This afternoon I headed out for a climb up Squaw Peak with the plan of doing some interval training during the climb. It has been about 2 weeks since I did intervals up this hill.  In the past I did an interval for 400 feet of climbing and then a recovery for 200 feet.  I decided to reduce the recovery to closer to 100 feet of climbing since I was stopping to take my blood pressure, which added to the recovery period.  This way I could get in a 3.5 intervals rather than just 3.

I feel with all the climbing I have done I should see a good improvement from July 18th.  After I analyzed all the data, I did get a small improvement, but not as much as I had thought I was going to achieve.  My vertical speed (measured in meters per hour) averaged a little more and my average heart rate during the intervals was a bit less so both of these factors were in the direction of an improvement.

After each interval I took my blood pressure, which showed even lower than last time.  To get the reading I used a wrist blood pressure monitor and came a complete stop before taking the reading, otherwise the monitor would show an error.  I am not quite sure if the blood pressure is accurate, but even if it is close, it does mean that I am not getting abnormally high blood pressures when I take my heart rate up high and on the contrary, my blood pressure is dropping.  I believe during the ramp-up, as with the stress test, my blood pressure does go up, but holding a high heart rate over a period of time, causes the blood pressure to drop. 

The temperature was not excessively high, but it was much more humid than I have experienced in Utah before (turns out the most humid on records) due to all the rain storms).  My jersey was totally soaked by the time I reached the summit, so I know I was pushing hard.    I just am not able to achieve the vertical climbing speeds that I was able to achieve 3 years ago.  Anne reminds me I am getting older.

After reaching back down to the highway, I headed up to climb South Fork.  My plan was take it easy for this since I was very tired from the hill intervals.  Just before I reached Vivian Park, some guy came buzzing by me on his bike, but he stopped at the park.  I went past him and started to climb up South Fork, taking it easy as I planned.  Soon he came up from behind me and seemed try to pass me at a faster speed than he could maintain.  Even with tired legs it was too much of a challenge to resist so I picked up the speed to match his, then as he slowed I started to close the gap, but kept behind him until we were half way up.  When we reached one of the sharper pitches I kicked in and went past him.  He started to dig deeper and increased his speed, but the failure to close the gap quickly showed me that he could not keep up.  The gap kept increasing, although I was taking my heart rate up to 170 bpm near the end, a bit higher than I took it during any of the intervals.  When I reached the end, I quickly stopped and took my blood pressure and had a reading of 101/71 with a pulse rate of 162.

Overall I think I got in a good workout.

Categories: Speed Workout
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I previously talked about getting back to doing interval training on the bike.  Today I did another set of intervals, abotu 7 minutes hard and 3 minute recover, with four repeats. It is a relatively flat course that included a couple miles of warm-up from our house and then a straight shot, with no need for stop signs or traffic lights during each of the 7 minute intervals. The blue sections on the map are the intervals done at speed and the red sections the recovery portions.

Using a circular course allows me to average the 4 segments so as to somewhat cancel the effect of the wind. This allows a comparison between different dates. I have data from eleven workouts, the first in March 2008 and the 11th today. The last three were done while on a beta blocker and you can see the significant reduction in average heart rate and average speed.  Overall I am happy because I have my average speed back up to 20.5 mph, the same as a year ago.  What is interesting is that to achieve this speed, my average heart rate during the intervals segments was 143 bpm, while a year ago, for the same average speed, my heart rate averaged 155 bpm.

So although I am not going to be as fast, I need to get back to doing some speed workouts to improve my conditioning. Next up will be some hill repeats.

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After a few days of wonderful weather, the temperatures had turned to the cooler side and there was some threat of rain.  So this morning we decided to go for a run instead of bike.  The original plan was to go 6 miles, but after 4 miles into the run, Anne thought she might want to do 8, so that is what we did.  I still felt like I needed some more exercise.  Since the weather was now a bit warmer and no rain yet, it sounded like a good chance to do my interval training.

When I would train for marathons, I liked to do weekly speed work, either a tempo run or intervals.  While I might do quarter mile repeats when getting ready for a 10K distance race, for the marathon I found mile repeats worked well for me.  I could only do about 4 of them, since that meant 4 miles running well over my lactate threshold.

For cycling I patterned a similar workout.  Since it took me about 6:45 to 7:00 minutes to run the mile repeats, I duplicated that with 7 minutes flat out on the bike, followed by an easy 4 minutes.  I choose a relatively flat course that included a couple miles of warm-up from our house and then a straight shot, with no need for stop signs or traffic lights during each of the 7 minute intervals.  The blue sections on the map are the intervals done at speed and the red sections the recovery portions.  From the map it would as if I could fit in a 5th interval at the end, but there are too many stop lights and I am way too tired to try a 5th one.  It seems as if all I can do is ride the 4.5 miles back home.

