Solid Weekend of Training

A great solid weekend of training.  I am getting more fit, getting my heart-rate in my Zone 3 for long periods of time and feeling more comfortable. It’s a little bit of a stretch to get it into my Zone 4 and keep it there, but I am working on it. 

My weekend workouts are my longer ones keeping my shorter cardio workouts and weight sessions during the week. 

Last weekend I was able to get a seven mile run in on Saturday. It was very hot and muggy early in the day, but got it done. Followed it up Sunday with a 34 mile road ride with some good climbing. A 3.5 mile hill climb to be in fact. Bouncing back from the workouts is getting easier. 

I worked this weekend on fueling a little better than last week. Hydration played a key roll in Sunday’s ride. 

To help me stay on top of my hydration game and keeping cool, I really relied on heavily the use of my Spruzza Mist system. The hill climb had me going around 8 MPH so a lot of the cooling air effect wasn't kicking in. The added misting I did, spraying both my chest, opening up my jersey in the front, and misting both sides of my head and ears really kept me from over heating. I knew early on in the ride, I was going to be using it a lot with the hot sun rising as fast as it was without cloud cover. 

It’s amazing what either a new pair of shoes can do or not running in “zero-drop” shoes.  I can’t tell because the shoes I have been running in the past year are really broken down, or the “zero-drop” shoes they were made my legs sore. After wearing and testing out a new set of kicks on Saturday’s seven mile run, I recovered very fast and didn’t feel it the next day. 

I should have done this a long time ago, but just kept putting it off. 

Training is going well and I am very happy where I am at this point in the game. 

Building up energy

I was out yesterday morning and got my early morning workout in. A quick 12 mile ride, consisting of two loops. Nothing fast, but I tried to keep my cadence and speed up. Took me over just 22 minutes a lap, which I have been able to do previously in just under 19 minutes. I need to work on getting that down faster as I build my fitness up. 

Later that day I needed to get in a run. I planned on a three mile run, just to get the heart-rate up and the legs moving. I felt fine the first two miles and then just hit a wall. Energy was totally zapped. I may have not eaten as much as I should have after the morning workout, but I kept moving. 

I had to talk a walk break for a minute, but then just took the pace down a little. My hydration must have been down a little too, as I woke up this morning with a headache. 

Looking to do a long run this weekend and a longer bike ride the next day to shake out the legs good.

MIO ALPHA, read your heart-rate without a chest-strap.

This is nothing new, as this watch and the technology have been out for a few years already, but wanted to inform others that hate wearing a chest strap, there is something you can do about it. Hate wearing a chest-strap?  Here is the perfect answer.  The MIO ALPHA reads your heart-rate off your skin. Under the watch band is a sensor, similar to those devices that read your pulse off your finger. The watch displays your heart-rate. With the Bluetooth or ANT+ connection it sends the information to paired devices. I have both Bluetooth and ANT+ models, two separate watches.  I paired my ANT+ with my Suunto Ambit 2S and then wear a watch on each wrist. The ANT+ model I own I have paired with my Samsung smartphone. 

From what I am finding out, the ANT+ model is no longer available, as it is only being produced in the BLE. 

 

From what I am finding out, the ANT+ model is no longer available, as it is only being produced in the BLE. 

The watch features an LED light, lighting up blue, green or red, letting the user know if their heart rate while working out is too low, too high or right in their zone, all without wearing a chest strap I might add again.  

The watch comes with a charger that can be plugged into a USB port and the LED then too lights up to show you it is charging as well as when it is fully charged. 

Here the MIO Alpha is paired with my Suunto Ambit 2S. 

Set your Zone in which you want to keep your heart rate in. Not only will the LED change color depending upon if you are in the zone you are wanting to be in, but a “beep” will also go off.  These are great because many times if using the watch like this, if you are wearing headphones you can still monitor where your heart rate is with the LED’s or as well as looking at the screen itself. 

There are only two buttons to operate the watch, one on either side of the face. You can use the timer in the exercise mode to track your workout time. I use my Suunto Ambit 2S for gathering exercise time. 

The watch comes with its own USB charging cradle. Simply line up the pins on the back to the charging ports and charge the watch.  

Download the free app for allowing your smartphone to track your exercises and then export the TCX file into your favorite program later on. With the app it will show basic features, unless you play to download the full version of the app.

This is if the watch is paired with BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy)