<p>Oooh. Study abroad. What fun. I’ll never forget sending my D off on her adventure.</p>
<p>Finally did the 1 hour FTP test I’ve been threatening myself with. 10 minute warm up, 3x 1 minute all out sprints with 1 minute off in between, 5 minutes recovery, 5 minutes “race pace” interval, 5 minute recovery, 20 minutes “race pace” interval as hard as I could ride for 20 twenty minutes at a constant pace, then 10 minutes recovery. The results were interesting and I’m trying to figure out what they really mean in comparison to when I did this test about a year or so ago. This time around my FTP wattage was 20 watts higher but my hr was 11 bpm lower. The higher wattage is an obvious improvement but the hr is confusing. If I look at it from the perspective that I am producing more power at a lower hr, then that’s a good indication of increased cardio-vascular and metabolic conditioning. But if I treat the heart rate as my lactic threshold hr, then the threshold is lower which is counter-intuitive to the wattage improvement. Gotta think this one through.</p>
<p>MOWC, I used trainerroad.com with my Wahoo Kickr to do the test. If your son has not stumbled onto trainer road, he might find it very interesting. For $10/month, they provide individualized training programs accessed through their software on a PC or MAC but what makes it really interesting is that the software and training routines interface with a number of indoor trainers to pull in the metrics and in the case of some Cycleops units, the Kickr and others, actually controls the resistance on the trainers to dial in the resistance levels to provide the wattage range for each interval. It uses Ant+ or Bluetooth 4.0 BLED protocol to interface with the trainer unit. Very cool technology that I suspect is revolutionizing training opportunities for serious cyclists who want the benefits of individualized structured wattage based training at a fraction of the cost of hiring a private coach. It will never replace the need for a coach for elite level racers but the resources it presents to other serious cycling athletes are impressive</p>
<p>Interesting stuff, although I had to look up what a lot of it means! I’m just glad you survived… That sounds like a miserable hour.</p>
<p>I wonder if these types of tests are really repeatable, capable of duplicating power numbers within 20 watts from one test to the next? Self-setting a pace that can be maintained for 20 minutes is a pretty subjective thing, but it’s the only way to get thru a 20 minute interval. You can’t go out like gang busters, hit the wall, and then try to desperately hang on as the legs fail and the pace steadily falls. The few times I’ve tried that on the Airdyne, I end up bailing out and staggering away from the thing, going from room to room trying to find a breath of air.</p>
<p>The more I do any particular activity: Airdyne, running, hiking steeply uphill, the more likely I am to set a pace that results in a little lower heart rate. I don’t find it surprising that you rode to a somewhat lower heart rate this time around.</p>
<p>Higher power over 20 minutes and lower heart rate sure sounds like a good thing!</p>
<p>Or maybe your heart rate monitor was acting as crazy as mine was today. Mine was consistently low, although it was so low much of the time that it was obviously not right. I did not finish a 3 minute Airdyne interval below 40% of my max heart rate.</p>
<p>Yes, they are repeatable. A variance of a few watts over the 20 minute portion is to be expected from “day to day” assuming controls for rest/sleep, recovery from prior workouts, environmental conditions, and rider focus but if you are using equipment that is both accurate and reliable, the results should be repeatable. A delta of 20 watts reflects actual change. The 20 minute protocol after all the prior warming up and the use of actual measured wattage using properly calibrated equipment and software is the trick. There are some other test protocols that involve 2x 8 minute test intervals where you are more likely to see variances because of the shorter intervals but even there, there is a good amount of consistency.</p>
<p>Good morning!
Wow, was the hill ever something yesterday. It wasn’t snow shoeing, it was snow WADING. Killer. I only made it about half my distance before I thought I might be presenting myself with coronary risk 
so i turned back and will have to finish breaking the trail this a.m.
Mch was coming out to find me as I arrived, because he was afraid I’d keeled over in the cold or something…I’d been gone longer than usual even though I didn’t cover near the distance. But it WAS invigorating :)</p>
<p>Deb922, I didn’t suffer the exact thing your husband has, but I have 5 different spine locations with bone overgrowth in the facet joint which causes said joint to lock periodically, which then inflames the ligaments, pinches nerves, and cause the spasms. One of those joints is a C, so I can kinda relate to what’s happening to your h.</p>
<p>I manage all that now and rarely deal with flareups, but maybe my tips will help your husband.
