What I learn from the MIO Link in TRI Training!/Shout out to single training parents!!

So this week has been the first week of having my boys for summer and using my MIO Link. So why do I bring that up you ask? Well let me tell you LOL. This week I got my boys for the 1 of my 4 weeks during the summer. So my typical day now is getting up earlier than normal, making sure they get up, eat breakfast, get dressed, brush teeth, drive them to my folks house (who they stay with while I am at work), drive to work, get down with work, go pick them up, get the back home, cook dinner, feed them, go to the gym, get back, get them in the shower, snack, in bed then get me in bed then repeat LOL. And yes I know that is what the majority of parents, mothers or single mother do on a regular basis if they are working out and handling a family. And it isn't that it is too much for me or that I resent it at all. What I found out I would have never known if I haven't had been using the MIO Link. Now let me explain.

My normal workout all last week was, green zone on the Link on bike, abs and green zone on run. The green zone being determined using the MAF training formula. All week last week it was like this. So I get my boys Friday night after my long ride and run. Have them over the weekend, which means late nights staying up with them and not the best sleep. Come Sunday night to bed early and get up early. Now because I am getting up earlier and do all the things to get them ready in the morning and getting me ready, I don't check my heart rate first thing when I wake up. I had been doing that and getting between 57 and 61. 57 usually the day of my next workout and 61 on the days right after my workout. So this week I am going at it not knowing where I stand. Also with having the boys, I decide that my legs could use a 3 day rest rather than a 2 day rest. So workout on Tuesday instead of Monday. I get in to the gym. Like I have said before same workout from week 4 of Month 2 but increase time in seat by 5 minutes and increase run by 10%. So that means a 45 minute ride after a 5 minute warm-up. On these "shorter" rides I try and stay at 90 rpm the whole ride. Now I want to say again doing this on the Spin Lifecycle GX is different than if I was doing it out on a road bike on the road, cause the Lifecycle DOES NOT have a coast gear. So it is pedaling the whole time at 90 rpm. I don't know who that works out between being able to coast and not being able to. In my mind I am doing a time trial in a race cause they hardly ever stop pedalling. So I get into the groove and see the wonder green light flashing on my MIO Link the whole 45 minutes, I felt great, legs where good, bottom getting more and more use to the seat in saddle. Absolutely perfect. Then on to the abs. Now if you have seen the picture in the post were I showed you my ab exercises you will remember seeing the Corkscrew. Now one thing about this is it can be hard on your back from the lifting and twisting at the same time . I had been doing 23 reps for all of my abs exercises up to that point. So I get to the Corkscrew and I hit 15 and it is like someone is sitting on the bottom of my feet. I can not do hardly any more. I don't understand this at the time. Can 1 exact day put me that far back and have I lost that much in one day extra. Now I know from bodybuilding that this isn't possible. So I split it up into 2 sets of 15. Every other ab exercise no problem what so ever. So on to the run.

This is were if I didn't have the MIO Link I would have had no idea what my body was doing. The last workout on Friday I got to be able to up the pace for a bit and still keep it in the green zone. So I set the speed to what I did on Friday and got started. About 5 minutes into the run, I caught out of the corner of my eye what I thought was red flashing instead of green . So I looked down and that was right FLASHING LIGHT RED! I just thought to myself, there is no way. this is the exact same pace as I did Friday after a ride that was double the time that I just did. Now it was at a slower pace than what I did today but that shouldn't make a huge difference. So quieted my breathing till it went back to green which only took a half a minute. But 15 seconds later there it was again RED RED RED. So I slowed it down and stayed green the rest of the way. However instead of completely enjoying the rest of the run, all I was doing was thinking about "What is going on here" What has changed from last week to this week. My kids!! Now I am not saying Kids will slow down your progress LOL, but what I am saying is that the new added stress of daily chores taking care of them has increase my stress level and has hindered my ability to recover as well as when they aren't with me. Now I would take having this time with me over them not having me for sure. But getting to the title, my run felt the exact same as it did on Friday to me. But if I didn't have my MIO Link I would have never know that I went out of my Aerobic zone and into my Anaerobic Zone. The whole goal of the Aerobic(Green Zone) is to train the body to use fat first before using stored energy. So the whole time I am in the Green Zone I think to myself "Burn Fat Burn Fat show me that 6 pack" LOL. So thank you MIO Link and MAF training to allow me to take my training to another level of knowledge and being able to listen to my body!

So with that I salute the training parents, single parents who have to do their daily chores of child raising, work and still train and recover. HUGE HATS OFF TO YOU!!!

End of 2nd month TRI training with my MIO LInk/MAF Training

What can I say at the end of the 2nd month of my training? Down 10 lbs, seeing abs that I have never seen before, feel absolutely great after every workout, mentally I have already embraced and caught the addiction bug of triathlon training. After 10 years of saying every January that I am going to do Kona Ironman, it is a great feeling to know that I am now in a very supportive group of triathlete competitors. Or I should say that I am a triathlon trainee lol. I am looking forward to the 2015 season to begin competing in March.

Friday's workout was an 80 minute bike with abs and run (speed walk lol). Felt absolutely great during the whole ride. My bottom is getting more and more use to being in the saddle for that long. However I will start looking into some chamois cream to help with the sore points that do form while sitting for that long. I have done a little research online about the different creams that are available. Once I select one to go with of course I will do a review of that cream. What type of creams have you guys used and which ones do you prefer?

