Endomondo Upgrades

I upgraded my Endomondo app on my iPhone this week – they’ve added interval training to their list of workouts.  They’ve got three intervals pre-programmed and you have the ability to build your own in with three different intensities – Low, Medium and High.  The first two Interval programs appear to be for running, you’ve got the Standard which lasts 21 minutes and starts with a 7 minute warmup followed by 1 minute on and 1 minute off intervals.  The second is a pyramid set that starts out with a 5 minute warm up followed by a 30 second high intensity period, followed by a 1 minute recovery period, a 45 second high intensity period, another minute recovery, a 1 minute high intensity and another minute recovery.  The middle of the pyramid is a 1 minute 30 second high intensity period and then the back side of the pyramid is the same as the front.  The pre-programmed interval is for Tabata Training – 10 seconds off, 20 seconds on x 8.

I’ve already programed an interval workout for my 16 mile ride, but I won’t be testing that until early next week.  I’ve got six days to go until my first 100k so this week I’ll be tapering in intensity until Sunday – I may even take a couple of days off.

In riding news, I went out for a 30 mile ride yesterday that I knew going in would be tough – we had 20 mph sustained winds with gusts up to 35 or 40 and I had a stretch of 8 miles dead into it starting at mile 18 and extending to 26.  I saved myself on the first half figuring that stretch into the wind would be just brutal and I was right – though I managed to maintain a much healthier average speed than I’d anticipated – even while I was going through it.  The wind was far too stiff to hear my Endo chick calling off the miles and time so I assumed that I was somewhere around 12-14 mph.  I was wrong, it was more like 16-17.5, but I didn’t figure that out until I pulled into my driveway.  When I woke up yesterday morning, I’d planned on my 35.5 mile loop, but amended that while I was cutting the grass earlier in the morning, and I’m glad I did – my shoulders are absolutely killing me this morning.  I was tucked so low to beat the wind that I had to crane my neck a little bit more than usual just so I could see where I was going.  Add to that the fact that I had to hang on quite a bit tighter to keep the bike from swerving into traffic with the gusts and I’m one sore puppy.  Overall, I was glad to get out and I had a really fun time – for at least 18 miles.

Week in Review:

Last week was a pretty big week.  I took a day off last Monday because of sustained gusts of 50+ mph, but still managed 131 miles on the week – fairly decent considering a 50 hour work week.  I had my Tuesday evening group ride for 39 miles (including a 6 mile warmup), followed by 16 miles each day through Saturday and my 30 mile ride on Sunday.  Total time:  7 hours: 8 minutes – or a little more than an hour a day.

Endomondo Challenges:

Cycling Challenge:  588 of 16,289 (Top 3%)

Calorie Challenge:  1,191 of 24,223 (Top 4%)

Coming into the last week of this month, I couldn’t be happier with my ranking – when I get into these challenges, I’m hoping for a Top 10% finish – keeping in mind that we’re talking about the top 10% of people who go to the trouble of actually tracking their workouts, a group more intensely focused than your average “I go for a 20 minute spin around the block” person.  With a career and a marriage and a couple of young ones to look after, in my opinion that’s pretty good.

This Week’s Plan:

For this week, I’m ratcheting the intensity of my rides way back so I’ve got some stored aggression for Sunday’s ride.  I’m planning on 16 today, a day off tomorrow (or maybe a short spin on the fat tire bike), 16 on Wednesday, a 4 mile run on Thursday, an easy spin on Friday (13 miles) followed by a short, easy run on Saturday – somewhere between 5k and 5 miles.  That Saturday off the bike is going to be a big deal.  Saturday’s are my fun ride days, so I should be raring to go Sunday morning.