Tuesday- 3 hours of pain

Monday I took the day off. Tuesday was three hours of hard workouts.
I began with a 15 minute warm-up. Then 5X1 minute zone 4 hill repeats on the mountain bike. I cruised home and did 40 minutes of strength, endurance, stability and core work. Then jumped on the trainer for 40 minutes of pedal cadence drills, alternating between 50 cadence and 110 cadence for 5 minutes at a time. lastly I did the 8 minute power yoga routine. Today is Thursday and I am still sore from this workout. Wednesday I did one hour of easy spinning on the golf cart paths. Today I will do 30 minutes of power yoga followed by another 1.5 hours of cadence and HR drills on the indoor trainer. It is raining buckets here today.

Race- Crash- Cramp- 11th- Learn

Had my first race of the season yesterday. I learned a lot from the race and now I know my weaknesses. Leg strength. A 2.5 hour long 30 mile race is a long way. I felt awesome for the first 1.5 hours. I was in 5th place and racing fast. My breath and HR were under perfect control. Just a short way into the 3rd lap, my front tire washed out at high speed and went down hard. At the same time I crashed my left calf muscle cramped hard. After I unlocked my calf I got back on my bike and worked hard to catch back up to my group. I then began to notice every muscle in both legs wanted to cramp. The 4th and 5th lap were very difficult with legs wanting to cramp. I was 20% slower on those two laps. My HR and breathing were perfect but my legs had nothing left in the tank. I now know what I need to work on. Muscular endurance. I need my legs to make it to then end of the race strong. Had I been able to hold my pace then I could have had the top 5 finish that I was looking for. I have just over a month and one more race to accomplish my goal. My hard workouts are going to be harder and my rest days will be more frequent.

Yesterday rest day Today is Neuromuscular day

Yesterday was a predetermined rest day and it came in handy because I was exhausted from the ride and not sleeping well. My heart was still pounding hard from the ride I had done that day. Last night I did not sleep well again. But my body is rested enough to hit it again with today's solid workout. This morning I will do 30 minutes on the trainer with 3 spin ups and 4x2 minutes one legged drills. Off the bike I will be doing 30 minutes of strength building exercise followed 15 minutes of core and then 8 minutes of power yoga.

This afternoon it will be another hour on the road bike doing some high cadence and 8x10 sec sprint drills with only 20 sec rest in between.

2.5 hours of Cold Wet mountain bike riding

Today I did exactly as the title says. We rode nonstop at a fast pace. Tons of steep climbing at Camp Thunder. It was raining pretty hard for most of the ride. My race is in one week.

Hill Repeats, Core and Power Yoga

Today I did some seated power accelerations, 5x3 minute hill repeats alternating seated and standing and then came home and did 15 minute of core.

I ran out of time this evening to do a ride so I did a 30 minute power yoga video. Tomorrow if the weather works out then I am going to do a 30 mile easy paved ride with the kid in tow.

Sunday if the weather looks bad then it is time for 3 hard hours at Camp Thunder.

Hit it hard today

Today, I did a solid workout in the morning involving Hindu squats, jump rope, power skip and some good ab work. Followed by a zone 3 ride with some standing drills and a few 10 sec sprint bursts. I felt my hamstring during one of the z3 tempo intervals. I stopped and did some stretching. I am feeling super fast right now again. I am 149 lbs with tons of power.

This afternoon I did a 40 minute mountain bike ride to keep on top of my skills. I focused on continual pedalling.

A couple Easy days

Yesterday I did a golf cart path ride with my son in tow followed by 25 minutes of yoga and today I did another 45 minutes on the trails with my son attached to my mountain bike. Tomorrow it is back to some hard work!

Couple of hours of Thunder

Friday, I did a 30 minute spin in the morning followed by 25 minutes of core work. In the afternoon I did a 40 minute mountain bike ride on the trails behind my house. Saturday, I did the super hard 45 minute yoga interval. It consists of 6 Super hard 100 cadence 3 minute intervals with 1 minute rest between. By the time you hit the 6th one you are barely able to breathe or even keep your head up.

Sunday- 2 hours of mountain biking at camp thunder to get accustomed to my bike and do some climbing.

cautiously optimistic

This morning I did an hour on the trainer with some one legged drills and 2 five minute fartlek intervals. I got off the trainer a few times to stretch and make sure everything is going ok. I think my hamstrings are a little sore from the Physical therapy.

