How I fit next 4-weeks of Super 6 1/14/12

I officially said good-by by baking candy cane cookies and will start my semester Tuesday. Luckily the long weekend makes the first week of the semester shorter and reduces two 3-class teaching days to only one. Coach had to put a rest day somewhere and he did for Sunday. That works out well for some of us, not for some of us. So I see people are scrambling around with rest days and schedule in general. Coach trusts us for following his program as the best we could, so I have to be doing some thinking and modifying myself, too. Last fall, Monday and Friday were rest days assuming long ride on Saturday and more ride on Sunday. I had cadio mid-week, various combination and intensity of bike and treadmill and weights on Tuesday and Thursday, as they are 2-class teaching days. What I did was to list workouts for the week, including cross training and StrEndurance and spread into the week according to how best fits my schedule. The DVD programs listed are the ones I own and sometimes they are optional workouts. I am also following non-runner cross-training options, probably elliptical and that is what I mean by gym. I hope this doesn’t confuse Coach too much and helps me complete what he planned as close as possible.

Week 3
Overview: The school is just starting and Monday is a holiday. Four out of six DVDs are aero and one hard one is short. Since I won’t be doing 100 miles in Palm Springs(on rented bike), , which is the road option for the very last day for hardcore, I am committed to full 5 and ½ hours 2/21 Saturday. Ideally I would take at least Friday off, preferably Thursday off, for this kind of distance. Because I didn’t do Tough Love on 14th Sat., I am starting the week right off and put the rest day off to the later of the week. Cross training is scheduled twice, StrEndurance once.

Sunday:
6.0 - Zoot Challenge + gym
Monday:
17.0 - Aero Base Builder II + StrEndurance
Tuesday:
21.0 - Aero Base Builder IV + gym
Wednesday:
39.0 - Aerobic Base at 10,000 Ft.
Thursday:
18.0 - Aero Base Builder III
Friday:
off
Saturday:
FULL 26.0 - The Hardcore 100

Week 4
Overview: More technique work, moderately tough workouts and only two aero. Cross training is scheduled three times, StrEndurance once.

Sunday:
8.0 - Recovery and Technique + gym
Monday:
off
Tuesday:
21.0 - Aero Base Builder IV+ gym
Wednesday:
23.0 - Time Saver I　A
Thursday:
36.0 - Warrior Training + gym
Friday:
39.0 - Aerobic Base at 10,000 Ft. + StrEndurance
Saturday:
30.0 - Muscular Endurance PLUS

Week 5
Overview: Toughtest week with one official rest day. Cross training is scheduled twice.

Sunday:
39.0 - Aerobic Base at 10,000 Ft. + gym
Monday:
off
Tuesday:
31.0 - Endurance BOOSTER!
Wednesday:
36.0 - Warrior Training
Thursday:
5.0 - Mental Toughness
Friday:
gym
Saturday:
13.0 - Tough Love

Week 6
Overview: One technique work, three aero, one tough workout and Sat 58 miles outside. Friday will have to be off from cardio. Cross training is scheduled twice, StrEndurance twice. 1 ½ hr wild card aero needs to be skipped.

Sunday:
35.0 - Cycling Technique Focus + gym
Monday:
off
Tuesday:
21.0 - Aero Base Builder IV + StrEndurance
Wednesday:
1.0- No Slackers Allowed!!
Thursday:
28.0 - Aero Base Builder VI + gym
Friday:
StrEndurance
Saturday:
58 miles Tour de Palm Springs

My favorite professional cyclists: Legend, Smiley and the Gal 1/13/12

For a while I thought about I should no longer submit proposals for foreign languages/Japanese teaching conferences because if I run out of things to say, I might just start talking about fitness. Now I am happiest when I talk about cycling non-stop. Today I am happily talking about my three favorite professional cyclists: Legend, Smiley and the Gal.

