keep my heart rate in zone 2, not zone 4! Then everything kind of got back to normal. I found some people to ride behind them (unpaid coach's advice) and most of the time I got behind on-road help people from Lone Mad Duck Cyclery in Grandbury. The lady was cheering everybody up and teaching me how to paceline. It was such a pleasant experience!

While I was doing the last-minute checking before the registration, I found that Lone Star Ride has minimum fundraising goal of $500! So I decided to give up. One the same day, there is a ride in Waco to benefit Be The Match Foundation®, formerly the Marrow Foundation, called Waco Wild West Century. Longer routes go by the Mars Snackfood candy factory, and sounds like they will be giving away Skittles at the rest stop. 100-mile route will pass former President George W. Bush's Crawford Ranch! Keith seems to think I will be ready for century by then. Let's see how it goes.