As I mentioned in my last cycling trainer post, I've been thinking about the best way to approach using the bike trainer in order to maximize results in the amount of time I have. While some sort of interval training is certainly in the cards, I've decided that I'm going to go with the idea that cycling is very similar to running in terms of how to approach creating improvement. As an example - with swimming, there is far less point to building up strength and aerobic capacity, and it is more beneficial to concentrate on form improvement, since swimming requires moving through something 1000x more dense than air. However, cycling, like running, is all about moving your own weight horizontally, albeit the mechanics are different.
With that in mind, and applying the concepts from Daniels Running Formula to cycling, the first phase would be a base building phase. In a future post, once I've got the plan more ironed out, I'll go into more detail into what the base building and it's purpose is - but for now the important part is that it is comprised of long steady distance. No need for getting the HR elevated in crazy fashion, nothing that'll induce too much soreness - just plain ole' getting the HR up into the aerobic zone and hanging out there for a good long time.
So today's workout was just a matter of putting a movie in (I chose the first LoTR movie), sitting back , and peddling. I was originally thinking I'd go for the full three hours, but ended up opting for two. Dinner logistics intervened, going from one to three hours would be quite a jump (just in case there'd be something to get conditioned to), and the fact that I have plenty of time to build up made me decide that two hours would be enough for today.
My primary focus was on cadence and keeping the HR in the mid-130's. I tried my best to stick to what I thought was close to a 90 rpm speed at a gear that provided just enough resistance to keep my HR in the goal range. Interestingly enough, the garmin connect page shows my avg HR at 127, but SportTracks on my local computer shows an average in the 130's. No matter, just one of the few times I've seen a difference, and just odd because they both get data from the same HR unit.
Initially, I figured I'd do the whole workout with just water (without it being intense, I figured it'd be a good opportunity for some fat burning, since carb requirements would be low). But after an hour I started feeling myself lagging a tad, so I ended up grabbing some of my homemade energy goop (the recipe for which I'm still experimenting with) for the last half.
Having something to watch was definitely nice, but I'm not sure my movie choice was the best. Sometimes the story plods along kinda slowly - so I might have to try for some more action-type movies. I almost went with The Dark Knight, but I can always pick that one some other time. And wouldn't it figure - the two hours came up during the fight scene with the orcs and cave troll.
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