Training Update
It’s been a few weeks since I’ve updated my blog and training log. The last few weeks have been much of the same training-wise, so detailing day by day won’t really say much. In essence, you can look at training over the past few months and that’s pretty much what the last couple weeks has been… It has been tough lately with some personal items going on at home, and work stress to-boot, so despite hitting some big accomplishments trainin-wise (below), I know I am not yet reaching my potential.
I haven’t had a training hike in 4 weeks now, which is unfortunate, but the physical training has continued to get more intense… I am now hoping to have 2 big training hikes – Shasta in mid-October, and Mt. Whitney again the 1st week in November. I have several maybe’s for the trip, and am really hoping I will get at least one confirmed climbing partner for each trip.
The intensity as I said of my workouts continues to increase. I read a book called “Sports Nutrition for Endurance Athletes” by Monique Ryan (http://www.amazon.com/Sports-Nutrition-Endurance-Athletes-Monique/dp/1931382964/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1252611058&sr=8-1) and have found several items in the book incredibly effective at helping me step my work up a notch.
The key takeaways for me from the book were pre and post exercise nutrition… Making sure I have the fuel and hydration going into a training session, and how to refuel for the quickest recovery to be ready for the next round are becoming more and more important for me to maximize my effort and training effectiveness. By following some simple steps around carbohydrate and water timing before training, I have been able to see really incredible results, and so far have been able to get my peak heart rate during cycling exercises from 169 bpm (91% of max) to 181 bpm (97.8% of max) sustained for 15 seconds.
Through my training, I have also really begun to fall in love with cycling…Â now, all I have to do is really start to like swimming again, and I’ll be mentally ready to start preparing for triathalons after the 1st of the year 
, which is when I am also hoping to purchase a road bike…Â Until then, I have bought a pair of Shimano M324 SPD pedals for my Canondale F5, and a pair of Sidi Giau MTB shoes so I can clip-in and really push myself on the bike.
