Let's try this again!!!!!!!!!!

After such a disasterous start to my offseason, I just thought it would be a good idea to go back to square one & start totally from the beginning again. I missed so much earlier due to work & other life issues, that it would be a waste of time to start from where I left off. Fact of the matter is I forgot where I was in the 12 week offseason program, so starting from the beginning again seemed like the easiest thing to do. A couple weeks ago, I was doing some criterium practice with some friends. I was riding hard for a while then was doing some cool down laps when one of the other guys got froggy & I decided to chase him. I was turning a corner when the rear tire blew & I hit the pavement. My helmet is shot, but it served it's purpose. I guess I hit either the saddle or the top tube with the inside of my left leg because it's been sore since the crash. It's slowly getting better & not hurting as much. I've ridden a few times since then & my legs haven't been that bad. This past Saturday I was able to buy some upgrades for my Trek. I had a friend that was selling some Ultregra components for a reasonable price. Today was the first time I was able to take it for a ride & everything worked great. It shifted nice & crisp and my legs felt good the entire ride. I used the Warm in 5 before the ride & Cool in 5 after the ride. I also did my Bowflex workout & did the Cyclo-Zen Fix the Back: Stretch routine to losen up my back. All in all a good day & a good re-start to the offseason.

What a lousy offseason so far!!!!!!!!

This has been the worst offseason for me in the past few years. I just can't seem to get on track this year & it's very frustrating. I can start the week out good, but then either work or other things in my life intrude & throw me off track. I seem to be having more bad weeks than good weeks this year. It just seems like for every step I take foward, I end up taking two or more steps backward. I know I should be further along than I am, but things just seem to keep getting in the way this year more than before. I think I'm just going to ride as often as possible during the holidays then start all over again after the first of the year. It might put me a bit behind early in the season, but maybe I'll be stronger during the latter part of the year. Just trying to put a positive look on things so far. Thanks for reading this & I'll keep in touch. Here's wishing everyone who reads this a very Merry Christmas & Happy New Year.

What a weekend!!!!!!

This past weekend was a total washout for any kind of workouts. I was sent to Cincinnati late Thursday afternoon to fix a broke airplane. They sent one other technician with me. We arrived at the airport very late Thursday night & then just checked into a hotel to get some sleep seeing as we both worked all day before arriving there. On Friday it was working on the plane. We fixed the original problem quite quickly, but when we had to do the check for the part we replaced, that's where the problems began. It seemed that every time we got closer to fixing the plane & going home, something else would pop up to keep us there. We worked from about 8 am to 12 midnight on Friday, 8 am to 10 pm on Saturday night, & on Sunday we started @ 7:30 am, finally finished with all the checks around 4 pm, then had to finish paperwork and caught a flight out of there at 7:40 pm. By the time I finally got home it was 1:30 am Monday morning. I'm going to get a good paycheck for this trip, but I didn't have any time to do any kind of exercise, that is unless you want to count climbing up and down the stairs to the cockpit several gazillion times exercise. I'm just glad to be home & looking forward to the rest of this week.

Sorry for no posts lately

I'm sorry I haven't been posting lately, but things have been keeping me busy at work & by the time I get done with my workouts, it's too late to post. I promise I'll try to do better from now on. This past weekend I was able to get a 4+ hour bike ride in with a local group and it was a good ride, just constant rollers the entire route. I was on the bike again Monday for about 2 hours and my legs felt surprisingly good after that long ride. Today was the "Fix the Back" Core training program: Strength from Cyclo-Zen, followed by a 10 minute warm-up in zone 1 then doing 6 sets of 30 second OLD's (in the small chain ring), then cooling down for a bit then I added 3 sets of 3 minutes in the big ring @ 80% with 5 minutes cool down between sets. I finished the workout with the Cyclo-Core: Stretching, Flexibility, & Cool down Program. My legs feel good after the workouts & I think things are going well so far.

8 Minute Power Routine & 5 x 5's

Today was supposed to be the Yoga Spin workout from Cyclo-Zen, but I substituted a different cycling workout. I warmed up for 15 minutes, then started 4 sets of 5 minutes hard, then 5 minutes easy. After I was done with the 4 sets, it was a 15 minute cool down. Once I was done with that it was time for the 8 Minute Power Routine from Cyclo-Zen. I forgot how hard this workout is. You start out with 50 reps of Hindu Squats, then going into push-ups, then crunches, and ending up with bicycle kicks. This is one tough workout. I hope to be able to do it at least twice here by the end of the workout schedule. I finished the workout using the Flexibilty, Stretching, & Cool Down routine from Cyclo-Core. I'm sure my abs will be feeling it in the next few days, but that's the price to pay for getting stronger. You can't get stronger if you don't push the limits & suffer once in a while. Stay tuned for more adventures.....