Everything's been going pretty well over here, other than that I've been TOTALLY EXHAUSTED. I almost fell asleep at the dinner table on Saturday. I mean, we eat kind of late, but seriously. I haven't done that since I was about four.
Part of this is that I'm over 30 years old and still don't know how to go to bed at a sensible hour. Another part is that I've been getting up before dawn to ride my bike 5 days a week. Also, I've been getting a minimum of an hour of deliberate exercise every day except Sunday, with a body that's used to five or six hours a week tops.
Partially in response to the exhaustion thing, I'm switching century training programs. The other day when I was in REI, I spied a Bicycling magazine with an article titled "Beginner's Guide: How to Ride 100 Miles in One Day." I didn't buy it, but would keep thinking about it all week until I finally picked up a copy at Barnes & Noble this weekend. In it was their century training program...the mileages are smaller on the weekdays, but the overall weekly mileage is comparable to the program I was already doing. For instance, this week is Week 4 for me. My current program has me riding 18 miles Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri, and 40 miles on Saturday, total miles = 112. The Bicycling program Week 4 looks like this:
Mon: 8 mile easy
Tues: 14 mile pace
Wed: 17 mile brisk
Thurs: off
Fri: 14 mile pace
Sat: 42 mile pace
Sun: 13 mile pace
Total mileage: 108
(pace = desired century pace, easy = "leisurely", brisk = 2-3 mph above pace)
So, the shorter weekday distances are better for my schedule, and I'm really only losing 4 miles. Since I generally overshoot the recommended distances anyway, it'll come out about the same. I also lose a day off, but I'm always antsy to do something on Sundays now anyway. I also think the variation of distances during the week will keep it from getting stale, which honestly? It's starting to get a little bit stale, this riding the same route 4x a week. This program also has the advantage of "thousands of riders have used this program for their first century", vs. "this program is not based on any science or anything, but you should be able to do a century after completing it" on the CRANE program. So I'm switching. We'll see how this goes.
Posted by Joy at August 15, 2005 10:40 AM