Dirk's Super Training Plan 2010

DirkVoodoo · 02-01-2010 11:30pm

Lumen wrote: »

Are you still ill? You'd better be.

Yes, unfortunately. Luckily I have a back log of christmas video games to occupy me. Hopefully next week I will be back in business, but I think any potential silverware will have to wait until next season

Lumen · 02-01-2010 11:40pm

DirkVoodoo wrote: »

Hopefully next week I will be back in business

Get well soon. I'm sure you know this already, but it's important that you don't attempt to make up for lost effort when your epic plan recommences.

brianthebard · 04-01-2010 3:27am

DirkVoodoo wrote: »

New Week 2:

Monday: Decided not go to the gym, have a bit of a cold which always seems to go straight for my chest. Also, crappy weather has me pinned inside.

you and me both, sucks doesn't it??

:( get well soon dood.

DirkVoodoo · 09-01-2010 4:19am

Week 3 (so far):

Well, I took Lumen's advice and have used this week to try and ease myself back into it. Feeling fine, but my lungs are not use to any kind of strain yet and it is showing.

Monday/Tuesday: Rest days and Orwell sign up, finally a member and have the jersey!

Wednesday: Went to the gym, took the mountain bike. Journey took forever, wore LOTS of layers and still cold but felt good for it. Only managed about 2/3s of regular programme, place was pretty busy. Turned off a front light that was still on a bike, flashing away. Don't know how the guy missed it but that's my good deed for the week.

Thursday: Paying for yesterday, legs feel tired. Went into town and back to a friend's instead. Driving the defender in this weather is great fun!

Friday: Popped on the turbo for "Aerobic power 2". Only got 30 mins before a call came in that I had to go and perform taxi duties for the parents. Huzzah! Still, managed to keep the high intensity regions in 300-320W and recovery kept at 90-100W. Too bloody hot in the house. Chest started to tighten up toward the end, wouldn't have been able to finish the hour. Stupid lungs, I need to source a new set. Also got my brother to (reluctantly) take some snaps so I could have a look at various body angles and roughly see what my setup is like. He still needs to understand the concept of orthogonality:

(Hey, Lumen does it so now I am too! I have more, ladies PM me for the "Dirk on turbo" 2010 Calender

)

According to GIMP they are nearly all pretty good. Thought I took a photo for fore/aft position but it's not there, oh well. I had to raise the saddle after he used my bike, it's still too low. The angle above between ankle, knee and hip is ~ 139 degrees when it should be between 145-150 degrees. Photos are too blurry, probably good though as it obscures the grow back. No comments about my clothing, I don't go euro indoors! Those adidas shorts are quite comfy though and I think they cost only 30 euro on CRC. Bought 2 pairs.

Saturday: Did nothing. Went out, blinded in a snowball fight, slept in friend's cold apartment, not a good idea.

Sunday: 35 mins on the TT, just mucking around. Did a few sprints but was just trying to keep the legs spinning rather than working in zones. Did some single leg workouts, I'm not sure how beneficial they are, I mean you pedal with both feet and that in itself should smooth out any deadspots. I would have thought high cadence work is better than single leg stuff, but who knows, I guess there is some reason Carmichael goes on about it. Sprints were limited by gearing (50x12) and a balancing act of not going too mad and rocking the bike all over the place. Prefer doing sprints on the road, might cut them out of my TT.

Pretty poor week, but I expected as much coming back from illness. Younger brother is able to start exercise again so he has promised to go gym with me, hopefully should motivate me. Looking forward to prospect of some snow biking next weekend, need to go out on real roads with real people to gauge improvements, if any.

Lumen · 09-01-2010 8:09am

Keep an eye on that ankle angle when you raise the saddle.

short circuit · 09-01-2010 11:28am

Lumen wrote: »

Keep an eye on that ankle angle when you raise the saddle.

That is sound advise .. 145- 150 at the knee is recommended for people with decent hamstring flexibility ... not sure where yours is .. but if its poor and you raise the saddle .. you will get the angle at the knee but end up with a severe angle at the angle because your leg can't drop as much ...

Still reading and trying to figure out my Irishfit report .. which is where this is coming from.

zzzzzzzz · 09-01-2010 12:27pm

Dirk, Just remember....

DirkVoodoo · 09-01-2010 5:03pm

Hamstring flexibility not amazing but slowly improving. Saddle will only be raised a few mm. Hopefully when I hire a better photographer I can get some more photos.