The first thing to nip in the bud are the spasms, for which a muscle relaxer like robaxacet should make bearable. Plus naprosyne for the inflammation. Magnesium is a natural muscle relaxer, but more than 500-1000 mg is also a laxative, so if he takes the supplement, hell want to titrate up to test larger doses. magnesium is also in epsom salts, whch is why a soak is so good for reducing lactic acid buildup and inflammation. Hydrotherapy, eg a hot tub, helps a lot. Drinking a lot of water helps. Laying flat on the floor and extending your spine “flat” to the floor helps if you do it several times a day. TENS is decent pain relief and its worth renting one or even buying a home TENS kit. </p>
<p>Some people reason that massage or working the area helps release it, but I’ve found out the hard way it does not…because it can actually increase the inflammation when you’re acute (at least in my case.) </p>
<p>And crazy as it sounds, just plain walking will help mitigate just about any type of spine related pain, even when walking causes pain. My personal theory is that even a bit of “burn” in terms of lactic acid helps reduce the inflammation, and the gait helps remind the compensating muscles what they’re supposed to be doing. It was my surgeon who told me to ignore the “bed rest” advice my doc had given me, and over time I came to see that in my case, this is correct.</p>
<p>Hope he’s feeling better soon. My h knows exactly how rotten it is to be around someone in that kind of pain fortunately, its a distant memory :)ood morning!
Deb922, I didn’t suffer the exact t </p>
<p>Michael- my son gave my daughter/son in law Trainer Road for Christmas and they have been using it. My daughter likes it a lot. I think she is heading for a triathlon… I think my son uses it some, but he recently switched coaches to a national elite coach out of Phoenix, so I assume that guy will dictate the workouts. Right now he still has to do easy cycling post-surgery. He overdid it a little and his PT was not happy…</p>
<p>Good job on your hour!</p>
<p>I had a shot at the More Miles Than Degrees club this morning since it was 0 at my house. All I needed was a mile. I stayed in bed.</p>
<p>Spin. One last night and one today. My chest feels normal again. </p>
<p>For Lizardly:
:-bd
(testing thumbs up emoticon)</p>
<p>ETA: Hm, the emoticons can be a little over the top…</p>
<p>“More miles than degrees club” - love it!!! </p>
<p>I was going to say the same thing. Mushrooms by themselves have very few calories. Of course they soak up a lot of oil butter and cream!</p>
<p>3.6 easy miles. I ran one of my hilly routes today, and I was able to keep my hr below 160 for the whole thing, without having to walk</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>That’s brutal. I’ve only broken trail in deep snow once… when I was the first snow shoer out at the local orchard trail after a big snow. Breaking trail on the flat was tough – going uphill across the orchard was brutal. Like take a few steps, stop and pant, take a few more steps. I try to stick to the more popular trails so I avoid that “pleasure”. </p>
<p>I’m planning to go out for a little fresh air in the mountains tomorrow. I don’t know for sure if it will be spikes, snow shoes, or a combination of the two. Thinking Lonesome Lake Trail, that I enjoyed so much last winter (and summer). Pretty easy short hike, manageable even if it’s snow shoes the whole way, gorgeous scenery.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80bevDJyJ7U”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80bevDJyJ7U</a></p>
<p>Water aerobics class and personal trainer today.</p>
<p>I got a short workout in last night. Need to do something again tonight. Set up my new MacBook last night and now I have to get all of my websites set up on here </p>
<p>Standard session with stability ball, Bodylastics, and DBs.</p>
<p>Went to slow flow yoga (90 minutes); afterwards I spent an hour organizing and cleaning my garage–was surprised at how many steps that endeavor netted me. Trying to make good on my New Year’s resolution to finally clean it up so I can put our cars inside!</p>
<p>Fire: What a nasty accident to happen on your vacation! Hope you mend quickly.</p>
<p>I am in one of those periods that is both rewarding and frustrating. Been able to maintain our eating, which basically is eating mostly vegetables, some lean protein, limited grains and starches, no sugar, and did so all through the holidays (did get to enjoy grass fed rib roast Christmas eve). My weight has slowly dropped into the 223 pound range, had plateaued at 227 for a while, but my body fat percentage since I started everything has gone down prob about 10 points, and I am seeing some real muscle definition, so the work outs I do are working as well, I can see it (I can tell another way, the notch on my belt, self created, is about 4" in from the original hole I was at). Nice part is, this isn’t a diet, it really is a lifestyle change, and as slow as the weight loss is, the muscle definition and the way my body has changed is no joke:). </p>
<p>The nice part is the program I am doing for workouts is pretty easy, I don’t go to a gym, and most of it is body weight exercise or working with dumbbells. It is designed for people with limited time,and it works, called turbulence training by the creator. I alternate days with that (which is basically body weight training, with 2 exercise/superset, roughly 3 sets in each exercise, all done fast with no rest,+intervals) with doing rapid lifting of relatively heavy weights, and it really seems to be paying off. Between that and the way we have been eating since the fall, we both really seem to have changed ourselves…and even though the scale doesn’t reflect it (evil device it is), I noticed that the belt notch I created in my belt is 4" in from where i started:)</p>
<p>musicprnt:</p>
<p>Wow. A 4 inch change in belt size is a huge change regardless of what the scale says. You have to have lost some serious body fat to see those results!</p>
<p>Short work out and then ran up and down stairs a few times. </p>
<p>Music, that is significant change - keep it up - or off!!! :)</p>
<p>Gym time - a mile on the track, a mile on the running elliptical, a mile on the treadmill. </p>