First, Legend. If you recall, this is only my fourth season riding. In fact, 2011 was the first full year season I spent cycling. I am a very beginning rider and I still can’t ride with my hands off. But I am old enough and act like I have been following cycling all my life. This summer, I was waking up early to fit European time, watching Versus (now NBC sports) on TV screen while watching no commercial feed on iPad and check Tickers, Twitters and Facebook all at the same time, watching with… Legend Greg LeMond! I heard his name first as Lance Armstrong was trying to represent himself as the new version of, to promote his Foundation. When LeMond retired, I was just finishing out my graduate school and I made it to the US for graduate school. So there was no way of witnessing his career for me (let alone my English language proficiency would allow to understand anything). Then his name came through his g-force UT. Lifetime Fitness uses this machine for metabolic testing on bike. The whole gym only has ONE machine, just for testing, not for public use. However, I must say when metabolic specialists forget to hide it and lock it up, I did sneak in and used it for my own workout a couple of times. (hehehe) Then one time I was doing some research on VO2 max, I came across the article that says Greg LeMond’s was 92.5 while my excellent number was 48.7! As you can tell from my Tour de France experience, he is quite active in Facebook through his LeMond Fitness page. So I learned about LeMond RevMaster that Coach Troy always talks about as well. Then when last year’s Tour came close to an end, he shared his famous Time Trial footage in 1989, yellow jersey battle with Laurent Fignon. Now I felt like I was a life-time cycling fanatic.



When Coach had trivia question about 23.0 - Time Saver and revealed who was the invited guest to appear on the shoot, I quickly dug out the disc that I never used and watched the interview and his appearance and clapped on bike. Of course, any American with foreign language skills impresses me.

Next, Smiley. Nobody can be as charming as Coach Troy, but he is not qualified to appear in this entry because he is not a professional cyclist (awww). Nobody is an angel and especially if you are into suffering business, it is hard to maintain upbeat attitude. But Chris Horner must be a delight to ride with in the peloton. I picked up cycling in my 40’s and I am no way competitive, but I am grateful this sport can be enjoyed for a long time. So when somebody whose age is so close to mine professional competing at the top level, is a delightful feeling, especially when he is feeling FANTASTIC! I watched his Mt. Baldy stage finish with gentleman rider and teammate Levi Leipheimer in Amgen Tour of California win, I could not clap hard enough for Chris and his teammates. So when I heard he crashed and had concussion on stage 7, I was heart-broken. I was happy to hear that he was granted a contract for the next season regardless. I hope he recovers well and rides another fantastic year in 2012. But the Mt. Baldy finish is in DVD forever with "Amgen Tour of California 2011: The Workout", I can rest easy and get on with my life.

Last, but not least, the Gal. Her name is Evelyn Stevens, Evie, my hero! Of course, she is going to be least famous because women’s professional cycling is much, much smaller than men’s equivalent. And she is still young. I first learned about her in an article in Bicycle magazine. If you don’t know about her and if you have limited patience reading online, maybe you can read Wall Street version of the story.

In both articles, you will find out why she is my hero. She started out her adult career, not as an athlete, but turned to pro after leaving her job in Wall Street. What makes her my hero is because she started out with lots of riding inside. Having long hours at work and being in New York City, she had limited time she could use riding outside. And people could not believe how strong she rode. She signed up with now disbanded HTC Highroad women’s team in 2010. She had rather quite riding seasons, but is hopeful to have a better year this year. The team because Specialized-lululemon and she is training with Connie Carpenter (in this article), the mother of Taylor Phinney. You know who his father is? Davis Phinney! :-0 Tony kept the couple’s book, "Training for Cycling" from 1992 like Bible and showed it to me when I first got into cycling. Of course, there is no way that *I* am going to turn pro at this age, but I am just enjoying a little fantasy overwrapping myself to this lady who rode a lot inside turned pro leaving a successful career.

Ultimate Chic Gym 1/12/12

Cold, but lovely morning in Dallas, Texas. I am practicing the scheme going to the gym before school. My preferred gym for that is Lifetime Athletic Premier Place. It is minutes from school and I call it Ultimate Chic Gym. It is in a fancy part of Dallas neighborhood, a few miles away from Former President George W. Bush's Dallas residence. In fact, my school is building his Presidential library!

