The solution - hopefully :)

So, today I stepped up and got myself a membership at the gym, Sprek og Blid in Knarvik. Maybe this is the solution to get through the winter!!!! Time will show :)

The inevitable

So, what I had decided should absolutely NOT happen this winter, inevitable happened anyway! As soon as the summer/fall season passed and evenings started to get cold I parked the bike and stopped exercising. Well, I did not stop all together but had a few interval sessions using the TacX Flow, however, as usual, getting out the door is the hardest part of any exercise, and when I was suppose to do exercise inside the house the sessions are getting longer and longer apart!

I still do not want to "throw the winter away" so I need to get my act together and figure out a way to get through the winter, as I do not want to start the spring season on the road in worse shape then I was this fall! One example: I have gained 6 kilos the last 5 weeks, which is terrible to think about knowing how hard I worked to loos them in the first place!

4x4 Intervals - Dalesvingene - Starting to hard

Despite the weather, rain and 9 degree Celsius, I decided to do today's interval session outside. This would be the first ride starting at the new apartment at Meland, and I wanted to see how the stretch from the house to the main road would be as it is not asphalt.

I changed tire (I still had my indoor tire on the bike) and put a bit less air-pressure in the tire compared to what I normally do.The ride back and forth from the house was no problem at all, at least today. I am not sure it was necessary to use a lower air-pressure and I will try using my normal air pressure next time.

As the new apartment is at Meland, at the top of a hill, there are several route options for my interval workouts. Today I decided to do a 4x4min workout, and for that Dalesvingene is perfect.

Being very eager today, as it had been a while since I had my last outdoor ride, I started out why to hard during my warmup and first interval. As a consequence the lactat buildup was to high after the third interval up Dalesvingene and my legs were all out of juice. Next time I will make sure I keep cool during my warmup and hopefully finish 4 good intervals :)



Warmup was to hard on todays workout.

 

Interval	Time	Speed(km/h)	AVG HR
1	4:45	11.3	183
2	4:57	10.6	183
3	5:13	10.0	182

Good feeling when I see results from the workouts :)

I must say that it is nice when I see results from the workouts I put in :) together with changes to the diet .

It also gives a tremendous energy boost to keep going :)

From the top at 150+ I have now reached the lowest weight I have been at for the last 20 years.

Not 150+
Not 140+
Not 130+
Not 120+

At one point the scale at home showed
--:--
I was 150+ and the scale max was 150!

TacX Flow installed and tested :)

September is here and so is the wet and cold weather here in Bergen. I have picked the TacX flow up from storage and set it up in the apartment again. As long as I put it away under the stairs when not in use I have my wife's blessing to use it in the living room :)

Have permission to use it inside as longe as I store it away when not in use.

For the last 3 days I have had a couple of easy rides on the Flow and today I decided to do a 4x4 interval session. This felt much harder then the 4x4 sessions we did out on the road this season. I guess this is because on the flow I have to work harder throughout the whole session, no resting time while rolling down hill :)

For the intervals I used the following watt settings:

1. Interval - 300 watt
2. Interval - 270 watt
3. Interval - 270 watt
4. Interval - 280 watt

Between each interval I stayed between 130 and 150 watt. Next week I will do a session to find my FTP (Functional Threshold Power) in order to get the most out of my sessions on the Flow.

Here is a good article in norwegian:

Sykkelmagasinet - Sykkelrulle guiden

Hard day on the bike

Today was a hard day on the bike and I was still suffering from the though ride from Tuesday.

Kristoffer and I decided to try a new route today starting at Seim and going across an old small road towards Hjelmås. The road started out with brand new asphalt but that only lasted for a short distance. They where laying out new water pipes an thus had dug up the road and had not finished laying the asphalt. So for the next 3-4 km was quite bumpy. Once we got to Hjelmås I was amazed that I had not got a flat tire especially after my experience during Bergen – Voss 2012.

From Hjelmås we took mostly side roads for the rest of the trip and as we got back to the car I was glad we had chosen the shorter route of 38.5km instead of the longer 58km route we had considered.

Tomorrow I will try to recover a bit and not go out on the bike at all.

Ride stats from www.strava.com

New personal best around Bøvågen :)

Today I went for a ride with Kristoffer and as usual when riding with him, I pushed harder then when I go out riding alone, to keep up with him :).

For today's ride we choose the 53km ride from Hilland around Noranger,Bøvågen and back.

I had a fantastic day on the bike and finished the 53km in 1h 51min giving an average speed of 28.6km/h.

Last time I did this ride was back in April, and back then I used 2h and 31min so I was a whole 40 minutes quicker today. I also felt like I could continue riding when we got back home while in April I was exhausted!

It is good to feel that all the effort on the bike is starting to pay off :)

Thanks for the ride Kristoffer :)

Ride stats at Strava.com