You can see the four intervals, followed by the recovery period from this heart rate curve.  I tried to get into Zone 5 on each interval (for myself that means 167 bpm or higher), sometime I was able to do except for the 4th interval where the 8 mile run and the prior 3 intervals were finally taking their toll.  At some point your legs and can’t push the heart as much as the heart can deliver.   I have my Garmin Edge 500 setup to show the heart rate zone I am in, which works well for this type of workout.

Using a circular course allows me to average the 4 segments so as to somewhat cancel the effect of the wind.  This allows a comparison between different dates.  I have kept this table at the bottom to show those.  With the 8 mile run before, I was not able to quite do the same average speed.  There was also a strong headwind on some sections, a penalty you never quite get back on the other sections.   Since this is for training, the actual speed is not as important as getting my heart rate up sufficient to exceed my lactate threshold, with a short recovery and then a repeat.  This is the best way to improve one’s lactate threshold.

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I have a course where I do interval training on the bike and have kept track of some of the past training. We were headed out on the tandem for a ride today and Anne said she could not be gone too long. That was the clue to do a speed workout so we rode the tandem and did the same interval training I have done before on my single bike. I was anxious to see how the times would be on the tandem. The intervals consist of four segments of 7 minutes, at maximum speed, followed by about 3.5 minutes of recovery.

It turns out we did very well, averaging 22.2 mph for the 4 sections and I was able to get my heart rate up to 167-171 on each of the legs.  Anne took her heart rate up to 154.   We were back home in no time and still had a good workout.

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After I finished putting the mountain bike gearing on Anne’s bike, I headed out on my bike with the new compact crank I installed yesterday to climb Squaw Peak.  That is a hill of about 1,700 feet of climbing that is less than 5 miles from our Utah home.  With a total of 4.3 miles distance, the grade is not too bad, except at the top, where it gets well in excess of 10%.  I was able to set a new PR.  The compact crank was not really a factor during most of the climb since I had a couple of gears left, but at the top I went to the lowest gear and was able to keep up the cadence to a reasonable level compared with my double crank where this portion was a “grind it out” job.  I kept my heart rate in the 158-162 range for most of the climb, but let it go into the 170′s during the last half mile.

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Many people use heart rate zones to do their training.  I wrote an article on the subject and how there are several approaches, including some simple 3 zone approaches and more sophisticated four or even five zone approaches.

My Polar heart rate monitor software allows you to setup what it calls sport zones.  The default is 5 zones all based on maximum heart rate, with the maximum intensity zone defined as 90-100% of maximum heart rate, hard intensity zone of 80-90% of maximum heart rate, and so forth.  With a maximum heart rate of 180 bpm, that would give me a range in the maximum intensity of 180 x 0.9 = 162.  On a recent 95 miles race, with 9,500 feet of climbing I used my Polar HRM and had reset to use the defaults.  But the 7 hours during the race showed 2 full hours in that red zone.  Since this red zone should be above your Lactate Threshold, it indicated that such a range was too wide.

One heart rate zone calcualtor that is more sophisticated because it also uses your resting heart rate.  You calculate the difference between your resting heart rate and maximum heart rate.  For me that is 180-45 = 135.  Now instead of using just 90% of maximum heart rate, you use 90% of that difference plus your resting heart rate (0.9 x 135 + 45 = 167).  That small change from using 162 and 167 results in a reduction of time in that recent race from 2 full hours down to 45 minutes.  Use this handy calculator to use this approach for your own zones.

Today I needed to take my bike into the shop to have the steerer tube slightly cut because when the Trek Store built up with the new frame, they didn’t cut it quite enough so the LBS needed to add a spacer on the top of the stem.  I thought this would be a good chance to do a time trial up Suncest.  All my other times up that hill were part of a long ride, including the recent Warriors race.  It took me 21:15 to make the climb, more than two minutes faster than my previous best.  I was in the “red zone” for 16:30, or most of the climb.  I had an average heart rate of 166 during the climb with a maximum of 176.  That indicates two things.  One that my maximum heart rate is indeed close to 180 and that using 167-180 bpm as the “red zone” is about right.  Below is the heart rate curve from the Suncrest time trial.

Categories: Speed Workout, Training Log
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Anne and I went for a 4.5 mile run this morning.  She was going to have lunch with a friend so there was no time for cycling together today.  I thought it would be a good day for some interval training.  The weather is getting warm and I knew that it would be in the high 90′s today. so I did not want to wait too long.  Around 11:00 am, I headed out on my single bike for the loop I have done before.  I did not have aerobars on the bike right now and did not want to bother to put them on just for this speedwork since I need to have them off for the race next month.

The good thing about doing speed work on the same course is you can compare your times between days.  Since cycling speed is greatly affected by the wind, I have a loop course with each of the four intervals after I make a right turn so the wind should average out.  I felt I did very well today, even though I did a speed workout two days ago running.  I was able to get my heart rate up to a high level during each of the four 7 minute intervals, averaging around 165, with a maximum heart rate of around 172.  With interval training you want to push your heart rate well above your lactate threshold.  The recovery portion is such that you get your heart rate back down before the next interval.

