Longtime JSF Sponsor and my personal friend Aram “Mastover” Hamparian contacted me last month with some difficult news. Unfortunately Aram has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, and will no longer be accepting new clients: “I am in the medial stages of Parkinson’s Disease. As of now, I am able to function OK. I can still train, drive, and ride my bike, albeit for short distances. My neck, arms, and legs are affected to a degree…. [Read more]
Added Wednesday, May 1, 2013 by John Stone
Excellent metric century yesterday!
In yesterday’s blog I mentioned that so far this month I’d ridden 344 miles, and that I wanted to exceed last month’s millage of 366 miles. Tugging at my conscious, however, was that I remember mentioning publicly (I don’t recall if it was here or on Facebook) that my mileage goal for April was 400 miles. Not 344 miles, not 366 mile–400 miles. After I posted yesterday’s blog, I realized that I’d just ostensibly blew… [Read more]
Added Tuesday, April 30, 2013 by John Stone
Intermediate Base I complete; Fitness improvements; Miles for April and May.
On Saturday morning I completed the final workout in the Intermediate Base I cycling program, “Beacon“. The workout included 6×8-minute Steady State repeats just a hair below my FTP (currently 270) with 4-minute recoveries. I noted the last time that I did this workout that it was a tough one. It was a borderline call to do this workout the day after a pretty tough 19.1 mile MTB training ride, but I went with rule… [Read more]
Added Monday, April 29, 2013 by John Stone
2013 maintenance weekly progress report: week #16
Week #16 of my 2013 maintenance program is complete, and it’s time for my weekly progress report. My scale weight this morning (as measured by the ) is 172.0 pounds. That’s a 0.6 pound loss since last week’s weight of 172.6 pounds, and a 2.4 pound loss from my initial 2013 weight of 174.4 pounds. My 7-point body fat reading this morning (as measured by the is 6.0%. That’s a -0.3% body fat change since… [Read more]
Added Sunday, April 28, 2013 by John Stone
Solid ride at Wekiwa; Strava segment matching issues; Rocket Ron tires.
Yesterday morning I did a pretty tough training ride at Wekiwa. As you can see in the photo to the right, the short-lived benefit of the rain we received about a week ago is long gone: the sand was dry, deep and loose, and that made for an extra challenging workout. I rode a total of 19.1 miles, and my effort over that 19 miles ranged from “hard” to “all out”. My average heart rate… [Read more]
Added Saturday, April 27, 2013 by John Stone
Good day yesterday: Yard work, another epic Costco trip, movie.
Lisa was off from work yesterday and my schedule was pretty light, so I took a personal day and spent the day with her. I was going to do some weight training in the morning, but it was nice outside so I decided to get all the yard work done. I mowed, edged and trimmed while Lisa weeded in the backyard. Quite a bit of work, about 4 hours. I’m really happy with how everything… [Read more]
Added Friday, April 26, 2013 by John Stone
Yesterday’s workout; Plans for next week; AtLarge 4 free items?!?!
I’d planned to go mountain biking yesterday morning, but I got involved with another project and my available time quickly and quietly slipped away. The next thing I knew it was after lunch, and I simply didn’t have time to break away from work long enough to ride. So I decided to eat lunch at my desk (which I usually do anyway), and then do a 1 hour ride on the trainer. Yesterday’s workout was… [Read more]
Added Thursday, April 25, 2013 by John Stone
I’m doing TrainerRoad’s “8 Days in California” Challenge.
I received an email from TrainerRoad last night announcing their new 8 Days in California Challenge. This looks really cool: “8 Days in California simulates what an 8 day stage race might be like in California through TrainerRoad.com’s software. Workouts will simulate a live race with a story overarching the entire event. Riders will be challenged to cover breaks, bring up water bottles and protect their team’s GC contender. The challenge will consist of 8… [Read more]
Added Wednesday, April 24, 2013 by John Stone
Good strength training workout + recovery ride yesterday.
I took Sunday off from exercise, and so yesterday I wanted to get a good weight training workout in. I was feeling mostly recovered from Saturday’s 100 KM mountain bike ride, but still not quite back to 100%. I decided to do a weight training workout with moderate to light weights, but somewhat higher volume than usual: 3 x 20 DB lunges 3 x burnout (to failure) body weight chest dips 3 x burnout (to… [Read more]
Added Tuesday, April 23, 2013 by John Stone
Mike and I did a metric century (100 KM) mountain bike ride on Saturday.
Last Monday night I was looking at Strava and I saw that my friend Mike Simmons had just completed a pretty big solo ride. Mike rode his mountain bike from his home in Mount Dora all the way to the Paisley Woods MTB trails (about 18 miles), then rode the Paisley loop (about 20 miles) and then back home for a total ride of 55.3 miles. Paisley Woods MTB Trails is semi-affectionately known as “The… [Read more]
