Rest 11/10

Random notes:

• My friend CB from work gave me a belated birthday present: Spinervals 8.0, Competition Series - "Recovery and Technique". Nice!
  
• I stopped in at Sammamish Valley Cycles to buy a skewer for use in the bike trainer, and also resolved to try some egronomic saddles when I return. I talked to the clerk, who suggested carbon clip-on aerobars, as IMCdA is a lot of chip seal roads and vibration dampening is nice. I decided I am willing to replace the aerobars on my tri bike if it is more comfortable fit-wise. I still feel a bit stretched out in the aero position, and even Erik Moen said he'd prefer not moving the saddle as far forward as he did. Basically my Cinelli Angel aerobars have a fixed stem which may be slightly long for me. So, replacing it is cheaper than buying a new bike! First, I must fix saddle comfort.
  
• I called up Pace Cycles, and asked about my training bike. It still isn't ready. I told him I'll be on vacation and will pick up the bike on Dec. 1st or Dec. 2nd whether or not he is done working on it. I'll just take it to Gregg's Bellevue for the work I want done if need be. I'm also done with going to Pace Cycles - he does great work, but can't schedule at all.
  
• A friend EN signed up for the Valentine's Day half-marathon on Feb 13th. I'm considering doing it as a training event. I'm also considering doing the Vancouver half-marathon, on May 1st, as a training event. I'll update my training schedule after I get back.
  

I'm also leaving for New Zealand tomorrow and will return on November 30th. This will be my break between base and starting the training program on December 5th.

Rest 11/9

In all honesty, I'm probably not going to get any exercise done this week. I had a few errands I needed to run during lunch, so no swim, and in the evening I was busy trying to take care of a few things before vacation.

I just setup the CompuTrainer I bought, which was pretty easy. I mounted the handlebar unit, velcroed the cadence magnet on, and connected the power supply. Since my training bike is still in the shop, I only want to attach the cadence magnet in an easily removable fashion.

All I've done so far is try the calibration process: pedal to 12 mph, pedal faster to 25 mph, and then stop pedaling and coast to a stop. After that, the handlebar unit showed a new calibration number, indicating success. From then on, I was able to increase the resistance in increments of 5 watts, so I moved it up/back just to feel the load. I think it is all working! When pedaling the handlebar unit shows speed and power load in watts.

I bought a replacement cable (dual 1/8" stereo minijack) so I can hook up to a computer. Unfortunately, the longest one at Radio Shack was only 6 feet long, so I might end up ordering a cable from CompuTrainer, since they have a 50 foot cable. That will stretch across the room a few times!

Next up is connecting to a computer, installing the 3D software, and trying that out. I think I'll end up doing that when I return.

CompuTrainer Idea

Now that I have a CompuTrainer, I'm planning various ways to use it. Of course, I need to set it up and try out the various functions, and I might not get around to that until tomorrow evening.

There is an interesting feature of the Pro 3D software:

A second PC compatible Pro Basic CompuTrainer may also be incorporated for head to head racing

-from CompuTrainer Pro 3D description

Rather than race each other, T2 and I could use this to ride a simulated course together. Say... the IMAZ or IMCdA bike course. Both those courses are double loops, so it would be a nice workout to ride half of it, or some shorter portion as we build endurance.

CompuTrainer also makes specific multi-rider software, which allows up to 8 people to compete head-to-head. It appears you can just download the multi-rider software for free and run the time-trial course, with a display similar to a horse race. If you register the software, then you can run other courses. I'm not sure this will be that useful as we aren't really going to be racing each other.

I also need to try out various permutations of my computer and A/V equipment. This may need to wait until I return from vacation.

Base Week 4

Nov 1 - Nov 7

	Time
Swim	0:30
Bike	2:00
Run	0:35
Strength	0:00
Weight	142.2 lb
Body Fat	16.2%

Workout volume was down this week, so I'll call it a recovery week. More like a preventative week, as I took an extra day off since I was feeling tired.

Bike 11/7

Trainer ride with T2, for 1:15. We watched some OLN coverage of ITU Edmonton and Ironman Canada. Nothing like that to provide motivation!

I rode in the aero position as much as possible, but still sat up quite a bit. Part of the reason was my neck gets tired from looking up. It isn't really the fault of the TV, because I'll need to look up while riding in the event! The other issue is saddle comfort - in December I am going to try out some different saddles and try to solve that issue.

So far the trainer rides with T2 have been very enjoyable. It is easier to talk to each other, and T2 has great TV shows saved from the Outdoor Life Network. Plus, the high-cadence/spin workouts we are doing are really best done on a trainer, where you don't have to worry about outdoor road conditions.