Welcome to 2014! Going for a RTCC hat trick!

I've really fallen down on my posting schedule eh? Arg... Life happens.  BUT THIS IS WHEN I MAKE MY COME BACK!

Starting now, I'm beginning a training schedule of Monday, Wednesday and Saturday (weekend).  This way I'll be able to post something after each of my training sessions and hopefully have something insightful to say.  You know, inspiring as well as informative!.. Well that's the idea anyway.  These posts might be a video blog, a brief break down of how fundraising or training is going, ideas about nutrition and more!

TOPIC #1: How do you train for the Ride to Conquer Cancer?

The first week of training, we established what's called the "Lactate Threshold Heart Rate." Which is:

The lactate threshold (LT) (or lactate inflection point (LIP) or anaerobic threshold (AT)) is the exercise intensity at which lactate (more specifically, lactic acid) starts to accumulate in the blood stream.

Essentially we cycled as hard as we could push for eight minutes straight twice. Every minute we'd record how fast our heartbeat was and average it out.. because science! My threshold averaged to a whopping 183 BPM. That means that my heart was beating just over three times A SECOND.   What this number allows us to do is train in "zones"... Each week, we pick various zones or percentages of that threshold and cycle faster/slower or harder/easier until we settle into that number..  Then we do that for TWO HOURS STRAIGHT.

STATS FOR NERDS

• Zone 2 (Basement) - 150 BPM
• Zone 2 (Ceiling) - 161 BPM
• Zone 3 (Basement) - 163 BPM
• Zone 3 (Ceiling) - 170 BPM
• Zone 4 - 170 and up
• Lactate Threshold average - 183 BPM
• Highest ever in spin class - 194 BPM (!!!)

TOPIC #2: Why the heck are you putting yourself through that?

Allow me to answer that question with three simple reasons...

1. To get your butt used to being on a bike seat for two hours or more at a stretch
2. To prepare your mind and body to cycle over 200 KM in two days and to bike up Hamilton mountain, which is a category 3 climb (Read: STEEP UPHILL)
3. To punch cancer in the flippin' face...  Really, that's the reason we're all here.

TOPIC #3: How the heck do you survive?

Thankfully, at this point I'm pretty used to cycling long distances and have amassed a pretty decent selection of cycling gear (perhaps a topic for a later date?).  But the most important factors in cycling in my mind are hydration and nutrition! Because really, if you're sweating like crazy and are burning a boatload of calories you'll only be able to do so much until you 'bonk' or just expend all of the energy you've got stored up!

I'll save those two topics for the next post which will be a video blog.  Watching is easier than reading you know?

Want to donate to this epic ride of epic epicness?

Remember, I can't do this without your help!

Talk to you soon guys, and don't worry not all posts will be this long!
K