Too much booze blunts your immune system – health – 30 September 2011 – New Scientist.
More power to you.
Marc
Posted by Marc Walter as Daily read at 6:29 AM MST
September 30th, 2011
Too much booze blunts your immune system – health – 30 September 2011 – New Scientist
Breaking Chains
Not only can I break bicycle chains but I can break tractor chains, too. Actually it was the chain on the planter. Another thing, wow was it windy and thus dusty planting today. While Mitch went to order a new chain I got the luxury of taking a nap in the van. It being after lunch, I actually dozed off really good.
Thursday’s bike workout had me doing some low rpm efforts. I was thinking more on the lines of just doing an endurance effort this evening but that nap revived me into doing the low rpm efforts. Plus, with a 30 mph wind it was going to be easy just drudging away into that wind. Doing low rpm efforts works the fast twitch, force type, fibers. Low rpm efforts also deplete your glycogen stores. Keeping the power low keeps the heart rate low so that it doesn’t become an aerobic/cardio ride. It really fatigues the muscles deeply. For me, these are harder to recover from than a threshold workout. Here is a good article to read about what I am trying to accomplish. I usually end up doing a low rpm workout 1-2 times a week.
I commuted to work early to get in a weight workout. Today I did a speed workout. This entails higher sets and reps at lower weight and works on the nervous system firing faster. It actually comes out to be a cardio workout because the heart rate gets up.
More power to you.
Marc
Posted by Marc Walter as general at 6:00 AM MST
September 29th, 2011
She Thinks My Tractors Sexy
It’s that time of the year, for the wheat research team at UNL, to go out and plant the winter wheat. I’ve been driving the tractor the last two days back and forth all day. Another guy feeds the planter so he’s behind me on the planter. About every 50 feet or so he yells ” hold it”. I then have to immediately stop the tractor so he can change trays. Wow! does this get obnoxious. Every once in a while, because the tractor is so noisy, I think I hear him yell ” hold it”. So I slam in the clutch to stop the tractor. If I hear a “shit” coming from behind me it means I was wrong in thinking that I heard him yell ” hold it”. He’s standing, on the planter, so he’s not expecting my sudden stop. Bam! he nails where the seed drops down below. I end up turning around and saying ” shit, I thought I heard you say ” hold it”. Oh well, no harm done.
Now to Wednesday’s workout. Knowing that I wouldn’t be able to do my lunch time gym routine, I’ve put in a request for a gym out at the farm, I came into campus early to get the workout done. There’s a lot more people at 6:30am. A running class the way it looks. Here is the workout. I’m really maxed out on these weights that I’m doing this week. It’s going to take awhile to overcome these weights. There’s lots of strain and grunting going on.
The evening workout on the bike called for some 3 min efforts at VO2. I was going to do these yesterday but my bike was having some issue after being hit by the car. They went good considering all that happened during the day. You would think driving a tractor isn’t physical. It is because there is a lot of jostling and fighting the steering wheel to keep it straight. Also, being out in the sun all day and not having enough to drink might be factors to why I felt like just taking a nap when I got home. Took the bike up to JoyRide Bicycles instead to have them check it out to make sure everything was Ok from when the car collided with me.
Another good workout in the books. Staying consistent.
More power to you.
Marc
Posted by Marc Walter as general, My training, power, Weight at 6:00 AM MST
September 27th, 2011
I Need More Cowbell
Hal Has Taken Over
Mondays workout: Just like from “Space Odyssey 2001″ the supercomputer has taken over. Besides the weight workout the supercomputer doled out another day of 3×20′s. Considering training stress balance is really low and chronic training load is the highest of the season, this was an excellent workout.
Take a look at this about recovery over on slowtwitch.com. Really controversial. Definitely my beliefs. I’m that person that’s always looking for that new approach that goes beyond the norm. A new training method. I still mix in some old school training methods. I tend to apply these new approaches to my own training to see if they work. Sometime they do sometimes not. That’s the scientist in me. This goes back to when I was in college. Sitting there learning from a book that really doesn’t change much over the years. Especially the required classes. I went to a high school, known for as a college preparatory school, so most of the classes were repeats of high school. It was the upper level science classes where I stood at attention. I attended class every day because I was looking for a unique idea. This is the way I am now with training. It’s all out there on the internet, in books, ect….. There are a few ideas, such as this one on recovery, that are unique and make sense.
I’m out of here. I’ll be working out in the fields planting wheat for the next week so I might not have much time to ride and chit chat about it. The bike needs my attention now.
More power to you.