Dallas is full of young professionals and that is the clientele. Most of the conversation I overhear sounds like they are real estate agents and lawyers. One time I heard that there was a basketball game going and somebody got in trouble. A cardiologist was right there and resuscitate on the spot! It feels like high-end spa, rather than health club and almost too luxurious for me.

I walked in after so long, as I only visit during school time and notice that there is a little card telling about LTF mobile application and a stash of mini-tissues to take. So I said hi to the lady at the counter and took one each. There are cleaning staff walking around and the place is sparkling clean. They remind me of maids that show up in Mexican soap opera, conscientious, courteous and moving all the time. In the locker room, sleek music with urban feeling is played instead of regular LTF feed. It is equipped with make-up remover, cotton cosmetic pads, Q tips and disposable shavers. The counter has comfy chair with hair dryer, deodorant and hair spray within reach. Locker area has a nice cove, at least that is what I call, good-size personal area with all this with a big mirror. The locker room houses, jacuzzi, dry sauna and steam room. It has a little machine to dry bathing suits and plastic bag dispenser not to mention scale. In the shower area, there is shampoo, conditioner, shower gel and shaving cream. In the sink area, there is hand soap, hand lotion, and even mouthwash. Well, I sure pay the price, but if there are excuses to get me IN the gym, opposed to OUT of the gym, I am all for it. All LTF gyms provide bath towels and hand towels. I know it is rather too much, but hey, with all the stuff I carry around, I can reduce some load in the gym bag.

But the ultimate of ultimate is what you see pictured above, cool eucalyptus towels found in cardio area! Yeah, yeah, I almost forgot, the purpose of my visit is to check out cardio machines. I see Octane elliptical machines right in front of a series of TV. What looks better is Precor Adaptive Motion Trainer with individualized cardio theater screen. I see Arc Trainer also with cardio theater. I pass the ultimate workout towels and go outside of the cardio studio. First thing I see is a dedicated spinning studio! Then I noticed HUGE rowing machines for the first time. Then I observe two Powerplate machines that we can only use by working with personal trainers. Hummm. Then there are a couple of cardio machines that only uses arm by Technogym and a spinner bike on the floor!

Maybe I was feeling more social than usual after seeing this lady who always goes to the Stairmaster with a pretty red bag. I said hi to two elderly ladies who I used to use treadimill for walking side by side. I spotted a young professional-looking, fit guy reading from a binder with no earphones on Adaptive Motion Trainer. I asked if he liked it better than other versions and he said it gives bigger range of motion and better workout. With cardio theater, I can check out cool commercials and news broadcaster to yell at, so I decided to use it. I had to use only legs once in a while because the whole body workout actually brought up to zone 3 range. At the end of the workout, I thanked the guy, wished him a good day and grabbed the ultimate towel and fill the Team T&K water bottle from the iced water dispenser that looks like coming from hotel buffet table. I happily complete the workout, come out clean from the gym and spot this shoe shining station. Sometimes I say hi to these guys and now I notice they are also wearing LTF uniforms. If there is only one thing I have to mention, maybe because this was not built originally as LTF facilities, unlike others, it is not 24-hours. Maybe they keep it that way, so I don’t end up living there!

Conversations with Unpaid Trainer/Husband 1/10/12

Most of what my Unpaid Trainer/Husband, Tony, over the holidays heard from me was about Coach Troy, his programs and about my fellow 32-day challengers. He took the craziness of last three days of the challenge seriously and stated that the priority is for me to complete those tough workouts safely. Now he knows my new dear friends by name. We both look forward to meeting with Alex Barnett and Derek Couse possibly in person in Palm Springs next month.

I tend to go extreme in whatever I do and he can tell better about what kind of shape I am in better than the data of any kind of scientific testing. When I am not wearing a patient teacher hat or a cheerful supporter of 32-day challenger hat, I can be pretty difficult to deal with. People to whom I manage to show good sides of me would have no idea. Tony watched over my transition from MyCoach program to Coach Troy’s and cautioned about overtraining.

