Drama

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The Velominati currently maintains a list of cycling rules. I am reminded of a few right now.

Rule #20 // There are only three remedies for pain.

These are:

  • If your quads start to burn, shift forward to use your hamstrings and calves, or
  • If your calves or hamstrings start to burn, shift back to use your quads, or
  • If you feel wimpy and weak, meditate on Rule #5 and train more!

Rule #5 // No whining. Suck it up.

Rule #10 // It never gets easier, you just go faster.

“Training is like fighting with a gorilla. You don”™t stop when you”™re tired. You stop when the gorilla is tired.”? — Greg Henderson

Hard interval sessions Saturday and Sunday. Hard training session Monday. Recovery day on Tuesday.

Am I recovered?

Er, no.

I am stiff. And sore. Stiff and sore. Sore and stiff. I can barely keep my head up. Wonderful stuff this being in shape.

More fun with the personal trainer tonight. He is quite familiar with Rule #5. I made the unfortunate mistake of telling him about this rule. Whining, as a technique to manage my personal trainer, simply does not work.

I will have to do some further research in this area.

Monday

Nutrition

Breakfast
Calories: 140, Carbs: 14 grams, Protein: 20 grams, Fat: 0 grams

Lunch
Calories: 391, Carbs 52 grams, Protein: 24 grams, Fat: 11 grams

Dinner
Calories: 782, Carbs: 123 grams, Protein: 40 grams, Fat: 16 grams

Total intake
Calories: 1,314, Carbs: 187, Protein: 84 grams, Fat: 27 grams
Sodium intake of 1,853 mg and total fibre intake of 24 grams.
Net caloric intake after exercise: 962.

Exercise

Challenging session with personal trainer. Estimate 351 calories burned.

Stretching

No stretching.

Tuesday

Nutrition

Breakfast
Calories: 140, Carbs: 14 grams, Protein: 20 grams, Fat: 0 grams

Lunch
Calories: 391, Carbs 52 grams, Protein: 24 grams, Fat: 11 grams

Dinner
Calories: 782, Carbs: 123 grams, Protein: 40 grams, Fat: 16 grams

Total intake
Calories: 1,314, Carbs: 187, Protein: 84 grams, Fat: 27 grams
Sodium intake of 1,853 mg and total fibre intake of 24 grams.

Exercise

Recovery day (although no recovery evident).

Stretching

No stretching.

Spring Is Near

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On Sunday, the temperature climbed to 10 degrees Celsius. If the roads had been clear of the winter debris, I would have been outside on the bike.

Soon.

I even spent some time on Sunday cleaning my Colnago — even though it was already spotless — and inflating the tires.

I noticed that I had not updated my progress for Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Sorry about that. Life was a little bit hectic towards the end of last week. But never fear. Here are the results from those four days. And a few notes on what I generally eat just to keep things a bit more interesting.

Thursday

Nutrition

Breakfast
Unless I am travelling, I always have the same routine for breakfast: 250ml of skim milk, a single serving of high quality protein supplement, and strawberries. Throw in some ice and a blender and it makes for a refreshing and satisfying strawberry smoothie. I also take in high quality multi-vitamins and Omega-3s.

Calories: 140, Carbs: 14 grams, Protein: 20 grams, Fat: 0 grams

Lunch
Most days I work right through lunch. I bag this meal and it is always the same: a serving of raw carrots, an apple, a small turkey sandwich with mustard only and a serving of low-fat cheese.

Calories: 391, Carbs 52 grams, Protein: 24 grams, Fat: 11 grams

Dinner
The dinner varies somewhat each day. And depending on how much exercise I take on, I may supplement intake to ensure that I eat above a certain minimum. Interestingly enough, I do not experience significant hunger nor do I have any urge to overeat. I am convinced that the food industry creates products that encourage over-consumption of calories. With my current program, my biggest worry is not taking in enough calories.

Calories: 783, Carbs: 123 grams, Protein: 40 grams, Fat: 16 grams

Total intake
Calories: 1,314, Carbs: 187, Protein: 84 grams, Fat: 27 grams
Sodium intake of 1,853 mg and total fibre intake of 24 grams.

Exercise

Rest day.

Stretching

Light stretching session.

Friday

Nutrition

Breakfast
Calories: 140, Carbs: 14 grams, Protein: 20 grams, Fat: 0 grams

Lunch
Calories: 391, Carbs 52 grams, Protein: 24 grams, Fat: 11 grams

Dinner
Calories: 782, Carbs: 123 grams, Protein: 40 grams, Fat: 16 grams

Total intake
Calories: 1,314, Carbs: 187, Protein: 84 grams, Fat: 27 grams
Sodium intake of 1,853 mg and total fibre intake of 24 grams.