Abs workout is so brutal but so rewarding! I am now at 20 reps per exsercise. I am thinking of adding 5 more reps which would make it 25 reps then instead of going to 30 reps, just adding another set on to them. So it would be 20 reps for one circuit then 10 reps for set 2. Also I think that I will add a excerise that aims for the upper abs cause it seems to me the workout is very lower and side ab specific.

Now on to my MIO Link and MAF Training since they are now going hand in hand. Using the MAF Training 180 formula, my zone 2 or aerobic zone is 140 - 130. Now according to Mark Allen http://www.markallenonline.com/maoArticles.aspx?AID=2 the add or subtract beats is based on how much you workout a week, which is a little different than from Dr. Maffetone's formula. So I used Mark Allen's base of how much a week I workout. Now some people will say that for Cycling you should use a different number for your zone 2 or Aerobic zone, but Mark Allen says to use this number for ALL cardio training. So that is what I am using. The great thing about the MIO Link is that it has 5 different zones you can set by using the MIO GO app. On the bike to keep it between 130 and 140 bpm right now is a push, but checking what my beats are it is so close to the 130 that I feel comfortable that I am still in the zone during my long ride. So seeing between blue and light green on my MIO Link during the whole ride was a great feeling knowing that my body is using fat first for energy before getting into fuel reserves. Now to the run! It has taken me almost a whole month to finally commit to leaving my ego at the door and shooting for green during the run. And let me tell you to go from running to a high speed walk is something that I have to tell myself we be very benefittal for years to come. If it wasn't for the ease of use of the MIO Link, I don't think I would be doing MAF Training. And for someone who is pretty vain to be honest, it feels real good seeing the flashing green light and knowing that for certain I am burning only fat.

Well there we be many more to come today. I have just figured out that I can't do post on the weekend so Monday's will be post a plenty LOL.

Legends of the Road wins 4 person team male under 50 in the Race Across America!!

3020 miles traveled non stop in 5 days 11 hours and 41 mins, that is 755 miles per person. That is what Dave Mirra, Ben Bostrom, Micky Dymond and Dave Zakriskie did starting last Saturday from Oceanview CA. Over the course of about 5 and half days, they dealt with high temperatures, strong winds, huge mountains, and blinding rain. Riding during the day and thru the night non stop, I can't even imagine what it would take to accomplish such an amazing feat. Even while I am typing this and they came in at 3:19 am this morning, there are still teams racing on the course. Please join me in congratulating this amazing guys on winning their division in the Race Across America. And YES by following them, it has sparked an interest for next year. Maybe can fill in for Micky Dymond next year since he is going to attempt it Solo.

MIO Link gave me the green light :-)/Legends of the Road tackle RAAM

What a great workout yesterday. Had a short 35 minute ride, then abs and run so I decided after last week's short ride that I would incorporate sprints into my short ride but still make sure to keep it in the green zone on my MIO Link.

So I did more reading about MAF training. I came across the www.philmaffetone.com website who is considered the creator of MAF training plus in my search I found out that 1 of Phil's students was Mark Allen 6 time Kona Ironman champion.  And on Mark's website I found this article  http://www.markallenonline.com/maoArticles.aspx?AID=2 which really goes into detail some what on the training. Phil Maffetone has a great book from what I have heard called The Big Book of Endurance and Racing. Which I will be getting very soon to help me with my training. Now according to the article on Mark Allen's website this can be used for all endurance training. So with keeping my heart rate the same both bike and run is great.  On the bike 5 minute warm up, then into the sprints. 3:30 minute sprints with 3:30 rest period between sprints. By using the formula my zone is 140 to 130 bpm again both for the run and bike. So for the sprints I doubled the resistance  from 3 to 6 then back down for the rest periods. 100 rpm during the sprints and my normal long ride pace of 80 rpm during the rest period. Man what a blast it was! Pushing my body to a place where it hasn't been before while keeping it in my Maximum Aeorbic Factor training. Seeing the light on my Link flash green to light red but making sure not to push it past to solid red. It felt great to push my body to this area where it hadn't been before. Sweating and a tad out of breath during each sprint was amazing. I would get down into the tuck position during the sprints which actually help keeping the cadence at 100 rpm. Friday will be my long ride of 70 minutes.  I will make sure to take my X2 performance to see what difference it will make since I didn't get a chance to last ride.

For people who might be interested in what my ab workout is: bicycle, corkscrew, double crunch crossover, hip raises, jackknife crossover, Heel touches, Side plank rotations. No rest, start out with 10 reps each and then add more reps as it gets easier in groups of 5. So 10 to 15 to 20 reps etc. This will cause you to go into your green zone or even higher lol. From there it was on to the run.

Now again I CAN PROUDLY SAY I AM A RUNNER CAUSE I LOVE IT! But I am still starting from no base so I have not got to very far distance yet but I am still proud cause everyone starts from the ground level. However, I have got to learn on check my ego at the door with my run. And it isn't really that. I love to run now and want to run. But in order to stay in the zone, I have to pretty much walk at a fast pace to stay in it. So I am up in the air about what to do regarding the walk or run tell my Aeorbic base is built. More than likely I will use the training to keep my running in the zone and just check it at the door. Love the changes I am seeing inward and outward in me. I am starting to see abs in places where i have dreamed of having them :-).

Now on to a huge shout out to: The Legends of the Road! Ben Bostrom, Micky Dyamond, David Zabriskie and my friend Dave Mirra will start this Saturday in the Race Across America or the RAAM. Please if you have a chance check out the website http://www.thelegendsoftheroad.com. It is a race from coast to coast of the USA. This the 32 year of the race and to give you an example it is 30% longer than the Tour de France. Thanks to their many sponsors for allowing them to do this. 

Again thank you for reading my blog and following me on this journey.