When he learned that Super 6 program was loaded into TrainingPeaks account, he added that I needed to be flexible about this program. As you can see from previous entries, my goals are to successfully train and share fitness activities with my Training Partner/Husband without going overboard/overtrained.

Although Super 6 program is an aero-building program, it goes well INTO the spring semester and requires different kind of cross-training which takes up fair amount of time commitment. Towards the end, I should be training on the road to prepare for the above mentioned Palm Springs ride. Without the financial incentive like from 32-day challenge (hint, hint, Coach, remember?), and all these reasons, I should not go too crazy trying to totally follow Super 6 program 100%. Rest day is a particular concern. Normally weekend is when I have most time to train and during the last season, Friday and Monday were my days off from workout. Monday and Wednesday are three-class teaching days and Tuesday ends up also being three-class preparation day. Even spring semester is normally calmer, when I have meetings with students or oral exams to administer, it is not unusual to spend ridiculous amount of time in the office for me.

So this is what I told Unpaid Coach/Husband how I should be dealing with Super 6 program. During the week, I will try to keep up with two workouts a day as much as possible, but when something needs to be given up, it will need to be skipped. Saturday hard riding is OK and when the circumstances fit, part of Monday workout can be done on Sunday. Otherwise Monday will have to be a day off. For cross-training option, I will try not to follow running pretending to be keeping up with triathletes, but keep it as low-key as possible, so it doesn’t contribute overtraining and adding stress. My Unpaid Trainer knows how effective Coach Troy’s program, but he wants me to focus on my goals utilizing Super 6 program. He will be right by me (even though sometimes not physically) to support me. I love you, Tigre!

Charity rides done and to be done 1/9/12

One of the aspect of cycling that didn’t expect when I picked up from Tony was that a lot of events are organized to benefit good cause. I was following fellow 32-day challenger, Derek Couse, and thinking, wow, what an over-achieving triathlete! So I never dreamed anything like his follow-up post to Rick Sobona’s “PLEASE STEP AWAY FROM THE SCALE!” entry. In the entry, Rick referred to how Lance Armstrong lost weight and asked how many of us actually want to get cancer and go through chemo. Then Derek came forward to tell us his first-hand experience going through two rounds of chemotherapy himself and shared his story on　John Wayne Cancer Foundation, Team Duke page.

He mentions that he is cancer-free for ten years now and now I read his story, he had the same kind, testicular cancer. As Rick commented, I am so glad that he is still with us and with his family. From what I can see, Derek adores his son, Hunter and he seems like getting a head start of being a healthy and fit man! If I remember correctly, he completed full-length Ironman Coeur d'Alene last June (2.4 miles swim, 112 miles on the bike, and 26.2 miles of running!!! :-0)! What an accomplishment to celebrate his 40th birthday and 10 year cancer free! As you can see, he raised close to $2,500.00 for the Foundation by his impressive athletic achievement!

Speaking of Lance, I live in the town he grew up, Plano and live in the state he has his main residence now, Texas. Therefore cycling community here is very aware of his LiveStrong Foundation, and its famous ride in October. This year is October 19-21 (always falls around my birthday). Austin must be one of the nicest cities to ride in Texas, if not of the nation and it is the nicest time of the year for bicycle ride. This ride goes on the list, NOT done, for me as it is in the middle of the semester and Austin is just close enough and far enough to invest the weekend while in school.

Another very famous charity ride around here is MS 150 to benefit National Multiple Sclerosis Society. The one in North Texas starts from Dr. Pepper Ballpark in Frisco, gets to Texas Motor Speedway in Ft. Worth the end of the first day　and finishes the ride in Downtown Ft. Worth. I understand there are many of this kind all over the nation (lots in East Coast). The North Texas event spreads into two days and this year’s event is May 5-6. Because the semester finishes up one week earlier than usual, this weekend falls onto the final exam week instead of the weekend before the last day of instruction! (Can’t be riding that much and teach three classes following day!) I also haven’t done the one-way kind of ride. But it is possible and feasible. Because one of my goals is (refer to my 1/3 entry) to “participate in one public ride a month starting with Palm Springs in February until November with routes in 50 miles or longer”, Tony and I keep this ride as May ride possibility.