Exercise

Ran out of time to do a planned spin. I had rehearsals for Saturday morning and I needed to spend time working through the charts. I hate missing workouts.

Stretching

No stretching.

Saturday

Nutrition

Breakfast
Calories: 140, Carbs: 14 grams, Protein: 20 grams, Fat: 0 grams

Lunch
Calories: 476, Carbs 61 grams, Protein: 24 grams, Fat: 16 grams

Dinner
Calories: 782, Carbs: 123 grams, Protein: 40 grams, Fat: 16 grams

Supplemental
Calories: 340, Carbs: 53 grams, Protein: 25 grams, Fat: 3 grams

Total intake
Calories: 1,739, Carbs: 250, Protein: 108 grams, Fat: 35 grams
Sodium intake of 2,060 mg and total fibre intake of 25 grams.
Net caloric intake after exercise: 977.

Exercise

Very hard interval training. Burned 762 calories in one hour. Ouch. And I could not take in enough calories to get above the 1,000 mark. I am trying to keep the intake to about 1,500 or so calories until I get the power to weight ratio back to summer riding form. At this rate, it may only take another five or six weeks. Unless I pass out!

Stretching

Light stretching session.

Sunday

Nutrition

Breakfast
Calories: 140, Carbs: 14 grams, Protein: 20 grams, Fat: 0 grams

Lunch
Calories: 476, Carbs 61 grams, Protein: 24 grams, Fat: 16 grams

Dinner
Calories: 782, Carbs: 123 grams, Protein: 40 grams, Fat: 16 grams

Supplemental
Calories: 340, Carbs: 53 grams, Protein: 25 grams, Fat: 3 grams

Total intake
Calories: 1,739, Carbs: 250, Protein: 108 grams, Fat: 35 grams
Sodium intake of 2,060 mg and total fibre intake of 25 grams.
Net caloric intake after exercise: 1,017.

Exercise

Another very hard interval training. Burned 722 calories in one hour. Could barely walk after two days of intervals. This might be one reason why I am so looking forward to riding outside — I won’t do quite as much interval training outdoors.

Stretching

Light stretching session.

The Long Commute

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More travel this week. Toronto on Tuesday. Ottawa on Wednesday.

I took the train for the travel to Toronto and I drove to Ottawa. Much nicer taking the train. Calmer. More peaceful. A throwback to a less frenetic time.

Except that I spent most of that time glued to a computer screen, valiantly trying to catch up on work. And by work, I mean processing email, if dealing with email is, in fact, work. It certainly feels more and more like work these days. Way too many incoming emails. Almost impossible to keep up.

Because of the travel, Tuesday had to be a rest day from training. Wednesday I was able to get back in time for my training session.

Caloric intake Tuesday and Wednesday was pretty low: 1,375 net on Tuesday and 859 net on Wednesday. Although I am watching my caloric intake I am not wanting to be that low. I should be eating quite a bit more — somewhere in the range of 2,000 calories or so.

Burn, Baby, Burn

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23 custom length cables. 46 right angle jacks. And a lot of soldering.

After playing with a minimalist pedalboard for almost a year, I decided to move back to my big board. That board is populated with the following pedals:

  • Korg Pitchblack Tuner
  • Timmy Overdrive
  • American Falcon II Overdrive
  • Hotcake Overdrive
  • Fulltone OCD Overdrive
  • EP Booster Overdrive
  • Ernie Ball Volume Pedal
  • Strymon El Cap Tape Delay
  • Strymon Timeline Delay
  • Strymon Mobius Modulations and Filters
  • Neunaber Wet Reverb
  • Disaster Area Midi Controller for Timeline/Mobius

And yes, I know. I carry a lot of overdrives on the pedalboard.

With so many pedals, I find that it is much better to control them with a True Bypass Effects Pedal. Better tone and much easier to switch between pedals. And, if one link is down, I can still play. RoadRage Pro Gear provided me with the latest True Bypass Effects Loop. It looks a bit like this one:

My version has one tuning/mute loop and the main in/out jacks are located on the sidewalls.

For whatever reason, I decided to take on the re-wiring work on Sunday evening. I am playing Saturday so I need to get the board up and running. However, it takes about 20 minutes per cable to solder. Roughly 8 hours to get the job done.

Unfortunately, with work and business travel as well as my training program, there is little time left this week to solder. Making good progress though as I have 9 cables left to build. Have to find three hours somewhere between now and Friday.

