Squat

3 sets.
7 reps.
145lbs.

Warmup was 3:30 on the C2 at 200 avg watts.
Ancillary work was Reverse Hypers and GHRs

Lessons Learned from Running

I realized something over the weekend. When I run I venture into the pain cave with reckless abandon. I'm not afraid of hurting myself because I know I can handle the pain and keep turning my feet over. I seem to be much more timid on the bike when I train solo or consider attacking a group ride or race. I have some self doubts that pop up and ask if I can really go that hard. I think the difference comes from experience; despite never doing any run specific training and only dabbling in races, I have always loved to run. Over the years I have become aware that I can push through the pain and not blow myself up, and when I run I like to run fast (for me, I'm not very fast). Mentally training myself to push hard on the bike for longer at higher effort will be a major priority in building up to and through next year's campaign.

Tempo

Babysitting this weekend while my boss' wife runs the USA Triathlon Long Course Nats in Vegas. Long Course is half-ironman distance, but can't be called half-ironman due to politics.
Training time has been limited but I put in a run today. Just tempo around the grass soccer fields. Goal HR was 175 which would fall into the "Sweet Spot" for my run training, but I averaged 173. The HRM did a good job keeping me honest and not letting my pace fall off.

Duration was 25:30

Cross Country

Today was supposed to be a rest day after yesterday's thrashing since my hamstring felt like death. But I walked into Strictly Running to ask about races and they said there was an open Cross Country race tonight. How could I resist? I have never run CX or a 5k so it was a 2 birds/one stone evening.
The result was 20:43 and good enough for 4th overall/2nd AG. I felt like it was a little slow, but then I always set high expectations for myself.
HR data:
Avg: 181
Max: 192

200m Repeats

Monday's workout was:

10 round of: 5 pullups, 10 lunges with 2 15# dumbells.
My pullups suck really bad right now which is why I had to sub a few jumping pullups halfway through.

Tuesday:

200m x 16:

All repeats were between 32 and 35 seconds but 2. #13 was a 35.7 and #7 was sub 30 because I was chasing a master's 200/400 specialist. Cool guy, much faster than me over the short distances.

Spastic

For whatever reason I am having spacticity issues. It's a common issue among those with Cerebral Palsy, but mine is usually predictable. Fatigue, nerves, and the cold usually set it off but none of the above are present.
My left hand wants to ball up into a death grip without my consent and it is not making me terribly happy. I wish I knew why so I could fix it but this time seems to be entirely random and involuntary. I've got my hand flat on the table but my fingers are still twitching and trying to curl up.

Word of advice to anyone reading this: Don't get CP, it will frustrate you.

Kona

Ironman World Champs in Hawaii take place today! It is a fascinating race, and I am always impressed at how fast those guys and girls can ride 112 miles.

Larry Rosa is photographing this weekend and I will link to some of his pictures because his work is absolutely phenomenal. He was the photog for 2008 Para-cycling nationals and I felt like a pro after seeing the pictures he took.

Run Aaron Run

It felt so good to lace up the flats and hit the road. I ran for 25 minutes on part of the Snowman loop. I'm feeling much better on foot than I did at the end of last season, and I had fun.

Diddly Squat

I kicked off the off-season training with Squats today. I stayed light with 135lbs for 5 sets of 3. My weak link is my left leg and my back, surprise surprise. Then I did some Single Leg Press.

It's time to get strong.

3 days

I haven't touched a bicycle in 3 days and I'm perfectly fine with that. I'll ride when I get the bug. I will do some other stuff too, I'm sure. A little bit of running to get back to my roots and I'll meet up with the barbell as well. I love Deadlifting and Squatting because the progress is always readily apparent. It's right there in kilos or pounds. If the number is bigger than last week you made progress. It's so controllable. Not so on the bike, I guess it's a different sort of progress. Ehh, the solid , indisputible, you made progress will be nice for a change of pace.

Life at the OTC: Part 2: Velodromes, Mountains, and Saying Goodbye

Picking up on Thursday Evening:
I was happy with my TT performance and I was giddy with excitement about getting on the Velodrome. I woke up Friday and I was more or less bouncing off the walls. We were only about a mile from the velodrome (!) so we rode our bikes to the track. They didn't let us ride track bikes since our track orientation was really short and the tandems were going to have freewheels and brakes. They cut us loose and I spent the first 3 laps timidly picking my way around the track on the pole line because the banking, at 33 degrees, was intimidating. As I picked up speed my inhibitions faded away and I started riding higher and used more of the track. Greta was training that day and pulled me around for a while. She took me up to the rail and dropped to the bottom of the track. That was fun. Then me, Matt, and Andy did some paceline work using the turns to peel off, Team Pursuit style. I had fun on the Velodrome, word is that my smile became progressivly larger the more times I lapped the track.

After lunch we rode up to Gold Camp Rd for some hill repeats. Those hurt a lot, but the view from the top was pretty spectacular. We were close to 1000ft higher than Colo Springs(6000ft) and could see the entire city and the plains beyond.

Saturday was day of truth. A timed 3k Pursuit foillowed by a timed Kilo. We used our road bikes but we were supposed to start in the gear we would ride the whole time. I started off well but put far too much juice into the first 3 laps and spent the last 6 trying to minimize my losses. My time ended up missing the Emerging Standard by less than 2 seconds. Even with my terrible pacing schedule I was in pain, 9 laps around 7-eleven is a long time. I expected to do better in the Pursuit than the Kilo so I had no expectations going into the Kilo effort. The result was me making the Emerging Standard with time to spare and the second fastest time of the day, and a nasty nasty hacking cough. I will be interested in seeing if I continue to be better at the Kilo as I progress or if I will gravitate towards Pursuit as my size would suggest.

I went a little crazy with the cookies and desserts that evening since the camp was over and my season was on the brink. Our meeting that night was a lot of fun, lots of jokes flew around the room. We watched some videos from the Beijing Paralympics at the Velodrome. It was fun and sad because we all knew we were leaving the next day to return to the real world.

The things I took away from this camp have a lot to do with my future in bike racing. I know that my goal is to qualify for Para-Cycling Worlds in 2009 and to live in Colorado Springs so I can be near the program and the Velodrome. After riding a better Kilo than Pursuit I am not as likely to try to box myself into one riding style or strength, and I think that I may turn my focus to track racing once I have access to a Velodrome. I can still race and train on the road, but US Para already has a CP4 (my disability class) rider who focuses on road. I think I can distinguish myself from Mike by being the CP4 track rider on the team.

Next season looks like this right now. Greenville Training Series, Walnut Grove, Rock Hill Omnium, Athens Twilight, any TTs I can find, graduate from college, and live in Colo Springs for 3-4 weeks leading up to track and road nationals which should serve as World Champ qualifiers. London sits off in the distance but it is always sitting in the back of my mind.

Addicted

Today I "won" the title of South Carolina U23 Time Trial State Champion. I was the only entrant in my age group so first was mine for crossing the line. I went 1:08:25 for 40k, not that fast. It was my first 40k and the course wasn't hard, but it wasn't a fast stretch of road. It's good to have a baseline of where I am to know wwhere I need to go.

My legs are sore right now, haha.

This winning thing is fun, I think I could get used to it. And with that I am closing out my season and hanging up the road bike. If I want to ride I'll grab the cruiser tandem of a mountain bike for the next few weeks. I'll start with base in November and do a bunch of Sweet Spot. We'll see if the hype about SST is true when racing starts next year.

My Better

I like it.