now I'm in for it

[latelatebloomer]

My fave spin instructor gave me a bike in his privately-run "House of Pain" indoor winter training sessions where he trains himself and other masters racers. inc. Scott Butler, who took a WC gold medal this year. He let me challenge myself by trying it the last month of it (March) the last season, and I think we were all surprised at how I could hang in there. I did well enough that he let me do it twice a week and made a comment about "next year we'll have you do the whole season and you'll really be tearing up the roads." I told "Obi-Wan" that I didn't want to take a bike from someone who was training to compete, because I don't see racing in my future. But he kept an eye on my HR during regular spin classes during the last 2 weeks and said things like, "I'm impressed, I'm thrilled" and I guess he decided to challenge me further.

It starts on Halloween, how fitting. I'm gathering my courage and doing my best to remind myself that I'm NOT who I used to be. I'm still a big middle-aged woman, but I'm fit and determined. He's given us the format for the season - what scares me the most is the cadence work. There's a period where they're working at 140. No way. My big ol' legs are strong, but not fast. At my very best, I have hung on for dear life near 120. I hope my bike's at the back of the room!!!

Any secret-weapon TE tips for leg speed? I hope to drop more weight - will that help?

[Veronica]

I've been working my way up the cadence meter. When I'm riding outside I like to spin between 90 - 105. On the trainer I can comfortablely spin up to 120. When Coach Troy tells us to spin even faster, I really have to think about circles. Sometimes I even call Thom out to watch me so I can get some feedback on what I'm doing.

As with anything else on the bike - practice is your friend.

V.

[RoadRaven]

Hey there LLB, we bought a spin bike in our winter (thats your summer) and its been great - so much easier than popping our different bikes onto a wind trainer.

However... what I wanted to say was ... one of the routines I got out of my training manuals is for cadence and you can do it on a spin bike (or your road bike on a flat stretch of road).

You warm up at 90rpm (and this for me was the first challenge - I rarely rode at 90 - how could I 'warm up' at that???)

Once warmed up, you do this cycle 3-4 times...

3 minutes at 100

2 minutes at 110

1 minute at 120

'Rest' for 2-3 minutes at 90

To begin with I never made it to 120, and could not hold 110 for 2 minutes. The fly wheel on the spin bike really helps to keep the legs flying.

I intend to change this soon and warm up at 100, and do the cycle as 110/120/130/rest

It has been great for improving my cadence and if you are worried about the speed of legs in the "house of pain" than you could do some of this to support what will be expected of you.

All the best for your first class on your Samhain... (although down-under its Beltaine... never-the-less, this "bright" little country has adopted all the hype of an American Halloween without any consideration of the past it arose from or why it is observed or even the RIGHT time of the year to observe Samhain - its spring/summmer here you foolish people! not the beginning of winter!!!! Sorry - gets off soap [rant] box)

So... LLB, as i was saying... all the best for your first class... I will be interested to hear about some of the routines if you have time to share them.

[RoadRaven]

Any secret-weapon TE tips for leg speed? I hope to drop more weight - will that help?

Sorry LLB... missed part of the question... I put my suggestion for leg speed (that has helped me) in my above post ... but the losing weight thing ...

Well, it should, as long as your heart rate is raised for at least 20-30 minutes.

I find when I am doing the spin routine above, my HR doesn't go into the 'lactic' ... my resting HR is 39, when I walk around its about 70-85, my lactate threshold (at the moment) is about 160. When I do this routine my HR stays around 120-125. Enough to kick start the metabolism into some fat burning.

3 repetitions of this takes just over half an hour - that includes a short warm up...

[latelatebloomer]

Thanks for the tips, RR and everyone. I did the first session tonight and did great. Much more confidence about walking in there as a large woman who is without question an athlete. The first month, we are working on increasingly long intervals of low cadence, high resistance. That's my strong suit. I kinda forgot there for a while that I don't have to walk into the cadence sessions able to do 140 rpms. It's a number to shoot for, and it's all about improvement. Was a time I couldn't do 90.

My weight question was actually if losing more weight (and having somewhat smaller legs) could get me more legspeed. Maybe the cart is before the horse. Again!

[Dogmama]

I don't think leg speed is dependent on the size of the legs. I do think that as you get more leg speed, you will lose weight on your legs - so yeah - maybe the cart before the horse.

Sounds like you've found a gem of a class! Please be sure to keep us updated on your progress. I bet when you get back on the bike, you're going to fly!

Veronica, I usually think about circles on lower cadence. If you can concentrate on circles at a higher cadence, my helmet is off to ya! I just concentrate on not blowing out my knees!

[latelatebloomer]

I completed my first week in the House of Pain! It's hard work but I think I did well, and the trainer must think so - last night he said that I had worked really hard and could take easy for a couple days! I also feel like I "belong." People are chatting with me and a world champion even asked me to show him the shoulder stretch I was doing! "Our" bikes stay set up in "our" room (no one else uses them) and the gentlemen on either side of me, racers both, sweat and groan and fret same as me! One even mentioned, without me saying anything about my worry, that he didn't think he could hit 140 cadence when we get to those drills, but that we'd do our best and improve, which was the point, really. Was he reading my mind?

After the session I feel really strong - tired in one way but full of life-force and self-esteem in another. Must be endorphins....

What wise woman said that the thing that scares you is the thing you MUST do? (E.Roosevelt??) I SO wanted to back out of this training, and I'm very glad I didn't.

[Dogmama]

Latelate - thanks so much for posting this! Next time I'm whining in my spinning class, I'm going to think of you!

[latelatebloomer]

Two weeks in "The House of Pain" and I'm loving it. Totally challenged and totally loving it. Most of us show up quite early to warm up and stretch. Then the training starts. We do a half hour of serious warm up with intervals of increasing cadence, and then an hour or more of (for this month) low cadence, high resistance segments. They started at 6 minutes and are increasing each week. We use resistance to drive the heart rate to 85% and then beyond. We are sweat-saturated slimy messes at the end. Tonight, my 85% target was 172, and I was able to drive it into the 180's toward the end. We have music AND a metronome to help us keep rhythm, and at the last effort, when I started to flag, I opened my eyes and realized I could team up with the racers on either side of me, they were just w/in my peripheral vision - and they kept driving me hard. The guy on my left has really taken me under his wing.

I'm very proud of myself tonight.

[latelatebloomer]

Hey, everyone - I haven't been posting, or even visiting much at all. I couldn't afford the time, and the posting of accidents was having a neg. effect on me, so I went away. Missed you and thought of you all often, though. I just wanted to let you know that LLB has done herself proud though this whole indoor training season, to the point that the trainer said the "R" word to me last week. As in, save this date (May 26) for your first race. Ok, many of you know how just about 2 years ago, I was struggling to do 3 miles on my hybrid! Will I really race? I don't think so, but I'm not saying no. My road skills are still newborn-fawnlike, but if Chip is willing to give me some road training....well....bicycles = miracles, eh?

[Dogmama]

Hey LLB!

I haven't been here much either - full time job + full time puppy + full time husband.

I think just working towards a goal is good! If you race, great. If you don't race, great. You've had all of that training behind you!

Covert Bailey says that people who train for a marathon and never run it are much healthier than those who run it. People who actually run it (according to his research) come down with more colds, etc., after the event.