Team McAlister

Should’ve posted this yesterday, but I got to watching a documentary about the The Funk Brothers (the legendary studio musicians in Detroit that played all those superfine grooves on the big hits for Motown) and well, you know how it goes.

Anyway, Tuesday’s ride was a killer.  I needed a day of healing and meditation.  I put together a little playlist of “gospel” songs, which probably aren’t all technically “gospel songs”… but more of a mix of country, bluegrass, folk, and gospel… and hit the road for a short, flat, spin at a very easy pace.  Unfortunately, the head wind made keeping it chill difficult… and the inevitable tailwind made holding back a little tricky, but the resulting ride did the trick of recovering some toasted legs.  I followed it with a VibraFlex session and all is once again right with the world.  Taking the day off today… but planning something good for tomorrow maybe (if my rear end is recovered).

Tags: cycling, Vibraflex 550

In spite of yesterday’s small Cyclemeter meltdown, the ride itself was fine and fun.  The icing on the cake though was hitting the Vibraflex, post-ride.  You have to find a club or gym that has one of these things!  The benefits are exactly (at least for me) as touted on their web site.  The Physical Therapist at our club oversees its use and gives tips about how to maximize its use.  As good as it is, apparently, you can get too much of a good thing with it.  Like any other piece of equipment, it can be misused to your detriment.

Here it is Wednesday and, as bummed out as I was on Monday about MCL pain, today I feel like I can run forever.  Not gonna actually try that, understand.  Just sayin’…

I have a late meeting today, so a ride is out.  I’m gonna try jumping rope today and see how the MCL holds up.  No running today, but look out for the weekend!  :-)

And, lest anyone, including the fine folks at Cyclemeter, think I’m just ranting about the app, my guess is that the app works as well as it can, but the iPhone’s GPS is the limiting factor.  Of course, I’m no engineer – software, hardware, or civil – but based on the way some other location-based apps seem to work, my guess is that iPhone’s GPS model is less robust than is needed.

Tags: cyclemeter, MCL, running, Training, Vibraflex 550

Armstrong and Torres, that is, need extra massage therapy and stretching after intense workouts, then don’t we all?  lol  Okay, so they’re elite, professional, big-time athletes.  They’re also young enough to be my children.  And, they always (pretty much) have been in top condition relative to the gen pop.  Granted, having cancer and babies plays havoc on your body, but they dedicated themselves to their sports and their livelihoods.  Look at Lance in Comeback 2.0 when he’s “fat and out of shape”, getting ready to prep for his return to pro cycling.  I’m pretty sure most of us don’t have those muscles.

So what about those of us who are aging weekend warriors, trying to ward off the ravages of time, not to mention dissolute living?  An intense workout for us is no less intense because it would be nothing to a younger elite athlete.  Intensity, afterall, is relative.  Lactic acid, fatigue, weaknesses are all amplified in us precisely because we don’t do as much, don’t have the underlying base conditioning, and are getting older.  Follow Lance’s tweets and you’ll get a picture of a guy who realizes he’s not as young as he once was.  Still great;  still competing at the highest level; still a force in his sport.  But, clearly, still on the high side of the age bracket.  Dara is the same way.

I follow their training regimens and try to get tips from what they do.  The two clearest messages seem to me to be: 1) do something every day toward your goals; and, 2) make sure that stretching and massage are always included in your recovery – every day.  The first lesson does not mean that you run every day or cycle every day or swim every day.  Cross-training is hugely important.  Variety isn’t just the spice of life – it seems to be a sure path to better health (and, if you do have a specific activity that you favor) to better performance.  The second lesson has been especially painful to me.  The single most important component to my workouts is now both stretching and massage – afterwards.

If you’ve followed the last couple of days or so, you’ve read how I raved about my pain free workout only to be almost immobile the next day.  Well, here it is 2 days post pain free workout and I’m pain free again.  Why?  If you answered “stretching and massage” go to the head of the class!  Quick re-cap: Sunday – pain free workout; Monday – can’t walk.  Monday afternoon – short, easy 1 hour spin-type ride to loosen things up some.  Then to the gym for a session on the Vibraflex.  OUCH! and WOW!  Then, home for the usual stretching and massage.  And, today?  Pain free again!

In case you’re wondering, we’re not sponsored by any of the products that we mention on here.  We’re not nearly good enough for that!  This is stuff that we use to make our training lives easier or better or happier in some way.  So when we give props to something, it’s because we’ve tried a bunch of stuff and this is something we think merits a mention.  That said, a shout out goes to the Muscle Trigger Points app for iPhone.  I love that little app!  Because of it, I have been able to discover the source of several aches and pains and take actions to alleviate the same.  Beats taking a handful of Alleve every 4 hours (which btw, I’m not necessarily opposed to).

AND I ALMOST FORGOT….eating well is very important for older athletes as well….and I dislike that part about as much as I dislike running in general.