DirkVoodoo · 17-01-2010 9:25pm

Week 4:

Monday – Went to the gym with my brother, we went to Leopardstown instead of Sandymount. Big mistake! There is no comparison between the two. Managed to get most of my routine in, I'm still not hitting the upper body stuff yet, I mean it's pointless isn't it? The core stuff really appears to be working, my bike position feels better, my back doesn't hurt anymore and for the first time in 26 years, I can nearly touch my toes! I reckon I'm a week or two away from achieving my dream.

Tuesday – Dicking around on the turbo. Left it quite late and forgot my brother was back to school in the morning, so I had to keep the noise down, which meant no big efforts. It felt good just be on it, watched some more mad men, love that show.

Wednesday – No gym, chilled out with some friends instead, watched Liverpool implode yet again. Contemplated going after the match (it's open till 11pm!) but I was a bit worried about dropping temperatures.

Thursday – Aerobic power 4. Warm up was 120-150W, 4 repetitions of 6 mins High Intensity (230-250W) + 4 mins Low Intensity (90-100W). Setup was better now, no annoying screensavers popping on, plenty of fluids and the window open for a bit of ventilation.

Friday – Went to the gym, tough old session. Cycle back I encountered that teenager on the hybrid, really felt like my (sporadic) workload was making me go backwards. I also need a new back wheel on my commuter.

Saturday – The boards “Epic Bickering” race. Great day out, felt like an eternity since I had been out on the road with everyone. The descent from Howth was great, I think “flight of the valkyries” should have been playing as everyone descened en masse to the crossroad. My initial idea at the east link was just to go for a little sprint to the end of the road and rejoin the group. When Blorg and Nietzschean came with me, we just kept on going, realizing that (with Blorg doing much of the work, me hanging on) we were opening something of a gap and the race was on. My efforts at the front were short and not very strong, I really started to fade as soon as we hit Killiney. I still don't have the power to compete on the flat, but hopefully that will improve before the racing starts.

Sunday – Went out last night, home early morning. I was pretty tired, not drinking much but not able for the bike today. Feeling good about the coming week though, just glad the snow is gone.

DirkVoodoo · 23-01-2010 4:00pm

Week 5: It must have been love, but it's over now...

Monday: Swapped the gym for the return of football. 7v7, 1.5 hours, first game of 2010. Really happy with how I played, it was a low scoring game (25 minutes between goals at one point, playing "next goal wins" wasn't the 5 minute affair it normally is) but bagged 2, one was a sublime finish with a flick on the outside of my weaker right foot. Even better was the fact I was doing a lot of running and wasn't tired at all, felt really good.

Tuesday: Aerobic Power 2, 49 mins: 10 minute warm up @150W, 3x[5x(60 sec High Intensity @260-280W+20 sec Low Intensity @150W), 3 min recovery @ 90-100W], 1x[(60 sec High Intensity @260-280W+20 sec Low Intensity @150W), 5 min recovery], 5 minute cooldown (varying power output, just messing around).

Felt good after this, my legs were really stiff after football, especially the hip flexors. Always happens to me after hard running, i.e. fast sprinting. Cycling helped, but really need to start making use of all the plunge pools, jacuzzis, saunas, etc. and maybe invest in some recovery tights.

Wednesday: Disaster! An attack out of the blue: I woke up with no energy, feeling a little hot and just crap. Tried to go downstairs and have breakfast but after 30 minutes I crawled back to bed. I got the flu, spent the rest of the day in bed and happily slept away.

Thursday: Still crap, no temperature anymore but sore, tired and feeling like I might hurl at any moment. Only managed to eat a burrito (yes I know, no exactly light food) at around 11pm, first food in god knows how long.

Friday: Still crap, no change there. Still not eating, just trying to drink water and lucozade. Trying to keep away from everyone around the house, lots of hand washing.

Saturday: Woke up, feel fine! Still a bit weak (might be the lack of food) and resisting the temptation to just go to town on whatever is in the fridge. Drinking some 7UP, starving but at least I feel better. Working out when I can make a return to the bike, Probably next saturday. I reckon I went back to soon after the chest infection and my immune system was still run down, so unless I want this log to turn into "diaries from the boy in the bubble" I'm just going to have to take the hit and sit it out. I don't think I was this sick (bar hangovers) in all of 2009, really sucks! On the plus side (pure tongue in cheek, proper boards fashion) I just weighed myself and I have dropped 1.5Kg to a sporty 63.5Kg!

Sunday: Hopefully the new bars will arrive tomorrow so I can occupy myself with something. Will be sticking the old ones up for sale.

Lumen · 23-01-2010 5:35pm

DirkVoodoo wrote: »

I just weighed myself and I have dropped 1.5Kg to a sporty 63.5Kg!

WTF? I had no idea you were so light. That explains the climbing ability then.

