Well, week two of the 90 Day Fitness Blaster regimen has come and gone, and now lies, finally, in my rear-view mirror. I say finally, because I swapped out Saturday’s workout for this Monday’s rest. I did this because I hurt my elbow somehow on Friday, and I wanted to give it a bit more rest before starting the resistance training portion of the program. I was also gone half the day helping to run the Raffle Ramble, a fundraising event for the Tour du Rouge. Add those two up and it means I had to sweat last night, rather than napping on the couch. Turns out it wasn’t as bad as I feared it might be.

The lateral lunges went better than last time, as my right knee slowly loosens up and the muscles around it get a bit stronger (note to self, put on shoes next time… your stride is wider than your yoga mat, and your socks slide easily on the hardwood floor), and I was able to maintain the crow pose for five whole seconds before dumping forward onto my head (and I was able to do this twice!). Who know I needed a helmet for yoga?

The riding wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, though 20 minutes straight is a long damn time to be on the trainer. Not only does the boredom kill me, but for some reason, my back and knees feel a bit worse on the trainer than they do when I’m just out riding. I really need to figure out if that’s a fit issue and fix it if it is. The next time I have a segment like this, though, I want to try and do at least half of the time at 110+ RPM rather than 105+.

That’s about it for now. I really need to get cracking on my post-ride report for the Raffle Ramble, and start fretting about the theoretically evil 45-minute Yoga Spin session I’ve got on tap for tonight… so I’ll wrap this up and try to get moving on those bits.

Oh yeah, after cramming way too many donuts in my maw at the Raffle Ramble, I clocked in at only 0.5 pounds down from last week. Ooops. You see?  Bicycling is bad for your health!

Golly, I’ve fallen behind in posting again; what a shock. OK, Here’s the rundown from the past few days of working out, etc.

Sunday: I did not get out and ride at all. It was cold and wet and the wind was gusting bad enough to blow a decent sized branch down from one of our trees. I stayed in and did some stretching instead, because riding on the trainer is as enticing as riding a porcupine without a saddle. Yeah, I know — but I get that extra time in during the week on my commutes, so I don’t want to hear it.

Monday: Back on the aluminum horse. Some moderate length high-cadence riding folowed by floats (you really have to concentrate to unload the off foot) and extremely-high cadence bursts. The cadence sensor for my computer arrived and I finally got it on the bike. I was shocked to see that my natural riding cadence is up around 90 RPM; I would have guessed 75-80. This is why I’m not a drummer. I was also shocked to see that during the super-spins I was able to hold 150+ RPM without losing control. I would have guess I’d max out around 130-135.

In other news, I weighed in a 254.5 pounds this morning (good god, I’m fat). Down 4.5 pounds from the previous Monday, and up a bit from Saturday. I really need to learn to do better on the weekends and not cave into the “snack ’cause you’re home all day” trap. I hope the weather is better in the upcoming weekeds so we can get out of the house.

Tuesday: Or as I like to call it, “I hate those damn Hindu squats-day”. Actually, the squats were a lot better than last time, however, it took me about twice to three times as long a Graeme to knock out the push-ups and bicycle kicks (stupid bicycle kicks, you’d think it would be just like kicking a bicycle, but it’s much harder). Then I moved into Body Weight Contitioning #2. Ugh.

The reverse lunges had me wobbling like a Weeble in an earthquake, and now my glutes are mad at me. However, I did surprisingly well with the T-stands and only had a slight delay when I over-rotated on my fourth one. Future sessions I’ll try to extend the time I hold the pose beyond what Graeme does in the vid. Also, the Mountain-Climbers took me back to grade-school gym class, and had me marveling at how I probably could have breezed through these workout back when I was young and played every day. Sitting down for 8-12 hours a day has been slowly killing me.

Oh, yeah, the one leg drills. I’m still kind of clunky (but getting better and really working that shoe-scraper/knee-thruster transition that’s my big dead spot), and I stared to cramp up in my right hamstring after I finished the last rep. Still, I survived and slept like a baby — A baby that kept getting woken up by dogs.