The training and nutrition program is going really well. Here are the results from yesterday.

Breakfast
Calories: 140, Carbs: 14 grams, Protein: 20 grams, Fat: 0 grams

Lunch
Calories: 391, Carbs 52 grams, Protein: 24 grams, Fat: 11 grams

Dinner
Calories: 733, Carbs: 104 grams, Protein: 45 grams, Fat: 16 grams

Total intake
Calories: 1,265, Carbs: 170, Protein: 88 grams, Fat: 27 grams
Sodium intake of 1,859 mg and total fibre intake of 16 grams.

Exercise

Session with personal trainer. Hard core conditioning effort. Estimate of 295 calories burned. Net calories of 970 for the day — too low. I should have had some additional food in the evening but I was too busy soldering.

Stretching

Light stretching session.

How To Survive A Birthday Meal

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“We are taking you out to dinner!”

It is our family tradition. When a birthday takes place, we go out for a nice meal.

This can be challenging when training. Especially the birthday cake itself. It was wonderfully prepared and made expressly for me and I knew that I would not be able to refuse a slice. And I did not.

We went out to Milestones. This time, I checked the nutritional information online before I went out to the restaurant. I had also completed a very high intensity interval workout beforehand so my net caloric intake for the day was negative 122 calories before dinner.

My total intake at Milestones was 990 calories — not too bad. And the cake was 340 calories. I consumed 1832 total calories on my birthday and, after exercise, my net intake was 1208 calories. Not too bad at all.

Sunday was a rest day. Total caloric intake of 1,247.

Snow Day

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Braved a terrible winter drive to get back home on Wednesday. I had two important evening meetings — the first was with my trainer and the second was at my church. I managed to get back in time for both of those sessions.

The above photo is a shot of my driveway. Truly a winter wonderland although as we turn the corner into March, I expect the snow to quickly fade away. I also expect to be back on the road with my bike within the next four weeks.

The heavy training in anticipation of outdoor riding continues.

On Wednesday, my personal trainer decided to dig deep and source exercises that would cause me the most pain and suffering. It is Friday and I am still suffering DOMS (Delayed Onset of Muscle Soreness). I had to take Thursday as a rest day. Back to hard spinning later today.

Our routines vary and on Wednesday we focused primarily on lower body and core.

Funny, the core exercises rarely make a lasting impact in terms of DOMS. Lower body work is a different matter. We spent the better part of an hour on lunges, lunges and more lunges. Lunges with the TRX suspension system, lunges with medicine balls, one-legged lunges.

Lunges hurt.

And then the core work. Planks with feet on a large fitness ball. Pull the fitness ball in towards the hands with the feet and raise the hips high — a scissor-like movement that is guaranteed to crush the life out of your body. Followed up by some brutal crunches seated on the Bosu ball.

The core hurts.

I have to report on two days as I did not get a chance to post yesterday. I have included a few editorial comments in the updates.

Wednesday

Breakfast
Calories: 240, Carbs: 40 grams, Protein: 8 grams, Fat: 4 grams

Lunch
Calories: 363, Carbs 36 grams, Protein: 19 grams, Fat: 16 grams

Dinner (not! With the long drive back from Toronto and multiple evening commitments, I did not have time for dinner — just a protein shake and energy bar)
Calories: 250, Carbs: 34 grams, Protein: 21 grams, Fat: 2.5 grams

Supplemental
Calories: 510, Carbs 83 grams, Protein: 19 grams, Fat: 10 grams

Total intake
Calories: 1,362, Carbs: 193, Protein: 67 grams, Fat: 32 grams
Sodium intake of 1,511 mg and total fibre intake of 21 grams.

Net caloric intake after exercise: 1,080

Exercise

Very hard core training session. Estimate is likely low at 282 calories — felt more like 400 but I was not wearing my heart rate monitor so I am guessing low.

Stretching

I did do some light stretching.

Thursday

Breakfast
Calories: 140, Carbs: 14 grams, Protein: 20 grams, Fat: 0 grams

Lunch (okay… my team took me out for a birthday lunch. I had the chicken caesar salad. BIG MISTAKE! What a horrible choice and you will see why.)
Calories: 1,080 (almost three times the calories I normally take in for lunch), Carbs 40 grams, Protein: 44 grams, Fat: 82 grams (What?? 82 grams of fat? In a salad?? 1,996mg of sodium?! When a salad and grilled chicken is laced with so much salt and fat it is little wonder that we can pack on the pounds simply by eating out. Must remember to check the nutritional guide before the meal.)

