We are three weeks into the new year and so far, I have found that I am LOVING my bike trainer. I have ridden it 3-4 times per week since I got in last month and am seeing much improvement in my bike fitness. I have also completed four weeks of cycling specific weight training that has helped as well.
I don't have a power meter (anyone who wants to buy me one, the Cyclops Powertap Pro Alloy Training Wheel Set would be peachy), so I am using average speed, distance, and revolutions that the rear wheel spins for a given workout to determine improvement. For one particular interval workout, the revolutions for a workout on 12/24/11 was 13,656 for 1 hour. On 1/14/12 it was 14,748 - roughly a 7.4% improvement. I'll take that...
As for the weight training, I am doing squats, hack squats, leg presses, leg curls, bench press, pull-ups, and dead lifts. So far, the training has been designed more to help me get used to the motions of the workouts, but I can already tell a difference in how I feel on the bike. My back is stronger and I feel like I have more stamina on the bike. Yay!
The slow carb diet has was difficult to get into at the start of the year because I had to get back used to traveling again which was difficult. But this past week I finally had a 'breakthrough' week and finally earned my cheat day (today). I also lost 5 pounds, which is encouraging as well.
And that, my friends, pretty much sums up the progress so far this year. Overall, I am pleased with where I am at this point and am looking forward to continuing on in the coming weeks/months. Next week I will be in Bham all week so it will be another good week to stay with the program. And on 1/30/12 I will start an 11 week Outseason Training Program where I will add in some running and other high intensity cycling. I am modeling this Program after the free resources at endurancenation.us (if I any of you wanted to purchase me their training packages, feel free to do that as well).
Anyway - that's it for now. Until next time..... have a great day!
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