Mike's Bike Blog

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Mike's Bike Blog

666 Miles

March 31, 2009 · 8 Comments

I was completely caught off gaurd tonight when I looked at my numbers for the month. For March I've ridden 666 miles! I've burned 27707 kJ/calories for an active time on bike of 40:01:58. Another number that completely surprised me was the amount of climbing I'd done this month. I climbed a total of 28,023 feet. This surprised me as I really wasn't going out of my way doing hill repeats or hilly courses per se like I did for Tour das Hugel training. This was the most climbing I'd done in any given month. My past most climbing month was last November when I climbed 10,000+ feet for the Hugel and that month I posted up 27,955 feet of climbing.

It wasn't the most mileage I've done in a single month, that honor still belongs to July 2008 where I had 730 miles. Yes I will be riding a mile tonight, don't want the 666 number hanging around and jinxing me.

666 Miles

Tags: Monthly Recap

8 responses so far ↓

  • 1 Bryan // Mar 31, 2009 at 9:35 PM

    That's a great month of riding. On average, how many days per week do you ride and for how long?

  • 2 Mike // Apr 1, 2009 at 2:43 AM

    @Bryan: I'm on the bike for 6 days a week, my off day is Mondays where I only do a weight workout. Every 4 weeks I have a recovery week where I have 1 day completely off and the bike workouts are shorter and easier, on a recovery week I look to only average about 75 miles or 4 1/2 hours.

    My longest ride for the month was 75 miles. Since my job gets in the way of my training my typical ride right now is 45 minutes or 13 to 20 miles. A lot of my workouts require 1:45 to 2:30 hours I will break them up and do the second part in the evenings or at night. My Saturday & Sunday rides are my longer ones and have been between 2:45 to 4:30 hours long.

    My training plan called for 55:15 training time, that includes lifting weights along with bike time. However, I only put in 48:45. For the bike I was pretty much spot on for the hours. If I have to miss a workout or cut it short I'll try to shorten the weights. Since I don't have a gym membership I can only use the limited facilities at the gym at the office or the free weights I have at home.

    Here's another amazing fact, in March of 2008 I weighted 203 pounds, at the start of March 2009 I weighed 181. Right now I'm at 178.

  • 3 Randy // Apr 1, 2009 at 9:39 AM

    Hey Mike, very impressive! All the more so because it seems like the cold fronts seem to move in with regularity almost every week right prior to the weekend, making the longer rides on the weekend tougher. I'd be interested to know what type of weight training you're doing and what that targets on the bike (e.g., squats for climbing, etc.) -- Randy

  • 4 Mike // Apr 1, 2009 at 11:15 AM

    Hi Randy, as for weights my main goal is to make sure my quads and muscles around the knee stay strong. I also will do a year round routine to see if it helps circumvent any bone loss, last years bone density scan showed my spin shrunk slightly. Here is what I do:
    Leg Extensions
    Leg Curls
    Bench Press
    Sumo Squats
    Leg Press (when at the office gym)
    Arm Curls
    Wrist curls (I highly recommend this one, since adding this back into my routine I have noticed a huge benefit when climbing out of the saddle, plus my arms don't seem to fatigue on long rides. Plus it will do wonders for your wrist shot in hockey)
    Shoulder shrugs
    Core (various crunches)
    Upright Row
    Calf Raises
    Skullcrushers

  • 5 TrainingFromABarkaLounger // Apr 2, 2009 at 12:24 PM

    Mikey -What kind of Power Meter do you have (hub or crank). I want one, but $4000 GEEZE ! I've got your blog on our club <A href="http://www.laketravuis.com/cycling">site</a> , but you probably already know that.

  • 6 TrainingFromABarkaLounger // Apr 2, 2009 at 12:24 PM

    Mikey -What kind of Power Meter do you have (hub or crank). I want one, but $4000 GEEZE ! I've got your blog on our club www.laketravis.com/cycling site , but you probably already know that.

  • 7 Bryan // Apr 2, 2009 at 8:31 PM

    Mike, thanks for the detailed response. Congrats on losing that weight too. Your riding schedule sounds very similar to what I was doing in Jax. With my current arrangement in Dallas, though, I believe I'm going to be able to significantly increase my mileage. I'm not ready to get into a weight room though. I lifted weights for many years and have some pretty solid muscle. I plan on starting a small program I can do at home to help strengthen my legs, arms, and core.

  • 8 Mike // Apr 2, 2009 at 8:38 PM

    The decimal point is in the wrong spot on the power meter, at least mine anyway. Mine is an older PowerTap that I got off of eBay last July. The SRM are in the $4000 price range for the professional versions, the amateur I think starts around $2200. The nice thing about the SRMs and some of the other crank power meters is that you can easily swap out wheelsets whereas my powertap is tied to the wheel.

    Thanks for stopping by and I hope to come out to make the Tuesday Nighter with the Lake Travis club once I'm done coaching soccer (practices are Tues. & Thurs.).

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