ASPHALT JUNKIES Summer Bronzing Crew - CLOSED (Page 105)

I didn't know they added an HIM to Maumee!   Hmmm...I'm heading to their website now to check it out.   We've camped at Mohigan before and it's a great place.  My kids especially loved it because some of the sites are right along the river where you can tube and just play in the water.    That camper sounds perfect.. 

The time off was good. I've got the shin issue beat, I hope. I ran on the rubber track surface at the local middle school Friday afternoon and though there was some discomfort during mile 2 but by the start of mile 3 the issue went away. I ran again on Saturday and broke the run up into shorter pieces. 1.5 miles with the dog and then I let the her swim around in the river for a bit while I did some light stretches, then 1.5 miles home to drop the dog off, then another 2 miles alone for 5 miles total and no shin pain. I'm going to do one more short run today or tomorrow and then decide for sure on whether or not to sign up for the local 6 mile Turkey Trot run on Thursday.

That facebook picture is actually one from back in May when I recieved my yellow belt in Kung Fu San Soo. That was about 2 weeks after my first half marathon. I'm hoping to be promoted to Green belt in mid January and that will mark about the half way point to making black belt in the art. After that there are 8 more levels of Black belt (1st through 8th degree. Minimum 1 year training each) to reach the level of Master in the art. Talk about a long term goal, huh? 10 more years at least to reach that one.

Originally posted by BigDaddyD79 Brenda, congrats on your purchase of Blender, one of my favourite rides. Cadence is a very personal thing. When I first started cycling I felt really comfortable riding at about a 85 rpm cadence, but after doing a lot of drills on the trainer last winter I'm usually between 95-100 when I'm at TT pace. Spinning at a high rpm is very different if your not used to it. It uses less muscle power and more cardio which will drive your HR up. This is why you felt spent without being able to finish. If you can keep practicing using a high rpm then your body will adapt and your HR will come down. The plus with this is that you can get the same power output with less stress on your leg muscles, saving them for the run. You will see that the sufferfest workouts will have a lot of switching from low 70's to 100 rmps to get both types of training in. The main thing to remember is to try and push harder, but not if using a high or low cadence causes poor form or injuries. If you feel comfortable at 80 or 90 then it's not like your not getting a good work out. OK, what was my point again,......oh ya, enjoy the sufferfest videos.

I agree - I played around with cadence a couple of years ago. I found that I don't have a lot of power so when I try to push hard in a bigger gear I am not as fast as when I spin with a higher cadence in one gear lower. I only have my speed as a reference which is not as great a metric as a power meter or something like that but that is what holds true for me when I am out on the road. I was better equipped to hold on to a faster cadence for an extended period of time then try to push a higher gear. Just my personal experience. I think of it as trying to generate everything I can out of the gear I am in before I move up a gear. So if my cadence is at 85 RPM's (for instance) then what will my speed increase be if I can maintain that same gear at 90 or 100 RPM's? When I can handle that, THEN I go to a higher gear.

Of course I have not had my cadence monitor installed on any bike since April so who knows what I'm spinning right now LOL!

Thanks everyone for following up about Whizzz. The news they received was not good. 

I am back on the fitness wagon ever so gently. I am managing daily workouts again and just keeping the intensity low for now. The groin issue is staying under control - YAY! I tried a very easy run/walk on the treadmill yesterday and my groin managed fine but my foot with the cyst turned off really painful for the remainder of the day to the point that I would have gladly worn my hideous stability boot! It truly did not hurt at all during the run so I'm not sure what is going on with that and I'm pretty frustrated with running in general. So I guess I will stay away from it for another week and see what happens and just continue swimming & cycling.

Brenda I did have a little piece of cake and bite of pie on Saturday for my Mom's Birthday. It feels almost rude to not have any desert for someones Birthday celebration . But yes, that has been it. I really wanted a piece of pie leftover yesterday but I gave it to the kids so now it is gone. And thanks to that I managed  not to gain any weight during the s/b/r layoff so it's all good but not getting any easier!

