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Get Fit, Stay Fit, Feel Good - 2026

stangmx13 said:
I was trying to find a way to stretch my inner thighs closer to the knee and could get it 😠
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Did you ever get that stretching book I recommended here? It’s dope.
 
stangmx13 said:
The call today w my coach was mostly about cramping and race tactics. We always find some limiting factor - the new one is tactics and group riding.

I mostly train by myself or with another friend that is doing the same workout. But races never go down that way. You don’t get to decide when someone else will attack or decide to do that climb harder than you want. This is “new” for my legs and is something I need to experience more to get better at it. So we’ll be adding in some of SD fast group rides into my training.

Today is a gym day though.
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In the track world, that's called taking everybody else into your race plan. The trick is to stay in your own plan, though in bike racing I understand that drafting is a significant factor, moreso than track unless there is significant wind, in which case you want to get behind somebody taller than you and let them do the work, then break some of their wind push by being right behind them, win/win.

In track, at the end of the day, being a 3/4 race hero can make you a zero at the end, it's all about what works best for you.
 
Well the weather isn't looking half as bad as predicted tonight so looks like monday night workout is back on. Thought I was going to have to miss as weather was going to be in the 20s and we have had a lot of rain and lots of puddles and wasn't feeling possible ice on the road. Will post a pain report tomorrow whether its "medic, man down" or just "damn I am sore" levels. so far it's only been damn I am sore.
 
I think that being super sore after every workout is not a good policy to have. It means that you took your body far outside of it's homeostasis and damanged a ton of cells. Thile there may be some benefit to it, the huge number of damaged cells would not move you towards greater physical shape in the most efficient manner.

As a track coach, I'd never train my athletes in a manner that kept them super sore. A bit of soreness is a side-effect of physical improvement, but there shouldn't be more than one episode of super soreness in a development cycle.

The biggest downside to damaging so many cells is that the recovery time is moved out well beyond a couple days, days that could be spent furthering your physical improvements. But, if you enjoy being sore to that extent, or if it improves you life, knock yourself out! :laughing

Just my :2cents
 
I do wonder if optimal soreness varies a lot per person and schedule. For an athlete that needs to train again tmrw, near zero soreness is prob best. But what about the person that trains once a week? Maybe high soreness and full recovery is optimal since they aren’t training again soon. Or maybe high soreness is never optimal because it’s just too much muscle damage. I’ll prob start researching this.
 
stangmx13 said:
I do wonder if optimal soreness varies a lot per person and schedule. For an athlete that needs to train again tmrw, near zero soreness is prob best. But what about the person that trains once a week? Maybe high soreness and full recovery is optimal since they aren’t training again soon. Or maybe high soreness is never optimal because it’s just too much muscle damage. I’ll prob start researching this.
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I have a friend who is getting her PhD in physiology. Should I ask her?

On another note, I ate well after my ride yesterday (some eggs and chicken sausage) and slept much better than the last time I went on a big ride.**

(Big ride for me. :teeth)
 
I know that after 3 days, your body starts returning to it's sedentary state, so once a week is not a good idea, and that gets worse as you get older.
Any athlete should plan on at least 3 days a week and when you get over 50 2 days a week won't cut it.
 
two wheel tramp said:
I have a friend who is getting her PhD in physiology. Should I ask her?

On another note, I ate well after my ride yesterday (some eggs and chicken sausage) and slept much better than the last time I went on a big ride.**

(Big ride for me. :teeth)
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Plz do if you get a chance.

Youre adapting already, both in lifestyle habits for recover and prob physical adaptations for the exercise.
 
stangmx13 said:
Plz do if you get a chance.

Youre adapting already, both in lifestyle habits for recover and prob physical adaptations for the exercise.
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I will ask her soon. We chat frequently so it shouldn't be too long before she replies.

And yes, my body doesn't freak out after a longer ride quite so much. I am a little tired today, but I also rode my moto in the morning, then cleaned up my place, so it was a FULL day.
 
TWT, it doesn't seem that long ago that you were contemplating walking a mile.
You've come a long way and most of that is because of your will to get back to where you were.
I doubt that more than 0.1% of the population would have come nearly as far! :thumbup
 
Climber said:
TWT, it doesn't seem that long ago that you were contemplating walking a mile.
You've come a long way and most of that is because of your will to get back to where you were.
I doubt that more than 0.1% of the population would have come nearly as far! :thumbup
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Thank you. When I get home I’m going to try my old walk and see if I can make it.

Today is my crashiversary.
 
Climber said:
TWT, it doesn't seem that long ago that you were contemplating walking a mile.
You've come a long way and most of that is because of your will to get back to where you were.
I doubt that more than 0.1% of the population would have come nearly as far! :thumbup
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Bret, I’d say that 0.1% of America’s are not in as good of shape as TWT.
 
@stangmx13

“Well if soreness only (coz it’s usually accompanied by pain or immobility), if the training is done on a daily basis, the exercise choices and intensity must be varied enough to allow recovery. There's never an "optimal soreness" but an optimal recovery yes, and that means being able to perform at an expected level despite residual fatigue from previous days. So performance becomes a gauge whether soreness is too high. If the intensity challenged to an effort level of 8,9,10 and caused a drop in performance the next day by about 10-30%, and they have to train (athletes), they have to do recovery strategies or train light. For the weekend warrior, should be same but instead of training again, they should keep active and mobile and do recov strategies. Not doing anything sometimes impedes recovery instead of works on recovering from muscle damage.
Sorry got nerdy lol

(We’re communicating via text so forgive us)
 
Ridley said:
Bret, I’d say that 0.1% of America’s are not in as good of shape as TWT.
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She's in great shape, even with her setback last year. Only a very, very determined person could do what she did in coming back. She has all of my respect.

My wife who is 63 takes 12 mile walks most days in a week.
 
^^^ Rad! Overcoming that inertia is the hardest damn part.

Also, because Robert said so, I ordered these.
IMG_0372.jpeg
 
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