This afternoon I am going to do about 1:30 minute mountain bike ride including a 4,3,2, and 1 minute z4 interval. With a nice and easy warm-up. This will be my first time on a bike (other than my trainer) in just over a week.

So far so good

I did a 30 minute spin and some Physical therapy to build strength in the Hamstring this morning. Around noon I got another 30 minute massage on the hamstring and I feel ready for this afternoon's workout. Getting the hamstring nice and warm before I start a workout, I think, will be the key to getting it well enough to race hard this spring and summer. This afternoon I am going to do about 1 hour on the trainer doing pedalling drills and another 25 minutes of upper and lower body functional strength building exercises.

Maybe not 100% pain free but close

I am still getting some some painful muscle spasms and I am being super careful during any workouts. I woke up this morning and did a 30 min high cadence spin. This afternoon, I did another 30 minutes on the trainer and then did 20 minutes of Yoga. Tomorrow I have booked a 30 minute massage for my hamstring. I am slowly but surely getting back to normal. "The Drip" diet plan is working well. I am around 8% body fat and weighing in at 152. Tomorrow it is time for some One legged drills.

Hamsting is now Pain free

I read on a great internet site for hamstring injuries and athletes that once you have no pain in your hamstring that you can return to 75% of your max sprint. I am continuing to be very cautious. I currently have no pain but I am going to continue my compression, Epson salt, heat and stretching today. Tomorrow I am going to do a 30 minute easy spin. I feel good that I was able to avoid a much worse injury by allowing myself to heal.

80% better today

I would give my hamstring 8 out of 10. I did a 45 minute easy spin this morning followed by some stretching a Baking soda bath and then back into compression tights. This afternoon I did an hour spin followed by 25 minute recovery yoga some icy hot and back into compression. I did build a snowman for my 5 year old today and hope that I didn't hurt my hamstring pushing the large snow balls into place. My training program is giving me tomorrow off I might try and fit in another 30 minute massage. Tuesday morning, I will do a 30 minute easy spin and then another 20 minute easy spin before doing some yoga. I am hoping to be 95% by Wednesday so that I can do some one legged drills on the bike. I will need to be at 100% by Thursday for that workout.

Hiking, Gutter cleaning and some exercise

I have heard that walking could be good for my injury so I took my son for about a 1.5 mile hike in the woods behind my home. After I got back I did some gutter cleaning. I was feeling pretty good so I decided to do some upper body, and core work and see how my indoor trainer would fee. I jumped on the indoor trainer for about 10 minutes at an easy pace. Then I did 15 minutes of easy high reps dumbell work, jumped back on the trainer for another 10 minutes, 15 minutes of core-work and 15 minutes of stretching. Went downstairs and did 15 minutes of massage with a foam roller. Now it is time to jump in the shower and get back into compression. Hopefully, those things and lots of water will be the answer to being ready to ride again tomorrow.

Compression tights-All day and all night

My hamstring is starting to feel better today. It is not 100% so I am not going to risk doing a lower body work out yet. I will do some upper body work and some core work today. More heat, compression and massage for the hamstring. If I am lucky then tomorrow I will be ready for a slow 1 hour ride.

45 minutes of massage and no relief

I had a great massage therapist who worked on my hamstring and IT band on my left side for 45 minutes today. Unfortanately, my hamstring is not feeling any better. This injury almost feels surreal at this point. I am hoping for a fast recovery and doing everything that I can think of to make it better. Rest, Ice, Compression, elevation, heat, massage, espon salt bath, advil, myofacial massage, using the stick for massage. It seems to just stay in the same painful state. Walking and riding my bike do not hurt but I am afraid they might make it worse. I hope that I will not be training free for too much longer. I guess I could continue to do upper body work and some core workouts. Even core stuff seems to use the hamstrings.

Injuries are buzz killers

I have a few injuries right now. 1. Hamstring Pull on left side 2. Right wrist issues from crash 3. Eyes are red and irritated probably from contacts. I guess this is part of gettng older. You get injured and it takes a long time to heal. Yesterday, I took the day off. I am going to do some core-work today and myofacial massage in addition to icing my hammy and take advil. I am hoping to get in for a massage tomorrow so that I can resume my workouts on Saturday.

My fingers are crossed that my hamstring will be healed quickly.

