1+1+1=3

You're looking at the title and probably thinking, wow Brian, you are really smart, you can add. Uh-huh, I'm practically a genius. Actually the numbers refer to how I had to break down my training this weekend so as not to die from trainer-induced boredom. I decided I just couldn't ride on the trainer for more than an hour at a time yet for a couple reasons, one is that it's really boring, and two is that I needed to get some things done during the day this weekend. I had to split my workouts to be able to get in a full 3 hours yet accomplish some yard work and house work as well and the best way to do that was to ride once in the morning, once in the afternoon, and then once again at night. I did One-Legged pedaling in the morning, mainly for the benefit of my weaker left leg which is part of the cause of some of the biomechanical issues I've been having. I basically did a 15 minute warm up and then did 5 minutes on, and 5 minutes off for the remainder of the ride. In the afternoon I did Muscle Tension intervals, for these my reps increase to 10 minutes on and then 10 off with only a 5 minute warmup. I did these in the 53x13 at about 55 rpm and really concentrated on pulling through the whole pedal stroke, it was definitely a good workout. My night ride was a nice recovery type ride just to clean out the legs from the two workouts earlier in the day and to burn a few calories that I desperately need to get rid of.
The rides felt pretty good actually and mainly because I did a couple things to help out the issues I've been having. One is that I changed my position on the bike to something that opens my hip angle a bit more and put one more Lemond Wedge in my left shoe, and two is that I've been very diligent in doing my stretching and yoga. The stretching has been a huge help, my hamstrings, hip flexors, and back muscles were super tight and I've cranked the heck out of them in the last week. The yoga then helps strengthen my core and helps with some added flexibility. I've noticed the difference on the bike and have significantly improved the clearance on my left leg from the seatpost, I can actually ride without rubbing my shorts against the post now. I'll definitely be keeping up the routine of 30-45 minutes of stretching and 30 minutes of yoga every night for the foreseeable future, it doesn't take a lot of time and the benefits are well worth it. If it prevents me from going crazy on the bike, then why not. So, that means that I'll be back on the trainer for this week after taking last week off the bike to get back on the straight and narrow (literally). The weather is getting worse but like I said in my previous post, if it's not raining or snowing hard then I'll be out on the weekends. Eventually when the bad times come (that would mean snow), then I'll get back out and do some snowshoeing which I had a lot of fun doing last winter. That's it for the training stuff for now....
......Not much else going on, I did some bathroom work this weekend as well. Basically I'm re-doing the walls in our half bath because the previous owner had so many patches and paint splatters and some crazy popcorn type paint on one wall that they needed to just be completely re-done. I've got one more wall to go but that one is going to be tough, it's the wall with the sink, built in cabinet and the toilet, so it won't be easy to work around. After I'm done I'll re-paint it all, put in new molding, and it will look brand new.
I also finally replenished my beer stock this weekend with a Sam Adams Winter Variety pack which includes the standard Boston Lager, and also the Winter Lager, Cranberry Lambic, the Holiday Porter, the Cream Stout, and the Fezziwig Ale. All of them are good beers and now that I have something to review I'll put up a couple of reviews this week.
That's it for now, until next time........