This chart shows my heart rate and speed.  The course is not completely flat so you get some varations in speed during each 7 minute interval, but the total climb is only 400 feet for the whole loop.  Notice how the heart rate goes up quickly at the start of each interval and stays in the red zone and how I slow down enough for the rest portion to get my heart rate down below 130.    Click on the graph to view enlarge.

I record the data on my Polar heart rate monitor so I can compare each workout with the same course on other days.  Even though I was no using aerobars today (which would account for another 1 mph) I did well compared with prior workouts, especially getting my heart rate up high, which I find hard to do on a flat stretch.

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The Death Valley Double is this Saturday.  It has been difficult to get ready for a double century that takes place so early in the year.  With vacations in November and December I was not able to really get much biking in until January.  Two weeks ago some of our kids and grandkids were visiting and I wanted to spend more time with them.  Then this February had many rainy days.  Last week I was finally able to get in a lot of miles, over 350 of them.  I did a long 112 mile ride last Saturday. I felt like a slug because it had a lot of climbing, but I did make it without much stopping.  Although my accumulated miles so far this year are not quite what my training program called for, it is higher than the last two years.

I was not able to get in a real long ride, like 130 miles, but I did some long rides on Thursday, Friday and Saturday that hopefully accumulated had a similar effect.  You can see on week 7 that I was only able to get in a 52 mile ride, but at least on last week I got closer to my training plan.

As I mentioned, I felt like a slug on Saturday.   When I looked at my average speed over the 112 miles, it was not too bad considering the 8,700 feet of climbing.  In my training log I have a lookup table that shows my overall  effort when I consider average speed, climbing and total distance.  By averaging 14.7 mph, I did get a “fast” grade for the ride, even though I could not keep up with the lead riders the second half, as I could last year.

Today it was raining all morning. I had already taken a day off yesterday so I felt I needed to get back on the bike.  I went to the bike shop and bought some fenders to put on my old bike and then headed out to do some interval training.  It took me so long to get the fenders installed that the weather had cleared and the roads were mostly dry.  I have a course for interval training and measured how I did compared with similar training last year. I could not find my heart rate strap so I was missing that data, but overall I did okay, although not quite like last year.  It is a circular route so only the total can be compared with the winds different each time I do it.

Categories: Speed Workout, Training Program
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As the final training for Everest Challenge I needed one more speed workout.  I decided to do the Metcalf Mauler with the bike club and push hard up Metcalf.  So far this year I have been unable to come in under 14 minutes, even though I broke that time several times last year.  Jim and I bike up from Morgan Hill and met the group as they were approaching the climb.  As soon as the group started to climb, I took off, chasing Danny, a junior racer.  I quickly took my heart rate up to the 160′s.  At the midway marker I was checking to see if I had a shot at breaking the 14 minute barrier.  Doing math in your head with so little oxygen going to your brain is not always easy, but I did realize I was well under the 14 minute pace for the climb to that point and even could break 13:30.

I suppose that gave me the mental boost to drive on even harder, taking my heart rate into the 170′s, approaching my maximum heart rate.  When I came across the timing line I pressed my HRM without looking, not wanting to have that knowledge affect when I was taking the split.  I quickly looked down and realized that I had beak my prior best time by a single second, but seconds count.  I did have to push my heart rate higher than previous, due to being 4 lbs. heavier and 1.5 years old.  In any case, it gives me additional confidence for the Everest Challenge this weekend.

To prove I did not do it over some slightly shorter distance, here is tonight’s readout from my Polar HRM.

And this is the same data from last year.  You will notice that tonight (above) was even a slightly longer distance measured than previous (below).

You can see from this graph how high I had to take my heart rate (click to enlarge).

This was the second time this month for a new PR going up Metcalf.  Earlier Ann and I set a new best time on the tandem.  It is fun to be setting new PR’s in your 60′s.  I think both our tandem time and my single bike time tonight will last for awhile as the best time in the bike club for our age group.  Here is the best times each year for our climbs up Metcalf.

Categories: Speed Workout, Training Log
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After trying to climb Henry Coe three days ago following the monster ride the day before, I wanted to see how well I could do today.  I was not really fresh since we had set a new best time up Metcalf yesterday on the tandem.  But I was not as fatigued as I was on Sunday.

I was chasing Doug R. all the way up.  He can easily drop me on the hill and that is what he did today.  Still I was happy with my time of 41:19, less than 4 minutes off my race time last year when my average heart rate was 168 all 6.7 miles.  Also today we had ridden hard all the way from the bottom, including Thomas Grade so I was not rested at the start of the measured climb.  After the ride Doug told me he was planning to do the Everest Challenge also.  I said he could ride up with Eric and I and would be great to have a third person.  Maybe Doug can place in our age group since I am sure I can’t.

Categories: Everest Challenge, Speed Workout
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