Pulled Left Hamstring

I think I must have pulled it on Saturday because that is when I first started feeling some tightness in my legs. Yesterday it was tight but not too painful. Today I woke up and it is definitely pulled. I am hoping a few days off the bike will help. I am going to take today off and tomorrow I will do some core-work and stretching. I am hoping that it will heal quickly. My first race is only 3 weeks away and I am looking for a strong showing.

Sleep was the answer

I have been feeling sluggish over the past week and thought maybe I have been overtraining. The good news is that I was feeling sluggish due to lack of sleep. Last night I slept for 10 hours and I feel awesome. Today I was able to hit my workouts hard!

AM workout
10 Minute warm up
40 minutes of functional stength workouts
30 minute mountain bike ride


PM workout
40 minute mountain bike ride
8 minute power yoga (5 times)
10 minute Core workout

Relax, Recover and stretch

Today I am going to work on some stretching and some taking it easy after 7 hours of riding this weekend. Tomorrow I hit it hard again.

AM.. 10 min warm-up
45 minute of strength building
20 min cool down 110 cadence z2

PM. 10 min warm-up
8 minute power yoga x5
3x30 spin ups
3x30 super spins
core work

The Weekend- New bike, Low body weight.

I ventured from my training program and am not liking the results. Cyclo-club programs are a lot about building strength, stamina, and efficiency. This weekend I did a 60 mile road ride on Saturday instead of doing my power work and am still feeling sluggish. I have learned the lesson and will not be venturing from my training program again.

I did a 2.5 hour mountain bike ride today which was OK. I still had tons of power in the hills and my new bike did well in the descents and over logs.

New bike is a 2008 gary fisher Procaliber which has been great with the exception of the shorter Bontrager stem so that has to go. New bike felt super light and stiff especially in rear with the carbon stays.

"The Drip" eating program has been amazing. I now am weighing in at 150.8 lbs with 8.6% body fat. I am looking forward to doing some strength building this week.

4 days off

Yesterday, I did 1.5 hours at an easy pace doing some one legged drills, box drills and float drills and then in the afternoon I did 20 minutes of core work.

I have been feeling tired for since Saturday so I think that I need some days off to rest and recover. A big part of my cycling plan entails listening to my body. My body is requiring me to take a little time off. I may so some yoga and stretching between now and Sunday but I am going to stay off the bike and trainer. Both my wife and son are sick and although I am not feeling sick I am feeling tired.

Saturday yoga Sunday- 2 hour Horse back and 65 mile ride

Saturday was an off day so I did 20 minutes of relaxation yoga. Sunday was my long ride day. I started off the day with a 2 hour horse back ride on my friend's farm in Crossville, AL. I have not ridden a horse in 11 years so I am sure that I will be feeling that tomorrow. Then a few hours late I began my 65 mile solo ride from Crossville, AL to Cedartown, GA. The last 25 miles were on the Chief Ladiga trail in Alabama which becomes the Silver Comet trail in GA. I felt pretty good but since I was solo and didn't know the route very well I took it pretty easy. I think I averaged around 19 miles per hour. The ride only had about 3,000 feet of climbing. It was a fun ride except for some of the treacherous highways.

8 minute Power Yoga 4x

Today I did the 8 minute power yoga 4 times through. Which consists of over 200 hindu squats, 4 times sitting in chair pose for a good amount of time, tons of hindu push-ups, bicycle kicks and twisting sit up position. My body is accustomed to these workout so in order to change it up I held heavier and heavier dumbells with each set of hindu squats. Other than that I did a little spinning. Tomorrow I am going to do some yoga and on Sunday a 3-4 hour road bike ride.

Darkness and a slippery creek

In the morning I did a 15 min warm up on the trainer and then about 20 minutes of some power increasing exercises like squat and press with some dumbells. In the evening I did just over an hour on the mountain bike. It started getting do dark that I couldn't see and I was still pretty far from the house. We decided to take a short cut through a creek. It was moving pretty fast and the rocks were covered with slippery slime. I was able to keep from falling over but Slid most of the way down the rocks. Tomorrow, I am doing the 8 minute power yoga 4x through and about another hour or so on the bike.

Sudden rain makes you ride fast

I did about 35 minutes of core work this morning after a 15 minute warm up. This afternoon, my night ride was cancelled due the the thunderstorms and possible tornados in the area. So I snuck out for a quick 1 hour mountain bike ride at the Line creek nature trails behind my home. When I was at about the furthest point the sideways rain started so I darted through the woods as fast as I could to get in before the storm hit.