Get well/fat soon.

DirkVoodoo · 23-01-2010 5:58pm

Lumen wrote: »

WTF? I had no idea you were so light. That explains the climbing ability then.

Get well/fat soon.

I can't believe in all our conversations that weight never came up. I'm pretty sure I know you are 70-72Kg?

Obviously any climbing ability I have is not from rigorous training, as you can see

I saw an add for some 7 euro KFC chicken zinger meal last night, I have never had KFC (indeed when I have seen other people eat it it looks a lot greasier than on the telly) but I made a promise that I will get one of these meals next week. Then some abrakebabra, euro saver, double whopper.....

Lumen · 23-01-2010 6:05pm

DirkVoodoo wrote: »

Then some abrakebabra

Don't do it. I ate a schwarma kebab from there in preparation for a turbo session a few days ago and felt so nauseous I had to skip the session and go to bed.

petethedrummer · 23-01-2010 6:16pm

Lumen wrote: »

Don't do it. I ate a schwarma kebab from there in preparation for a turbo session a few days ago and felt so nauseous I had to skip the session and go to bed.

Come on, you're here long enough to know that the last thing you buy from abrakebabra is a kebab.

sy · 23-01-2010 8:04pm

DirkVoodoo wrote: »

I just weighed myself and I have dropped 1.5Kg to a sporty 63.5Kg!

Out of curiosity dirk what weight were you for W200 last year? I am guessing you are about 175cm, hard to judge a persons height when they are sitting on a bike. Always amazed when i meet people off the bike as they are always much taller than I imagined. Hope the flu has cleared

ROK ON · 23-01-2010 8:07pm

I can well believe you are that size. You need to eat more. One day you will fade into the ether.
BTW, when you do start eating I recommend that you avoid the KFX thing. Of all the fast food it seems like a good idea but is actally vile.

Whereas with Abbers and Supermacs, at least they never see like a good idea.

DirkVoodoo · 23-01-2010 8:42pm

178cm, 65Kg...I think I may have been a bit lighter last year, but over my life my weight has never really fluctuated much despite how much or little I eat. I think the 1.5Kg has mostly been due to dehydration.

My appetite has now returned, going to make some scrambled eggs after the Leinster match then order some take out, (don't worry ROK ON not KFC, saving that for next week

)

sy · 24-01-2010 3:38am

Taller than I thought and as ROK ON said don't drop too much below that weight 65kg (unless you are planning the Marmotte) When you start racing you will find most races are relatively flat so you will need all the power you can muster but then I think you know that anyway. Did you join a club?

DirkVoodoo · 24-01-2010 2:54pm

Cheers Sy,

Yeah no plans to drop weight, I was hoping to build up some muscle with the gym work. That was going fine until this week, I guess I will be starting off from square one after this week. Ideally I would like to keep it around 65-66Kg while getting rid of any untoned mass, imcreasing leg strength, flexibility and core strength.

Oh, I joined Orwell, looking forward to starting but any grand plans will have to wait for next year.

rottenhat · 24-01-2010 4:27pm

DirkVoodoo wrote: »

Oh, I joined Orwell, looking forward to starting but any grand plans will have to wait for next year.

It IS next year. Get it together, Dirk.

DirkVoodoo · 31-01-2010 6:28pm

Week 6 - Post-disaster and a sign from God:

Monday to Friday: Nothing but resting and trying to finish Assassin's creed 2 as quickly as possible. Felt better from about Sunday/Monday, but I didn't think getting straight back on the bike or into the gym was a good idea and patiently waited for my saturday return. Had a short 2km blast down to the post office on wednesday. Cleaned my Felt and bar some small headset issues and the dodgy back wheel, it's running perfectly. Even got to try out the new lights I got from Dealextreme, very bright and really impressed, they will make an excellent emergency lighting system.

Saturday: Boards spin out somewhere north, Batterstown direction. 112.6km at 23.8km/hr. One small spill (thankfully just a grazed knee and a bruised hip, bike and new bars are ok!). I really found this tiring, as in my legs felt heavy, lacking and power and by the time I hit Donnybrook and 10km from home, I was out of juice. In retrospect I didn't get a lot of sleep, breakfast was insufficient and I was out of practice, but those are weak excuses and I think I just need to up the intensity a bit. I was meant to go out on saturday night but I developed a thumping headache (dehydration? I was drinking a lot) and a sore neck and I ended up falling asleep until 11:30pm. This definitely reminded me of my early cycling days when a short spin up the Sally Gap would leave me drained and aching the next day. Was relieved when I saw that an Orwell spin wasn't likely on sunday.

