Wednesday's Workout (2/9/05)

Another grey, cold, snow-spitting day. I'm gonna need phototherapy for SAD if the sun doesn't come out soon.

First, 60 minutes on the bike for a "pyramid" ride: a 20 minute 90+ cadence warm-up followed by pyramids of 1,2,3,4,3,2,1 minutes with Zone 2/3 heart rates (high 130's or so for me.) Recoveries between each were 60 second easy spin, 30 seconds of 90+ and another 60 seconds of easy spinning. (Hope I got all that right, Karyn. If not, the fault's mine. Lord knows you tried hard enough to explain it!)

Still working on getting comfortable with a cadence in the 90's. 10 minutes of easy cool-down spinning and...

...I threw on some winter gear and headed out for a 20 minute, easy Zone 1-2 run, forgetting speed and focusing on form (is it possible to forget what you never had, I wonder?)

Today's bike session was accompanied, in spirit anyway, by the late Beau Jocque and his Zydeco Hi-Rollers. I will freely admit to not being the world's biggest fan of cajun or zydeco music; a little goes a long way for me. But with Beau Jocque's deep growl of a voice channeling Howlin' Wolf and the Hi-Rollers rockin' tight and funky behind him, it's a quick, energetic hour. Beau Jocque died in 1999, but his music is still making it difficult to maintain that quiet upper body. If 12 minutes of the "Shaggy Dog Two-Step" doesn't get you inspired, well, you're hopeless. Get your pulse checked.

Finally, as I am acutely aware that life in the great suburban outback is fraught with perils (soccer moms in mini-vans, e.g.) and to ease some of your worried minds, I never listen to music while biking or running outside. You shouldn't either.