January 8 workout

Thursday night's workout:
Warm up:
300 swim
300 pull
300 drill

Kick set:
4 x 75: alternate 25 fast, 50 easy/ 50 fast, 25 easy

Pyramid:50-100-150-200-150-100-50
alternate recovery pace and fast/race pace (80%)

300 swim, alt 50 fast, 50 easy without stopping

4 x 50: 25 sprint, 25 easy

200 cool down

Cold Weather Riding

Riding outside in the winter can be totally awesome, or totally suck if you're not prepared for it. Even when you are prepared, you can still experience some problems. Dean caught a little frostbite on his toes a few weeks back, and I had to go to the dermatologist to learn the blisters on my hands and feet are what's known as chilblains, some skin damage that occurs in cold, damp conditions. The blood vessels apparently shut off to protect themselves, resulting in little blisters/callouses on my hands and feet. They go away in the warmer weather, but my guess is that each year I continue to ride outside it'll get worse.

So before any winter training, make sure you're taking the proper precautions. Warm gloves, warm clothes and warm booties will make the ride more enjoyable and hopefully not give you frostbite. In fairness, I do ride with all these things, I just have inherited poor circulation and ride my bike for too long in the cold.

With that said, hopefully everyone is RIDING his/her bike, whether indoors or out. I've been heading up to TriSpeed on Saturdays and the groups have been small (this past week it was just me, my friend Tom and Sean, the owner). If 9 is too early, there is also the 10am ride out of Oregon Ridge which is a larger group and a very chill ride.

Mondays at Fed Hill have been booming, and of course last night I suspect a ton of people were there to fulfill New Years resolutions, so if you're lacking that motivation to get out and run, rely on the social aspect of the Fed Hill group!

"Protect Your Junk"

I got this from a daily advertising email I get called AdRants and I just had to share... it's too funny/helpful to pass up for you guys out there who are cycling all the time:

DZ Nuts Turned David Zabriskie's Tights into Freedomware.

Cyclists have it hard down under. All those hours pushing pedals literally chafes balls, which is funny from a distance but sobering enough that the condition requires an anti-irritant, aptly called "chamois cream."

To contribute to the well-being of fellow bikers, pro cyclist David Zabriskie developed a cream called DZ Nuts -- pronounced "deez nuts..."

Ironman Kona on NBC Saturday

In case you guys want to watch and don't want to miss it - NBC will be airing the Ironman Kona race tomorrow (Saturday) from 2:30PM - 4:00 PM.

http://ironman.com/mediacenter/pressreleases/30th-anniversary-ford-ironman-world-championship-airs-on-nbc

Maybe next year we'll be watching Alan and Ryan at this?

More Winter Workouts

I stopped into TriSpeed yesterday and was reminded that they hold indoor cycling sessions on Tuesdays and Thursdays throughout the winter. I've never been so I don't know how crowded it gets, or what kind of workouts they do; but given their connection with Troy Jacobson I would wager they probably do some Spinervals DVDs. I *think* they start at 6 or 6:30pm. Not a great indoor option for anyone in the city having to drive up 83 that time of day, but certainly if you are in the county or at least a little further north, it could work out.

They also still meet on Saturdays, ready to ride at 9am. I may go up Saturday the 13th.

Hope swimming's been going well, I may actually show up one of these Monday mornings now that I'm back in the water. Slow, but back in the water. Only 50 weeks til Ironman Arizona!

Winter Workouts

Bleh, winter is rapidly approaching and after taking some much needed rest I guess it will be time to start training again.

As a reminder, we have our awesome Monday night runs in Federal Hill, 6:30pm at Fed Hill Fitness. Tuesday Night Track is discontinued until Spring, but we do have a small group of dudes that meets on Wednesdays at Canton Square at 6pm for a 7-10 mile run at or under 6:45 pace usually. Some people have been meeting for long runs as well on the weekends already, but we'll get bigger groups in a few weeks when the marathon season is totally over.

Riding - Saturdays through the winter the TriSpeed ride is always a good option but if the weather's bad they'll ride inside. On Thursdays, the ride I do in the summer up in Owings Mills moves indoors, of course driving up there just to ride inside isn't really worth it.

I noticed a cool little widget on the Georgetown Running Company's blog (http://georgetownrunningcompany.blogspot.com) that is a calendar for races - I think it would be cool to have a calendar with people's weekly training schedule plans so that others can check it out (assuming you don't mind having others around) . Winter training is all about accountability, so the more you can do with others the more likely you'll get out there and do it!

Over on our blog (http://teamthatswhatshesaid.blogspot.com) we have some running races that we plan on going to, including the Miami Half Marathon in January, and USATF XC Nationals in February. Another February favorite is Club Challenge 10 miler in Columbia, where all the local clubs compete against one another for bragging rights. If anyone is interested in doing that one just let me know.

Ryan

Monday Swim (11/10/08)

WARM UP:

  300 swim

  300 pull

  300 alt swim/drill

SET:

  6 x 75 build pace (5 sec. rest)

  6 x 100 w/ 10 sit-ups at the 1st 25 m. (10 sec. rest)

  2 x 75 3-5-7