Sunday: Day of rest. Cleaned my bike. Should really take my own advice about efficiency but it hadn't been cleaned in about 2 months and I took great delight in wasting an hour and a half cleaning every last millimetre of it. Even managed to get rid of most of the cosmetic damage done to my right hand shifter in the fall (400,800,1000 grit and some 25 micron sandpaper) although it was hard to get a proper finish because cheap ass shimano seem to use some kind of chrome paint on the lever. It looks a lot cleaner without the chipped metal but now has a slight two-tone appearance.

Looking forward to week 7, hopefully if I get a good run between now and the pre-season race I will be in a position to be competitive and not simply making up the numbers.

rottenhat · 31-01-2010 6:49pm

Would I be correct in saying that you spent more time this week cleaning your bikes than riding them?

DirkVoodoo · 31-01-2010 6:52pm

I think at this stage it is an even split

My polar says 4:44 of cycling time yesterday.

I do like cleaning though, hearing a newly oiled drivetrain make hardly any noise is almost euphoric (I was going to say orgasmic but I think that was too far?).

DirkVoodoo · 02-02-2010 1:33am

Week 7 - Back in black

(Ok, this goes slightly against my "once a week" format, but I want to get it out while it's fresh in my mind, plus it helps motivate me for the next day)

Monday: Played 7-a-side with the guys. Left home at 4:50 to be 8km down the road for 5pm, not a good start. Went pretty hard which I don't like as then I am a little tired before I even start running but had no choice. Cold + speed = numb toes, so the first few minutes I was tired and unable to get my touch. Good game, freezing cold, didn't play well bar one spectacular (if I do say so myself) effort from half way that nearly dipped under the bar.

Straight off to Westwood, had to modify my programme somewhat to account for my lack of fitness from last week's recovery and post match fatigue:

Warm up on the (crap) gym bike for 15 minutes, alternating between level 6, 8 and 18...whatever the heck they actually equate to I don't know. I'm probably warmed up already after my cycle over. I think it's just an excuse to check out any talent.

Leg Press - 80Kg: 3x10
Hamstring curl - 50Kg: 1x12 (cramp!)
All the stretchy stuff: back extension, cat extension, hamstring stretch, inner hamstring, crunches, plank.
Step ups - 20Kg - height of about 55-60cm: 3x12 (each leg).

Popped into a friends for a cup of tea, got lost as usual and my route from Sandymount to Leeson street took a detour by Lansdowne road direction.

Cycled home, a bit tired but felt ok. Must have been about 25km of total cycling today. Power is non-existent but fitness feels better. REALLY need to sort out that back wheel.

DirkVoodoo · 20-02-2010 9:44pm

Week ? - Dear Diary...

So my structured training kind of fell apart once I saw the league race getting closer and closer. Haven't been to the gym in a while but I think now I may be cutting it back to twice a week, maybe making more use of the pool and other facilities to help relax after races.

I've been off the turbo too, but the last few weekends I had some good spins out, let by El Tonto. Last week I headed out to Roundwood with Planet X, Cadex, et al. it was pretty good, especially the fast cycle with just myself and Planet X after I punctured over some loose chippings. We were hitting between 40/50 km/hr on pretty flat roads, at times it was tough keeping up with the vet!

Took a recon spin of tomorrow's circuit with godihatethehills on Monday. It was good to get a picture of the course and know what I'm up against. Know thy enemy and all that. The legs have been feeling pretty good recently despite the lack of structured training, but I've been doing a lot of trips into town on my singlespeed and I like to try and push it for the most part. My semi-seized axle provided ample resistance for each of the homeward bound legs.

Trying to get in the "pre-match" zone right now, mostly chilling, watch a few episodes of fringe, just don't tax the body or brain and stay relaxed. There seems to be a bit of confusion about why I am nervous. I think people on boards don't know me that well, "Harden up Dirk", blah-blah, etc. I'm like this about most things, far too anxious over little occasions of no importance (although first race is high up there on the "little" list). I call it "getting off the bus" syndrome: lots of worry, followed by action and ending with amazement about why I was so worried to begin with.

Anyway, my concerns stem only from my behaviour in a group and the weather. I'm still coming to terms with cornering at speed in a bunch, pointing out hazards, keeping a good line, etc. and then there is the risk of ice. In short, I would prefer for both myself and the bike to stay upright tomorrow. If this means not being super competitive in the first race then that is something I am happy to do. Don't get me wrong, I would like to place in a race or put in a good performance, and I know I am capable when I try. But for tomorrow I would like to get a small taste for racing without suffering the indigestion of defeat.

Now, what to wear....