Dina,  I'll continue to offer prayers for Whizz and her family.  Sometimes life's greatest gifts come from the trials and although I've not experienced something like this but I have had before me things that seemed insurmountable.  Without going into specifics, I spent weeks and weeks wondering in terrorizing fear that I would lose all of the things in my life that I held dear.  But God is good and He held true to His promises.

Happy anniversary Joanne!!  30 years at your age?  What?  Did you get married when you were 7?

Brenda,  I will discuss cadence later on today.  I have been struggling with my Garmin after every ride this week and I haven't had time to provide any input, although Derek did a great job with his explanation.

My training front has brought me to 5 days of riding in a row.  I began last Friday with an 8 minute test and then Saturday and Sunday rides of 2 hours each.  The past couple of nights have been 1 hour rides but they've not been easy.  I plan to ride again tonight and maybe even tomorrow before taking a day off on Friday (because I have to work) and allowing my legs to recover a bit.  There has a been a lot of threshold work through out so I am not slouching on the pedals but I haven't done insanity VO2 max intervals either.  I've just been getting some good stuff in.

Happy 30th anniversary! I hope you guys had a great time.

Cadence:

As Derek said, cadence is very much a personal thing.  I have become accustomed to be pretty comfortable in the 90-95 RPM range over the past 5 years of riding.  Yet others I ride with, some of them pretty beastly cyclists, tell me I spin very fast and they question why I spin so quickly citing that I use more oxygen than they do while spinning slower.........And, to some degree, they may not be to far off the mark.  However,  when you compare professional cyclist to the average triathlete/cyclist my 90 RPM's is considerably lower than what some ride at 110 RPM's.

Traditionally a new rider is told their cadence should be between 80-100 RPM's but..........

The factors that should go into a persons preferred cycling cadence should be, essentially, perceived exertion.  That's the "cut the chase" answer.  But to determine a persons optimum cadence is far more difficult and take some time to dial in very closely.  (I am actually going to re-work/re-think some of my cadence perspective through this winters' cycling session.)  

In order for a person to determine their personal optimum cadence they can do some testing.  Knowing no one here has power meters the best way would be to do a couple of tests.

• The first test would to do a bit of a time trial at an effort/HR that is hard.  You can use distance as the gauge. (This should be something as short as 3-4 miles.)  After a good WU of 10 minutes or so begin the test.  Use some of the lower gears that have you spinning at a controlled but fast pedal speed.    This type of cadence should tax your cardio system but your legs should feel more capable of spinning.  Take note of the time it took you to cover the given distance.
  Then after using some active recovery time of 5-10 minutes of easy spinning, perform the test again, only this time use higher gearing (harder to spin) allowing a lower pedaling cadence.  With this type of cadence you should feel more fatigue in your legs.  Again, take note of the time required to cover the given distance.
• Wait a couple of days and do the test again.  The second test is basically the same test only it is performed in reverse.  For this test you'll cover the same distance as the first test to make sure all things are as close to the same as the first test.    Remember,  since you did the first spinning fast for the first part of the test, you'll want to have a slower cadence for the first one this time.  Again, take note of the time it took to cover the given distance for both of the interval tests.

Following the test you'll have to do your own evaluation to determine which of the gearing options allowed you to cover the furthest distance with the least amount of effort.  So, if you rode the given distance, say 4 miles, in 12 minutes at a low cadence and rode the same miles at a high cadence but it took 12:30 to cover you would be better at a lower cadence.

All this said, after the tests you'll still need to do some tweaking to pin point a good target cadence.

Hopefully I have not confused anyone and this has been helpful. 

Brenda?  Is this better or more confusing?

Happy Thanksgiving Junkies! Does anyone have to cook the turkey? I only have to make some cranberry Jello but I have not even done that yet and our first meal is at noon today! I better get busy. I'm also going to try to squeeze in a trainer ride before going to MIL's all day. Brenda you will be happy to know I have let up on no sweets through the Holiday. There are just too many good things that I don't get to eat on a regular day. Of course I probably didn't need to start my day with a brownie this morning .