CFRCF

Classy Fatty Racing Conditioning Facility

That diminutive kettlebell really kicks my ass.  I have, however, conquered the foam roller and ExerSaucer activity center.

My kettlebell workouts are going okay.  I'm missing about one of the four weekly workouts on a regular basis, but I'm hitting all of the "Hard" workouts, which are on Wednesday mornings at 5am (all of the kettlebell workouts are at 5am, except the Saturdays are sometime during the day...if I do it).  Today the munchkin woke up at 4:45, and I have some groveling to do after an unauthorized landscaping purchase.  So I trudged upstairs to collect the munchkin in spite of the calls for "Mama" over the monitor.  Munchkin decided that she wanted to play with her popper and that it was best played with downstairs, near where Mama was trying to get some additional sleep.  So my valiant attempt to maintain a quiet house was in vain.

The interesting things about the kettlebell workouts are:

1. It always starts out as feeling too easy
2. It always ends up being pretty freaking hard about halfway through
3. I sweat a lot more with the kettlebell than any other strength training I've ever done
4. I'm never sore the day(s) after a workout
5. The next week I can do the same exercises a little better than the week prior

So I guess it's working.  It was designed to give a core workout and develop stability and mobility on the bike, without leaving you too tired and sore to actually ride the bike.  I think James Wilson nailed it.  The only issue I have is that I'm not losing any weight.  While I feel like a stronger rider with better balance, I'd like to feel like a stronger lighter rider with better balance.  I'm going to have to work in more runs or circuit training at the gym during lunch.  In fact, I should be running now instead of blogging, but there's a group playing ultimate frisbee at lunch, and that means the shower room downstairs will be packed around 1:00, so I should have started the run at 11:30 to get ahead of the rush, but I was on a call.  Eventually I'll start running around with those kids playing frisbee again, but I'm hoping this whole stability/mobility stuff gets my ankles up to snuff.  I can already tell a difference in the elbow that has been noted as having arthritis.  I guess that means at least I can resume participation in Cornhole matches before working up to Frisbee.

When Life Interferes

I added Double Dare to the race calendar.  Also, I'm racing the Burn 24 hour solo instead of as the slower half of a duo.  While I've allowed 2 months to recover after the Burn, it still is placing a lot of confidence in this workout/training thing.

My friend Jeff told me that he isn't going to be recovered from shoulder surgery fast enough to race duo with me at the Burn, so I responded "But you still will have plenty of time to train for DD" which he took seriously.  So Jeff and I are doing Double Dare, which really isn't that intimidating to me, considering by then I will have completed one 24-hour race and two hundred-milers.  It is unfortunate that Jeff crashed and needed the surgery, especially from the purely self-centered reason that I was looking forward to doing a lot of long training rides with him during the off-season.

The morning workouts are tough to maintain.  I'm getting most of them in, but it is tough to roll out of bed at 5am and go lift a kettlebell over my head.  It would actually be easier to drive to a gym and then workout, assuming that I'd be fairly coherent by the time I arrived.  Instead I stumble up the stairs, do about 10 minutes of warm-up and stretching before lying down on the floor and holding 35 lbs over my face.  To make matters worse, I started a class at Wake Tech on Wednesday nights.  I don't even get home until 10:30.  Even more worse, I found out that James is showing up at PMBAR. James is alright, but I really want to beat him and not as a result of some kind of injury DNF.

The kettlebell workouts are actually going pretty good.  I'm not losing weight because of them, but it is all core. My climbing is better and the descents, especially through technical areas, are easier.  It feels like I'm both strong and fluid at the same time.  Looking forward to how this all pans out in a couple months, that is assuming that the other things in life don't knock me off course.

Why

I like riding my mountain bike(s) in endurance races, but I'd really like to finish mid pack instead of the tail end. This Fall I vowed to work hard throughout the off-season with hopes of finishing PMBAR in the daylight.  That goal has morphed into finishing it on singlespeed, and in the daylight would be nice.

I'm trying to be more disciplined this year and bought a workout program from BikeJames.com, the kettlebell one actually. I've also been reading more about nutrition and trying to develop basic skills necessary to keep my speed up.

The primary reason I started this blog was fear of humiliation for not trying to keep up with my routine.  If I make my intentions public, I figure my friends (and enemies) will readily throw the old posts in my face.

As far as Classy Fatty Racing...I'm a Clydesdale and will race that category* until I am no longer qualified.  I've referred to Clyde class as Fatty Class before, so I hope you can figure out where the blog name came from.

Once I figure out how to link in a workout schedule, I'll get that on here too.  For now, it's just some loose pages with notes scribbled.  It is all plotted out through April and can tell you that on April 29 I'll be doing a moderate intensity workout, followed on Tuesday by a low intensity, then rest a day, then high intensity, then rest/drive to Brevard, and then race PMBAR.  I finally registered with Strava, so you can follow along there if you want.  I also use VidaOne Lifestyle Pro on my smartphone and like it, if you are looking for a diet/workout tracking app...


* As of Jan 1, I was 233 lbs and will race the Fatty Class (>200) whenever possible, unless it is an XC race and the Clyde laps are less than the Sport class laps.  Also, even though I'm planning to race singlespeed this year, I know far too many people better than me in that class, so my best shot for top finishes is trading paint with the other big boys.