Today: Well, I haven’t worked out yet (unless you count my commute, but I treated it like an active recovery ride this morning), but I don’t expect too many problems. My second run-through of the extended high-cadence portion is looking a bit daunting from here, but I can get through it. I have to. Still I’m betting those last four minutes will feel like 40. We’ll see.

So I started the Cyclo-CLUB 90 Day Fitness Blaster today.  I was actually supposed to start yesterday, but a clogged sink put the kibosh on that and I combined yesterday’s and today’s workouts into one.  How did it go?  In one word: Ow!

Yesterday’s workout part wasn’t too bad.  Basically it’s just an easy intro to high cadence pedaling and trying to build an aerobic endurance base.  Other than the fact that my saddle position is off by just a bit and caused a bit of discomfort, I didn’t have any trouble outside of boredom (trainers are hell compared to riding outside).  But the second day, a bit of body weight conditioning… oi.

For one thing, I have a lot more body weight than your average cyclist.  After a way lazy winter filled with business travel and holidays, I packed on a whopping 25 pounds since the end of September, and this was really felt (along with my lack of conditioning) during this portion of the training.  Far and away, the worst part was the Hindu squats which went from feeling like a breeze to feeling a bit rough, to feeling like Kali herself was destroying my quads and lungs in the span of about eight squats.  Ugh.

How bad was it?  After working out, I went to shower and took our dog Jasper (who was badly in need of a bath) in with me.  I squatted down at one point to shampoo him, and when I had finished and rinsed him, I was barely able to get back up again; my quads were that fried.

Jasper survived his shower experience, even if I was touch and go for a while...

So at the very least, I know I did something today, and I’m guessing I’ll really know about it tomorrow. Sounds like fun, eh?  Well, this is what you have to do if you want to get into good riding shape.  On the plus side, there’s only 88 more days to go.

So late last year I signed up to take part in a little bike ride called the Tour du Rouge. It’s nothing really, just a tiny little bike ride is all. Just a tiny little six-day, 535-mile bike ride from Houston to New Orleans. That’s all, just 535 measly little miles.

OK, so maybe this isn’t just some tiny little local t-shirt ride that I’m setting out on. This one is serious; and in a couple of different ways. Not only do I have to get myself trained and ready for the physical aspect if the ride, but I’ve also committed to raising $2500 in donations to the American Red Cross chapters that lie along the route so that they can continue to provide the kind of relief services that they doled out in the wakes of hurricanes Ike and Gustav less than two years ago, and for many more less publicized personal disaters since.

Given the serious nature of this ride, I’ve decided to use this website to help me launch an attack on both of my goals for this ride and beyond.

On the training end of things I am breaking out the Cyclo-CLUB 90 Day Fitness Blaster offseason training plan, kicking off tonight and ending just as I’m loading up the car to head to Houston for the ride. I’ll be yammering about my training results and experiences here, so the world can watch as I whip this booty into full-on riding shape. Tune in tonight for a recap of the first workout and my discussion of why I think the 90DFB is the perfect training plan for this ride

And on the second front, I am looking to use this website as a vehicle for raising donations both from getting the word out to the public and for offering businesses some advertising space in exchange for a modest donation to the American Red Cross supporting my ride.  If you’re a regular ol’ person who would like to make a donation to support me and the ARC, you can do so by visiting the donation page that was set up for me for the ride; it’s fast easy and secure, and I can’t thank you enough for helping out with this worthy cause.  And if you own or run a business and are interested in donating and securing some ad space on the Bramble, I’ll be posting details shortly.  In the meantime, feel free to leave me any questions in the comment area and I’ll get back to you in a jiffy.

I truly hope that I am able to succeed on both fronts for this ride, because while it would mean so much to me, personally, to complete this ride, the funds that I raise will mean so much more to the people who see thase funds as relief services or food and shelter after their lives hove been turned upside down by some disaster great or small.  I’m priding for myself, but I’m also riding for them.  Won’t you please help us out?