Another Gorgeous Day in The Dirty South

Today I did my off the bike conditioning workouts in the morning after a 15 minute spin. This evening I did an hour ride with 6X30 sec power accelerations, 2X30 sec super spins and a 4minute, 3 minute, 2 minute, and 1 minute Zone 4 intervals in non preferrential gearing. Then enjoyed a 30 minute cool down as the sun was going down. Wrist is stil not healed and my left knee is feeling a little funky.

Nice Day= 3 rides

I started out my morning with my ritual of some stretching yoga, push-ups and headstand. My right wrist is still injured from the crash so I am having to do push ups and yoga moves using a fist instead of a flat hand. Then I did a 20 minute easy spin before breakfast. I headed out to Dasuset Trails at about 11am and rode for almost 3 hours. On my way home I saw lots of road bikes outside and since it was still light out I decided to do another 45 minute road ride. The weather was great and the ride was at an easy pace. I came home and did my Cool in 5 minute post ride stretching routine.

Beautiful Day In Georgia

I woke up and did my 30 minute high cadence spin on the trainer followed 25 minutes of some good core work. Around 3:30pm, I got to do my afternoon ride which consisted of 5 three minute hard intervals. After the intervals I did another 30 minutes of some easy spinning. Tomorrow is going to be a great 3-4 hour mountain bike ride at Camp Thunder.

Ouch!!

The weather was so nice today that I decided to put off my hard training day until tomorrow and just do a 45 minute mountain bike ride. I got about 10 minutes into the ride and crashed hard! Big Endo and then went down on some hard rocks. My right wrist and right knee are both injured. I should have ended the ride right away but finished the ride and went home for some advil and ice. Hopefully, my body will heal fast. I have a hard ride tomorrow, some core work to do and a super fun long ride tomorrow in the woods planned.

Back to work!

Today I woke up and did my morning exercises of some light yoga, followed by 25 minutes of high cadence spinning. Now I am heading into my office/bike training room for my afternoon workouts. I will do some light dumbell functional strength training after a 10 minute warm up. After the functional workouts then I will hit the trainer again for another 20 minute high cadence spin. This week has been great for recovery. Tomorrow' workout is faily easy as well.

Monday-Tuesday- Happy Days

2 days of rest in a row. I was hoping for an easier week as my body was screaming for some recovery and overtraining is not a direction that I want to go. Last night I did about 25 minutes of Recovery yoga and today I might go for an easy hike. This week will all be fairly easy with the exception of my Friday night ride.

Weekend Ridin' and trainin'

Saturday was a tough workout day. I started the morning with my 20 minute ez spin. In the afternoon I did a 10 minutes warm-up followed by 8 min power yoga 4x through. Interestingly, the first one was the hardest one. 8 minute power yoga entails 50 hindu squats followed by chair position and a little upper body and core work. After that I did a nice high cadence 45 minute spin followed by nice stretching routine.

Sunday- 4 hours of Camp thuder climbing and descending. It was great fun with the exception of breaking my chain. I will throw a new one today. I blasted a few of the longer climbs and did the best I could to stay up with my buddy Sean that descends like a champ.

I have a new bike on the way and am excited for it arrival. I am getting a new Gary Fisher Procaliber.

Recovery necessary

Today is not a scheduled recovery day but I was unable to get my workout in. I am super tired from Sunday's and yesterday's workouts. Last night we did a fast pace ride on the golf cart paths at night in the rain with a fair bit of climbing. After the first hour I was feeling sluggish, like my legs were filled with lead. Today, my legs were a bit sore. I did a 20 minute spin on the trainer, followed by an epson salt bath, a few advil and then got into my compression tights. I was going to do another 1 hour workout this evening on the indoor trainer but was not feeling up to it. I am now shooting to get tonight's workout in tomorrow morning.

Lots of sweat!!!

Today I did a 10 minute warm up on the trainer followed by 20 minutes of strength and body fat workouts such as: mountain climbers, hindu squats, crunches etc. Then back onto the trainer for another 30 minutes of 105 cadence spins, z3 big chain ring fun and some super spins.

Tonight I have my 2 hour high intensity Golf Cart path group ride with a light on my helmet. Super fast, lots of climbing and some nice and twisty paths.