Tags: Dara, iphone, Lance, massage, Muscle Trigger Points, stretching, Training, Vibraflex 550

Tomorrow I should drag my fat, lazy old man butt out of the sack and hit the Carve ride at 7:00 am or maybe 7:30, if I just want the 30 mile option.  See, there are 2 starting options and two routes so you can go 30, 40, 50, 0r 60 miles on this fun-filled hammer-fest of a ride.  These guys usually don’t race until they’ve been riding for about 2 miles…..and then it’s a balls to the wall, take-no-prisoners sort of deal.  I need the ride and the training and the pace.  And, if not that ride, then what ride?

There’s a BBQ cook-off in the middle of the River Park ride route.  And, I’ve been on that too much lately anyway.  There’s the Tour de Rock Training ride which is about 25 – 30 mile no drop deal at paces for every type of rider.  But it had 70 folks on it last week and begins to look like the actual TdeR event itself.  I want to run, but that can be done on Sunday afternoon when the weather is too nasty to ride.

This is that time of year when real cyclists get out of bed, eat their oatmeal, and get those miles and hours in the saddle working.  Why am I reluctant?  It isn’t like I have to get home and mow the lawn or anything like that.  And the recovery should be do-able because that Vibraflex routine is the best thing ever for getting your muscles back to normal.

Okay, I’m gonna organize my stuff to hit the Carve 7:30 am, 30-miler.  Should be done by 9:30-ish which means that I can go vibrate and then hit the Trek/Gary Fisher test ride event being put on by Chainwheel (after some breakfast, of course!).

Tags: bicycle, Carve, Chainwheel, cycling, running, Tour de Rock, Vibraflex 550

Today’s plan was for a long-ish ride at a pace that would be on the edge for me.  The route is very similar to the last 2 rides – only a little longer.  As always I was testing out myself and my gear.  Cyclemeter was almost dead on with iSport today….go figure.

Here’s the skinny: iSport shows 35.9 miles, avg speed 16.3 mph, top speed 46.7 mph, 2629 calories. Cyclemeter shows 35.78 miles, avg speed 16.16 mph, top speed 47.45 mph, calories 3727.  Close enough for Cyclemeter to get a passing grade today.  Even better, Cyclemeter appears to have mapped the route correctly.

Check out the ride:  http://j.mp/9eF0uO

By the time, I hit the last climb on River Mountain Rd, my legs were toast.  I was hungry.  In short, that was perfect for the next part of the day – shaking on the Vibraflex.  I went straight to LRAC to jump on it for 2x 2 minutes at 26Hz.  Man, that feels good!  Vibraflex seems to be a recovery miracle!  No knee pain!  Better flexibility!  No sore muscles! YAY!

Tags: bicycle, cyclemeter, cycling, injuries, iphone, Vibraflex 550

I wanted to test some stuff today – me, Cyclemeter, and the Vibraflex 550.  I planned a ride that was pretty much the same route as yesterday, only instead of being flat it has 3 major climbs that are right on the path.  The idea being of course that it would test Cyclemeter to see it performed on a similar, but slightly different route while giving me more pop than yesterday’s route.  The climbs come in Mile 2, Mile 11 and Mile 21.

Now, I gave Cyclemeter some pretty good props yesterday and Colin is a fanboy.  I even hit ‘em on Twitter and they gave me a nice response.  I thought today’s route would be simple, but not so.  Not sure why, but it had me climb straight up the side of a hill and then sort of scramble around up top.  And I really just don’t trust the stats yet.  My iSport had me at 1:28 and change.  So did Cyclemeter.  But that’s just a stopwatch function.  Big whoop!  Cyclemeter had the ride at 22.77 miles and iSport at 21.8 miles.  Cyclemeter shows a top speed of 66mph and iSport has it at 45mph (much more likely).  The mph intervals posted on the server map just don’t look right.  Some of them look ok, but others don’t and I can’t explain why.  That 34.5 mph in Mile 2 isn’t possible for me at that point in that ride.

Map accuracy is maybe 80% (very unscientific estimate) on today’s route.  I don’t know enough about any of this to know why it’s inaccurate.  Probably something to do with GPS sensitivity and hillsides, and sunspots, and climate change.

But the ride was fun and felt great, even if it did have 3 relatively nasty climbs in a short time.  That was good though because I then stopped at the LRAC to jump on the Vibraflex 550.  It’s hyped as a sort of super-dee-dooper exercise machine that’s supposed to boost testosterone and HGH while chewing up Cortisol and flushing lactic acid out of your muscles.  I’ve used it a few times in the last couple of weeks and it does help loosen up your muscles.

I wanted to see what it would do for achy, dead, stiff legs after a brisk ride.  I’m told that marathoners and triathletes love it.  So, I did 2x 2-minute sets at 26 Hz, which is what was recommended for me.  I must say that my legs felt super afterwards and I think that thing may become a regular part of my stretching and flexibility routine.  Pretty impressive.

Tomorrow is a day off the bike and back to jumping rope, running, and weight stuff.

Tags: cyclemeter, cycling, iphone, triathlon, Vibraflex 550