It looked sunny and warm out. Well, it was sunny, but it was about 15 deg. I rode at the quarry for about 30 minutes, after working out.The riding was terrible. The sun had melted a thin layer of mud on top of the frozen mud and it was very slippery. I only had 1 significant fall before leaving the parking lot though.
Had to really go for it sometimes, to get through all the mud.
My legs are thrashed tonight. It feels like riding outdoors is different from lifting weights.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Strength Training
I figured that all my broken bones could have been mitigated if only I had more strength in my upper body. Not that I wouldn't have fallen, but that I would have held together better.
So I bought the training course from James Wilson and I'm a few months into it. Definitely getting stronger, but also losing much of my fitness. This is the same problem I've had ever since I started riding again after the last marathon - mixing training types seems to be a struggle for me.
I bought into the James Wilson school based on a few things I read at leelikesbikes.com. The thing with James is that he has a bug up his butt about some things and he says stuff that doesn't makes sense when he's trying to make a point.
I think James has a lot to offer, but he's not quite careful enough in what he writes. He says things that diminish his credibility.
Here's his most recent post: http://bikejames.com/cardio-training/stop-cardio-training. There's a lot of confusing talk about cardio and endurance training. It's not clear what he's saying. I think he's saying that, you need to do a lot of high intensity training. No news there. He's arguing against the fat-burning zone that you see posted in the gym. But serious athletes already know that.
At the end he has this discussion about how Lance Armstron has a very high VO2max, but didn't do well in the NY marathon and how Mark Weir has an ordinary VO2max and is a great endurance athlete.
The story is so poorly written and logically flawed that it detracts from what James has to say.
1) Lance is widely considered to be one of the greatest endurance athletes in history, boasting a VO2Max that is among the highest ever recorded.
The media reports a VO2max for Lance of 85. Very, very high. But not among the highest ever recorded. Lemond was reported to test at over 90. The great Norwegian skier Bjorn Daehlie is reported to have tested at 96 in the off season. That's an important thing to know about VO2max - it changes over the season
2) when he trained for and ran a marathon he got beaten. He did not get beaten by one or two world class runners, either - he got beaten by a lot of “regular” people.
It was widely reported that Lance did very little preparation for the NY marathon. One long run. And he went under 3 hours. No regular people run a 3 hour marathon. He obviously didn't go into the marathon planning to win, you'd have to be a complete outsider to endurance sports to think that he could be competitive.
Oh, and by the way, almost every endurance athlete gets beaten, a lot. Lance loses a lot more races than he wins. Stephen Kigora (2nd place) trained for the marathon with a hope of winning and he got beat. So did Paul Tergat (3rd place) and William Kipsang (7th) In fact 38,000 got beat that day. That language just isn't how endurance athletes talk.
3) If cardio capacity was the biggest determining factor in sport specific endurance then why didn’t he do better?
He's 30 lbs heavier than the winner. He's no more likely to win a marathon than Paul Tergat is to win a time trial at the Tour. No one. I mean, no one other than your grandmother thinks that cardio capacity is the biggest determining factor in who wins a race. Don't forget though, you do need to be fit to come to the dance. And this phrase "sprt specific endurance?" I don't know what it's doing in that sentence. Maybe he meant to say "race results" because that's what he's talking about: race results.
4) ...much more goes into mountain bike specific endurance than one over emphasized component. Your strength levels, technical skills, nutrition and everything else I listed above goes into it as well. The real trick to consistent returns on your training time is to identify the weakest of those eight training components and focus on it. While counterintuitive at times, the only way to strengthen a chain is to work on the weakest link - anything else will not result in a stronger chain.
Right on! Dump the previous paragraph which is so error-laden and logically inconsistent as to destroy the author's credibility and tell it like it is.
So I bought the training course from James Wilson and I'm a few months into it. Definitely getting stronger, but also losing much of my fitness. This is the same problem I've had ever since I started riding again after the last marathon - mixing training types seems to be a struggle for me.
I bought into the James Wilson school based on a few things I read at leelikesbikes.com. The thing with James is that he has a bug up his butt about some things and he says stuff that doesn't makes sense when he's trying to make a point.
I think James has a lot to offer, but he's not quite careful enough in what he writes. He says things that diminish his credibility.
Here's his most recent post: http://bikejames.com/cardio-training/stop-cardio-training. There's a lot of confusing talk about cardio and endurance training. It's not clear what he's saying. I think he's saying that, you need to do a lot of high intensity training. No news there. He's arguing against the fat-burning zone that you see posted in the gym. But serious athletes already know that.
At the end he has this discussion about how Lance Armstron has a very high VO2max, but didn't do well in the NY marathon and how Mark Weir has an ordinary VO2max and is a great endurance athlete.
The story is so poorly written and logically flawed that it detracts from what James has to say.
1) Lance is widely considered to be one of the greatest endurance athletes in history, boasting a VO2Max that is among the highest ever recorded.
The media reports a VO2max for Lance of 85. Very, very high. But not among the highest ever recorded. Lemond was reported to test at over 90. The great Norwegian skier Bjorn Daehlie is reported to have tested at 96 in the off season. That's an important thing to know about VO2max - it changes over the season
2) when he trained for and ran a marathon he got beaten. He did not get beaten by one or two world class runners, either - he got beaten by a lot of “regular” people.
It was widely reported that Lance did very little preparation for the NY marathon. One long run. And he went under 3 hours. No regular people run a 3 hour marathon. He obviously didn't go into the marathon planning to win, you'd have to be a complete outsider to endurance sports to think that he could be competitive.
Oh, and by the way, almost every endurance athlete gets beaten, a lot. Lance loses a lot more races than he wins. Stephen Kigora (2nd place) trained for the marathon with a hope of winning and he got beat. So did Paul Tergat (3rd place) and William Kipsang (7th) In fact 38,000 got beat that day. That language just isn't how endurance athletes talk.
3) If cardio capacity was the biggest determining factor in sport specific endurance then why didn’t he do better?
He's 30 lbs heavier than the winner. He's no more likely to win a marathon than Paul Tergat is to win a time trial at the Tour. No one. I mean, no one other than your grandmother thinks that cardio capacity is the biggest determining factor in who wins a race. Don't forget though, you do need to be fit to come to the dance. And this phrase "sprt specific endurance?" I don't know what it's doing in that sentence. Maybe he meant to say "race results" because that's what he's talking about: race results.
4) ...much more goes into mountain bike specific endurance than one over emphasized component. Your strength levels, technical skills, nutrition and everything else I listed above goes into it as well. The real trick to consistent returns on your training time is to identify the weakest of those eight training components and focus on it. While counterintuitive at times, the only way to strengthen a chain is to work on the weakest link - anything else will not result in a stronger chain.
Right on! Dump the previous paragraph which is so error-laden and logically inconsistent as to destroy the author's credibility and tell it like it is.
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