Marc
Posted by Marc Walter as general at 6:00 AM MST
September 26th, 2011
Wrap It UP
Sundays workout. Dang good workout considering going into it I was lacking just a tad bit of motivation. Not actually lack of motivation just tired. There was every reason for the fatigue with about 2 hours of planned effort at threshold and VO2. When I look at WKO, overall I was at threshold around 2.5 hrs. Consistent efforts of 10+ minutes are what boost threshold.
Really good week of training. With 20 hours of training and a TSS of 1200 and 3 days in the gym. One of my biggest weeks, not with hours, but TSS. Learn all about power here.
Did a little remodeling in the basement. Set up shop, a weight room, and got a bigger screen for the computrainer computer. The weight room is really basic. Just a bench and some free weights so that when I’m motivated at home I can do some lifting. My main lifting is on UNL’s campus. The computrainer is going to be more fun this winter. I plan on getting the ergvideo system. This will get the workout even closer to virtual reality. The shop is looking good. Much more organized and the posters are in better viewing angles.
That’s it. It’ s getting time to the sack.
Marc
Posted by Marc Walter as general at 6:00 AM MST
September 25th, 2011
Cougar Tracks
Saturday: Went up to check to see if I could find the cougar or it’s tracks . Didn’t find any but lots of deer tracks. Lots of food for a cougar. Kind of an interesting area. It starts to get woody and hilly around this area. There is an abandoned farm house above the ditch where I saw the cougar. Kind of a wilder area.
The workout was endurance type effort. Again, just burning fat. It’s working. Over the last month I’m back down to 150 from 154. This improves my watts/kilogram at .1 w/kg. Not very significant but I can’t get any lighter than this without it affecting my power output. It’s really easy for me to loose weight. I believe that after 30 years of consistent cycling, I think I didn’t ride at all in 1987, that I’ve set my hypothalamus to a certain weight constant. The most I’ve ever weighed was 168 and that was when I was working at Hardee’s in the student union at Colorado State University. Taking home leftovers wasn’t a good idea.
It was a gorgeous day. One of those fall Nebraska days. The crops are turning, there’s some harvesting going on and the humidity is low. These are the days I like to just inhale deeply, take in the smells, go slow, and enjoy because the cold is just around the corner.
More power to you.
Marc
Posted by Marc Walter as My training, power at 6:00 AM MST
September 24th, 2011
I Think I Saw A Puddy Cat
I’ll get right to the excitement. Reminiscent of the cartoon and what tweety bird says when he she’s sylvester the cat ” I think I saw a puddy cat? I did! I did! ” I think I saw a cougar, (a.k.a. mountain lion, puma, panther, painter, catamount) today in between Wahoo and Lincoln. I marked the location on my garmin file. So I crest this hill and at the bottom I see something move across the road from the right thicket. I’m thinking it’s a deer. It was that time of the evening. When I get to the bottom of the hill, I gaze left, and there it is moving between the corn and the ditch. At first I thought ” damn deer”. By the time I get to the top of the next hill my thoughts had changed. Dang,I didn’t see the white tail bobbing as is typical of a fleeting deer. Dang, that thing wasn’t as tall as a deer but about the size of a large dog. Dang, it had pointy ears. Dang, his hind quarters were moving like a cat. Dang, I just saw me a mountain lion. Can’t be for sure. I might ride back out there tomorrow to see if I can find any tracks. Don’t worry if I do. I’ll make a lot of noise and whittle me a spear.
Fridays workouts here and here.
Posted by Marc Walter as My training, power at 6:08 AM MST
September 23rd, 2011
Pacing strategy and Performance 3: The Science of Sport
Part 3 of this series. I posted parts 1 and 2 in a previous blog.
More power to you.
Marc
Posted by Marc Walter as performance, power, Videos at 9:13 AM MST
Transition
The video below is by Robbie Ventura, explains exactly what I had mentioned a few blog posts ago, about the transition period. The transition time, in the periodization model, doesn’t apply to amateurs who in general are putting in hours a lot less than the professionals. The mental transition is important, though.
Presently, I’ve been playing some basketball and lifiting weights for the last 2 months. The basketball action gets me moving in a non linear motion, which running and cycling does, and works on upper body movements. I do love to ride my bike so in that time frame I was but not with any structure.
The mental transition for me isn’t really a problem. My lifestyle, work and overall stress dictate minimal mental fatigue. Some athletes that I’ve coached have lots on their plates such as family, work, education, ect…. where they are very time constrained already to be able to participate in endurance sports. I always ask that they take a break.
This is one aspect of the periodization model that I don’t agree with.
More power to you.
Marc
Posted by Marc Walter as periodization, power, Training, Videos at 8:00 AM MST