After a sluggish seven miler on Monday and a five mile slog around Mount Trashmore yesterday, I was a little apprehensive about jumping on the treadmill tonight having to maintain high speeds and varying inclines for several minutes at a time.

Being careful not to be too ambitious, I kept base pace for the first “pyramid” at the same level as last week. It turned out to be a wise choice as my heart rate soared to 165 beats per minute and I struggled to keep up. Thankfully the 2 minute recovery period finally arrived and I was able to slow things down, catch my breath, rehydrate and try to get ready for the next pyramid.

Always looking for improvement, I made a slight adjustment to the base pace (a huge 0.1 mph!) before starting up again. I guess my legs had warmed up a little, as the second pyramid, although tough, was slightly “easier” than the first one. Once again, my heart rate peaked at 165 beats per minute, so at least I wasn’t working harder than the first set.

After another 2 minute recovery, the “Power Sets” were upon me – 3 x 30 seconds at base pace plus 5mph, starting at 3% incline for the first set, increasing by 1% every 30 seconds. The second power set starts at 4% through 6% incline and the final power set starts at 5% finishing at a 7% grade. I made it through to the end of the workout, but it was very tough tonight for some reason. Maybe the higher indoor temperature was a factor? Maybe my legs are just asking for a break? My heart rate peaked at 172 beats per minute (4 beats higher than last week), but I guess I have to take into account I was running slightly faster in the second pyramid.

No abs or push ups tonight – I’ll continue with those programs tomorrow. Roll on “Rest Day Friday”……

I started with 45 minutes on the indoor trainer. Riding inside is not the most exciting activity, so I usually follow one of Troy Jacobson’s excellent Spinervals workouts – today I decided on his 13th DVD, Tough Love. Unbelievably, Tough Love is a 3 hour workout, which makes it a really useful training tool for a century bike ride or Iron Distance triathlon. I remember doing the whole 3 hour workout a couple of times when I was training for Ironman USA back in 2004. I can assure you Tough Love is a perfect title for the DVD!

Tonight I was very pleased to be just riding the first 45 minutes. After a quick warm up, the workout progressed into 3 x 10 minutes sessions with a couple of minutes recovery thrown in for a good measure. For the first and third 10 minute block, Coach Troy has you alternate between a minute in an easy gear/high cadence (number of pedal strokes per minute), and a minute in a tougher gear/low cadence. The middle 10 minute block alternates between a minute seated in a hard gear, with a minute standing in the same gear – this one is a real quad burner!

As soon as the 45 minutes were over, I traded my SIDI cycling shoes for my New Balance running shoes, hit play on the DVD player and hopped on the treadmill. The Time Saver II DVD features 3 x 30 minute speed workouts designed to improve speed and form. I chose Workout C which is called the “Speed Combo” and includes several 30 second intervals at a high speed and elevated incline. The recovery time is quite generous and allows your heart rate to recover nicely, but before you know it Coach Troy tells you to crank up the speed/incline for several one minute speed blasts.

I think the 30 minutes finishes with a couple more 30 seconds intervals, but I must be honest, I was quite fatigued, zoned out and just following the DVD towards the end, so I can’t really remember specifics of the workout. I do know I needed 5 minutes of cool down just to get my heart rate down to a comfortable level

After a refreshing drink of ice cold water, I decided to finish the evening off with another Essential Abs workout – this time Week 4, Workout #2, which is made up of 17 reps of the following exercises:

Hip Up
Reverse Crunch
Crossover
Oblique Crunch
Crunch: legs up
Crunch: feet first
Superman

All in all, a challenging but enjoyable 90 minutes of exercise and a great start to the week. The Spinervals and Runervals DVDs are a great series of indoor workouts, and will really bring out the best in you!

Tonight I chose to ride indoors on a stationery trainer and follow one of the first indoor cycling workouts ever developed way back in 1995 – Cyclerobx with Coach Troy Jacobson. 12 years on, Troy has created many cycling, running and strength/endurance workouts in both VHS and DVD formats that will take your training to the next level.

Here’s a quick summary of the history of Spinervals – The Original Indoor Cycling Workout Series:

“It all started back in 1992. Twenty two year old Troy Jacobson, a top amateur triathlete and novice multisport coach began offering indoor cycling workouts weekday evenings in Baltimore area bike shops. Rapidly, his reputation grew as a tough coach who knew how to motivate cyclists to higher levels of fitness using creative interval training sessions.

After two years of conducting cycling classes every week then known as CYCLAEROBICS, Troy was approached by the leading indoor cycling trainer manufacturer, Cycle-ops Products. They heard about his program and thought that his workouts would compliment their trainers. In 1995, Cycle-ops hired Troy and several of the top cyclists in the three disciplines, Road Racing, Mountain Biking and Triathlon, to produce a cycling workout video. The World class athletes included Triathletes Greg Welch and Karen Smyers, Cyclists Tyler Hamilton and Ron Kiefel, Mountain biker Laurie Brandt and others. After spending two days filming in beautiful Beaver Creek, Colorado, the first workout video for competitive cyclists, CYCLEROBX was born! Video sales boomed and now tens of thousands of athletes throughout the world have used the original Cyclerobx video to increase their cycling fitness.”

The 40 minute workout is a little dated to be honest, but a perfect level for me to start my cross training campaign. It’s easy to follow and allows plenty of recovery time between hard/fast efforts that Coach Troy explains in detail as the workout progresses. At the end of the 40 minutes I wasn’t totally spent, but it was a good effort and a great starting point for the next 16 weeks. I hope to ride outside if the weather cooperates on Wednesday and challenge myself a bit more.