One legged Drills and more Core work

Today, after my morning ritual of some light yoga, headstand and some push-ups I had some coffee and then jumped on the trainer for a high cadence 30 minute spin. I focused mainly on pedal stroke. This afternoon I am doing a 45 minute spin on the trainer where I will do some one legged drils, sprinting followed by a 15 minute core exercise program.


Right Now, Graeme has a special where you can check out the Videos that I train along with for only $1 for 14 days. Follow this link and get ready to upgrade your Race category in 2009.

http://www.cyclo-club.com/index.cfm?affID=30269

rest day and 2009 Mountain bike race schedule

Today is a rest day which is great my muscle and body as a whole are in need of an entire day with no exercise. Here is my 2009 Mt. Bike Race Schedule

March 22nd in Macon, GA Georgia Cup Series race 1

April 19th Columbus, GA Georgia Cup Series race 2
April 26th Winder, GA Southeast Race Series #4 Georgia Cup #3

May 3rd Ducktown, TN US Cup #1 South East race series #5
May 31st in Birmingham, AL Bump N Grind US CUP #2

June 14th Famington, GA Georgia Cup Series #4
June 21st in Jackson, GA Southeast race series #7 and Georgia Cup series #5

July 12th in Seattle Padden Mountain
July19th in Chatsworth, GA Georgia Cup series #7

August 1st/2nd Fontana, NC Southeast Race series #10 Finale of series
August 9th. Helen, GA Georgia Cup #8 Finale of Series

Eleven races total

7 Hour Mt bike ride today.

That Mt. Bike ride today was a lot more than I intended. My workout called for 2.5 hours today but right when I was leaving Camp Thunder trails another group was starting their ride and I had more in the Tank. The 2nd Group I rode with allowed me to take lots of breaks so I was not 7 hour straight but none the less alot of riding with a ton of climbing. My descending skills are really coming along and I am feeling more confident in my mountain bike skills as a whole. After that long ride it was time to refuel with some chocolate Milk, eat some dinner, jump into an epson salt and baking soda bath, throw on some compression tights , and put my feet up. Thank goodness that tomorrow is an exercise free day.

On the bike off the bike one the bike off the bike

Today's workout was all done indoor. I ran out of time in the day to get 2 workouts in so I had to get the hardest of the two workouts complete Here is how it went.
10 min warm up on trainer
12 minutes of functional strength exercises (never more than 15 lb dumbells) including preacher curls, squat and press and crunches to name a few
15 mintues back on the trainer doing 105 cadence
off the trainer for another 15 minutes functional strength
10 minute cool down.

Alot of sweat during this workout. Total body strength will come in handy during the racing season.

Tomorrow is going to be a great Mt. Bike group ride with lots of steep climbs and technical descents.

Rest Day

Today is a rest day. Rest days are fabulous and you need them just as much as you need high intensity days. I will do a super easy mountain bike spin focusing on having fun. I am also going to do some light stretching and use my bath tub as a in home spa. My training programs and recovery solutions can be found on from this link. http://www.cyclo-club.com/index.cfm?affID=30269%22%3eThe

Core work and Mt. Bike skills

Today I am doing tons of Core work in addition to cycling. This morning I did a 35 minute ride on my indoor spin bike with 6 super spins in the middle 10 minutes. The rest of the ride was at 95 cadence and was Zone 2 riding. This afternoon, I will be doing a 35 minute core work including numerous long holds in Plank position. My warm-up will be a highly technical 35 minute mountain bike ride. I do these Mountain bike rides about 3 times per week. In addition to needing amazing fitness it is also important in Mountain biking to have superior cornering, descending and technical skills. My recovery drink of choice is Carnation Instant Breakfast. If you would like more information on where my training program comes from please feel free to email me at michaeldmanthey@hotmail.com

Day 1 of my Blog

My first Mountain bike race of the new year is March 22nd in Macon, GA. My training program is working well and I am confident in this up and coming season. In order to upgrade to PRO I need 2 top 3's or 3 top 5's. I will be doing about 17 mountain bike races this year total. Today I woke up and did a 45 minute spin with a 8 OLDs and a couple of 10 min Z4. Then tonight I did a 30 minute mountain bike ride at the Line creek nature trail behind my home. send me an email if you are interested in finding out more about my training program. You can email me at michaeldmanthey@hotmail.com