Also national and my very first metric century ride (video below)

was done with Tour de Cure. This is to benefit American Diabetes Association. Tony and I are already signed up for July 28th，　2012. Last year, we were both on Team Red and Tony got to wear Team Red jersey being a rider with diabetes. I often see Tour de Cure jerseys at other rides or group rides and they tell me that they have done at other locations. One I know in Albuquerque, NM, is a 100 mile one. I will definitely do that once I retire there! And another version I heard was from Michigan, where the ride lasts 4 days for 400 miles or so! WOW.

Another memorable one is the very first public ride to benefit Make a Wish Foundation North Texas Chapter　called Wish 100. In 2010, Tony raised enough contribution to get invited to the Ink Party (video below) where we met Wish-kids and key people for the event and organizations.


They are so many other foundations that I could be mentioning here. Coach Troy benefits Wounded Warrior Project by donating part of sales of Competition 36.0 - Warrior Training.

And I will have to participate Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation ride in Tuscon (home of Coach Troy!)　This would be tribute to my local cycling coach, Keith Rust, who has been dealing with Type 1 Diabetes himself and organizes and coaches a team of cyclists for the ride.

I need to retire NOW to participate in more rides!

Future with CoachTroyTraining.com 1/8/12

Year 2015 is almost over! It is that time of the year again. Coach Troy announced details of another round of annual Spinervals 32-Day Challenge. Time flies when you are having fun! This year will be the fifth one and over 200 official finishers have enjoyed fun and healthy holiday seasons. I was one of the, ahem, original official finishers from 2011. I have not been able to participate every year, but I am excited to see this year’s announcement. I am also excited to see the launch of comprehensive online training tool, CoachTroyTraining.com! (Notes from 2012: Domain still available) I already made a profile page you can see above. If you click on the image, it will blow up to give you closer look.

Why do I know about this site? Well, I sent some of my students whose major is computer science for his mobile application development team. This training site is seamlessly integrated with major mobile phones, such as iPhone, Android and Blackberry and my students developed applications for it. Facebook was OK, but you know, it tries to be everything and I was just getting worried about my security on the Internet. So I am glad my students took part in developing mobile app for the site!

From what I understand, Coach also developed his own training device. It is just a rumor I heard from my students, but this is what I gathered. The device has GPS like high-end Garmin products and is water-proof and multi-sport ready for triathletes. The design is supposedly very slick and you could almost wear it for street-use. Once the battery issue (GPS eats up a lot of battery) is resolved, I may consider wearing all day. My student says it comes in various colors to match with your bike and favorite outfit, including pink! So I just left a message to Susan Thomas and Susan Sobona about it. We, girls, will be happy to be training in style. I am happy that it is power meter compatible and I will have to find out the option to make it work. What is fun about the device is once I purchase DVD or via on-demand, I get a code to download workout profile to install on the device. I start the workout and my CoachTroy device simultaneously and the device beeps with heart rate, cadence and power goes off Coach’s specification. Maybe beep is not a correct term. The watch screams, “Fast leg, fast leg” if my cadence is too low and lets me know the end of the interval by saying “Push, push, push.” It will also give me an unevenly long 5 seconds to the end of interval!

In 2011, I wrote an entry about how surprising it was to have social component of the Challenge. The new CoachTroyTraining.com not only lets us share our workout data and fully integrated with Facebook and Twitter if you are not up to having own app just yet. It really encourages participants to communicate and network each other. I am looking forward to be hooked up with old friends and meet with new ones! I can’t wait to get started this year’s Challenge with new CoachTroyTraining.com!

(Mostly inspired by Body Building.com’s user site http://bodyspace.bodybuilding.com)