Dinner
Calories: 734, Carbs: 104 grams, Protein: 45 grams, Fat: 16 grams

Total intake
Calories: 1,953, Carbs: 158, Protein: 108 grams, Fat: 98 grams
Sodium intake of 3,064 mg and total fibre intake of 17 grams.

Exercise

Rest day

Stretching

I did do some light stretching.

Business Meetings and Snacks

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It is difficult enough to manage nutrition when travelling but the snacks that come with business meetings can really become stealth calorie fillers.

The meeting yesterday was a full-day and lunch was brought in. The lunch itself was fine with some great, healthy choices. I was able to take in a half sandwich, whole grain bread and turkey, along with strawberries and cantaloup. About 330 calories.

And then the real test: in came a box of freshly made Krispy Kreme doughnuts. They can pack a punch at nearly 300 calories a doughnut. I passed on the treat which I know will not surprise many of my friends. But food like this is constantly available and it can create havoc with a decent nutritional plan.

I had supper at the Jack Astor’s near the Royal York: a small cut of sirloin steak, without any dressing, and two side orders of broccoli, again without any dressing. I walked out of Astor’s having consumed about 420 calories for the meal which I am sure is no small feat as most of their meals weigh in at 1,000 calories or more. I suspect for many patrons at this establishment, a 2,000 calorie meal is easily consumed. I sometimes find it difficult to eat out and find healthy choices. That was certainly a problem for the first evening.

For dessert, I wandered over to a Yogen Fruz and consumed a 120-calorie strawberry smoothie.

All in all, a pretty successful business trip so far with respect to managing fitness and nutrition. Here is my report for yesterday:

Breakfast
Calories: 240, Carbs: 40 grams, Protein: 8 grams, Fat: 4 grams

Lunch
Calories: 330, Carbs 42 grams, Protein: 23 grams, Fat: 9 grams

Dinner (eating out so best estimate based on restaurant”™s online nutritional information)
Calories: 540, Carbs: 51 grams, Protein: 46 grams, Fat: 19 grams (much better than the previous evening out)

Supplemental
Calories: 260, Carbs 48 grams, Protein: 11 grams, Fat: 3 grams

Total intake
Calories: 1,371, Carbs: 181, Protein: 89 grams, Fat: 34 grams
Sodium intake of 1,427 mg (so much better than yesterday) and total fibre intake of 23 grams.

Net caloric intake after exercise: 1,021

Exercise

In-room training.

Stretching

I did do some light stretching.

Travel Fitness

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Business travel carries two basic challenges: nutrition and exercise. Eating out is always a dangerous activity as most restaurants do not make it easy to navigate calorie counts. Packing workout gear adds weight and complexity to my travel light philosophy and I do not like to make use of hotel fitness facilities.

So what to do?

I know in advance that I will be eating more calories than normal however I make sure that I eat small portions and I really watch the calorie counts for breakfast and lunch. I know that I will not be able to hit my target nutritional profile over the next few days. Oh well.

In terms of exercise, I do two things: I walk as much as I can — often two or three hours of walking a day. And I do a modified core conditioning workout in my hotel room.

Here is my in-room exercise routine.

I pick a set of four exercises for lower body, upper body and core. I do three sets of these exercises. Each set consists of five exercises with 15 reps or less per exercise: lower body exercise, upper body exercise, lower body exercise, upper body exercise, core.

For example:

  • Standing lunge with 8-10 reps on each side
  • Pushups with 8-10 reps
  • Stationary squats with 15 reps
  • Side planks with 8-10 reps on each side
  • Bicycle style crunches with 15 reps

I will repeat the above set of exercises three times. That, combined with a couple of hours of walking, will maintain fitness levels for a few days. By the way, nothing hard and fast about the type of exercises I use. I do so many that I will often substitute them with other types of exercise to add variety. Just as long as I pick lower, upper, lower, upper and then core.

So let’s do a quick recap of yesterday.

Breakfast
Calories: 140, Carbs: 14 grams, Protein: 20 grams, Fat: 0 grams

Lunch
Calories: 352, Carbs 38 grams, Protein: 28 grams, Fat: 11 grams

Dinner (eating out so best estimate based on restaurant’s online nutritional information)
Calories: 1,140, Carbs: 90 grams, Protein: 48 grams, Fat: 66 grams (yikes!)

Total intake
Calories: 1,742, Carbs: 161, Protein: 97 grams, Fat: 77 grams
Sodium intake of 3,279 mg (another yikes) and total fibre intake of 14 grams.

Net caloric intake after exercise: 1,118

Exercise

Hard interval training on the bike for one hour which burned 625 calories.

Stretching

I did do some light stretching.