More car stuff

I've been thinking about my next car. On Saturday at the Frostbite bike ride I saw a Honda Fit with two bikes mounted on a roof rack. They had their from wheels ff which isn't exactly what I am looking for but I was both interested and excited to see a car that I am looking at an event that I'd like to take it to. I mentioned this siting to DH when I called him to let him know when I'd be home and he asked what kind of rack (Yakima). I had my camera with me so I took a picture to show him.

Yesterday, DH suggested that we swing by the Honda dealer to pick up literature on the Fit and the Element. The dealer was closed but we looked at both the Fit and the Element. The Fit seemed more me but I worry that I'd miss some of the good things about the Element (camping, bike inside). On the other hand, do you buy a car for the few times of the year that you go camping? Seriously, we could take two cars if that was an issue. In fact, in some ways that might be preferable since DH could go whitewater kayaking seperately.

Fitness Assessment

I recently had a fitness assessment done at the Human Performance Lab at Meredith College in Raleigh. It was a fairly interesting procedure and I think that it will be beneficial. It started off with an interesting questionnaire that was sent the week before the testing. They asked about perceived lactate threshold before doing the testing. They assessment can be done for biking or running. Obviously, I did the biking one.

How it worked

You bring your own bike and they put it on a trainer and set you up with an oxygen mask and heart rate monitor. After a ten minute warm up, they set the trainer up for 100 watts with you going at a constant cadence (no shifting allowed) for three minutes. At the end of three minutes they get your pulse and a small blood sample from your ear and increase the wattage. In my case, they want to 130 for three minutes and then 160, 190, 220 and finally 250. I completed the three minutes at 250 watts.

What were the results

While I changed back to street cloths, they calculated the results and then we discussed them. From there, I send them to Maya the Virtual Coach and we'll use them in conjunction with perceived exhertion chart to better tune my training. The thing that I probably found most interesting is what I'll call the "junk zone." Basically, the T1 zone for me is 165-176 bpm where I am neither efficient nor working hard enough to improve. That means that generally I should be below 165 bpm or above 176.

The other result was more or less expected. A small weight loss would move me towards ideal body composition for endurance sports. I kind of expected that but it still kind of sucks. I'm going to see a sports nutritionist a few times to help with that.

Frostbite 100k

I participated in a bike ride called the Frostbite Tour yesterday. The temperature was decent -- in the 50s for most of the ride -- but when we started the ride there was a heavy mist which was with us for the first 30-40 miles. The sun didn't manage to break through until an hour or so after we finished! I rode most of the ride with a group that I've been doing shop rides with and we had a nice time. I also ran into a coworker several times during the ride! The route was nice and the organizers were really pleasant. I hope to make this an annual event!



So far this year, I covered a total of just over 690 miles on road bike. Last February I rode 37.5 miles. This February, I covered 411 miles. What a difference a year makes

Training and perceived exertion

Earlier this week a friend of mine mentioned using perceived exertion in training. He hadn't thought much about it and we talked about it for a minute. I know that I sometimes fall into the cardio queen category so I thought that this was worth revisiting for my own benefit. More is not always better and on my easy days, I need to work on actually taking it easy.

The consensus is that athletes make more progress over the long term if they do not work at the same intensity during each workout. One or two workouts per week should be more difficult and the remaining sessions should be light or moderate.

Maya the Virtual Coach described exertion levels as follows:

• Easy (E) - Used mainly for warm-upon as a main part of a long session. This pace is very comfortable.
• Steady (S) - Steady pace is one gear up. This is a pace where you can still have a conversation but you are slightly out of breath.
• Moderate (M) - A bit harder than steady. This is a pace where a conversation becomes difficult and breathy
• Moderately hard (MH) - This pace requires concentration to maintain the intensity - though when you are very fit you can keep this up for a longer period of time.
• Hard (H) - Above the lactic threshold and very much out of the comfort zone. It is quite uncomfortable to maintain this pace.

Training zones are very individual so the formulas that are tossed about for Maximum Heart Rate (MHR) aren't likely to work for most people. In fact, Anaerobic Threshold (AT) differs not just from person to person but also from sport to sport. This makes perceived exertion levels particularly useful. Even once you know your MHR and AT, a heart rate monitor is best used in conjunction with perceived effort or exertion.

overload + recovery = adaptation

Progressive Overload
Challenging the body by applying stresses in the form of training loads. The more you do, the more you are capable of doing. With an adequate training load, both overall fitness and performance can be improved. Frequency, duration and intensity are all factors that effect the training load. Training loads should be gradually increased.

Recovery
Rest allows the biomotor systems to recover and become stronger. Not quite like the Six Million Dollar Man, "Better than he was before. Better, stronger, faster."

Adaption
The body's response to the training load.

Giant cookies! Oh my!

This weekend I tried out the Super Small Batch Extra Large Chunk Cookies posted in Cookie Madness. They were huge and very yummy! I've never made cookies before where cookies were one of the ingredients! I've never had Selma's cookies so I don't know how these compare but they were a hit at our house. I made them on Saturday afternoon when I got back from my regular bike ride and we ate them at the Carolina Hurricanes game on Saturday night.

I also tried Mark Bittman's Quick Whole Wheat and Molasses Bread posted in the New York Times' Bitten blog.