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Get Fit, Stay Fit, Feel Good - 2026

I was yesterday years old when I realized there are categories of climbs in cycling. I also checked out some of the grades I have ridden on Strava and honestly, while I may have been slow as fuck I never had to get off and walk and some of those streets were STEEP. The ride I have planned for Sunday has some Cat3 climbs and I am a little scared but going to pedal on rotation at a time.

@stangmx13 I'm still hoping for a DM full of go-fast tricks. I'm also considering either toe cages or clip in pedals at this point for MORE POWER.
 
Sharxfan said:
You getting 8 hours of sleep or are you skipping that part? Just curious as my day is pretty set in stone and to get 8 hours that is the routine.

I don't blame you I really hate dropping the deuce anywhere but home and man really hate it when I have to do it at airports it has to be bad for that to happen but seeing as traveling takes a better part of 8 hours by plane now it happens more than I care to admit or like.
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I get *about* 8 hours. Sometimes 7.5, sometimes 8, sometimes 9, sometimes 6. It really depends on work, etc. I don’t have a normal office job, so sometimes I get less. I know this doesn’t work, but I get like 12 hours of sleep on the weekends. If I feel I need a nap during the day, I will do a 30-45min. Since I get back from training around 8:30am, my first meetings typically won’t start until 11, so I will take a nap after the gym, and still be set for work by 9:30am.

I’m usually in bed by 8, and try to kick off at 9. Ideally, 8:30pm

Working in life insurance for the past 22 years, the biggest lesson has been health. Death comes to all of us, it’s the shit before death we have control over. So I try to use as many health hacks as possible. Sleep is probably the most important thing, to me.
 
two wheel tramp said:
I was yesterday years old when I realized there are categories of climbs in cycling. I also checked out some of the grades I have ridden on Strava and honestly, while I may have been slow as fuck I never had to get off and walk and some of those streets were STEEP. The ride I have planned for Sunday has some Cat3 climbs and I am a little scared but going to pedal on rotation at a time.

@stangmx13 I'm still hoping for a DM full of go-fast tricks. I'm also considering either toe cages or clip in pedals at this point for MORE POWER.
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Climb categories are average grade * distance. So even a 3% grade for a long time can be a harder category. Hopefully your Cat3 climbs aren't short!
 
It's a 2.5 miles with 930 feet of climbing, or a 7%.
 
Sounds fun 😭

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I really notice going up stairs this AM I am almost doing all the work with the leg and very little by way of cane or handrail. That was nice to feel.

Hit the gym at noon and rocked 4 miles in 20 minutes... It was cake today.
A bit surprising actually :wow

Part of it may have been that I slid in next to a women who attended my aerobics class for years and we caught up and I was blabbing about work and retiring and I think just plain peddling faster and stronger.

I also added some next level PT stuff to my normal routine and weights.
No leg extensions though. Both machines were fubared.

The added items were and one leg lunge where the knee does not go to floor but to a raised pad. I tried these last week and it was awkward but with a little diligence today I figured out how to make them work. 3 sets of 12

The other one is a one leg squat. (Yup the busted one). Now get this...... it is only 4" bend and it reached out to my ass where it is broke and says "Heeeeeeey Weak Sauce"!

Started with 2" ones. 4 sets of 12. The first set really hurt and by the 4th I was rocking them so... why not do more since 2" seems really wimpy. :laughing

Did 3 sets of 12... they all hurt a bit. Good hurt. Right where I believe I need it.

They focus so much on what feels like a 4" square of "NEEDS WORK" territory...on the right cheek just below the hip. Specially the one leg squat. Super focused.

Great addition to the PT routine.
 
Sharxfan said:
Trying a bunch of stuff at the gym to make myself more efficient but it seems like I can only cram so much into 2 hours.
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2 hours of work time, excluding changing, etc? I'm about 60-75 minutes regularly without change time (another 10mins or so). But, my workouts are non-stop, mostly cause I don't have the time to sit around AND I'm simulating a working resistance environment, which is where the workouts are aimed to benefit me; performance. Resistance, cause traditional cardio bores me after about 15 mins...and I want s decent shape too. How much down/ recovery time do you have in a typical workout? Having shifted to a PPL workout, combining with al a carte exercises (forearms, abs, low back, various extensions), I can rest the Push/ Pull/ Legs muscles when shifting to a la carte stuff....and keep my HR running a decent pace. I'm pretty happy with how it's worked the last 6 years or so...and the workouts are super efficient WRT time management.
 
I don't do a lot of resting either specially for the Upper Body stuff. I take a bit or time for the larger chest muscles but then it is a quick lighter set to get the motion warmed and jump to a weight where I can get 6-8 and then quickly dropping weight but holding the 6 -8 rep count until it at a weight where it can be embarrassing to be straining to do 6 reps. :laughing Almost always less than 60 seconds of rest. That leads to a good pump and keeps the heart rate up too.

Some very slow stuff here and there too, slow as in resistance fought in a slow as perfect form as possible. Triceps is one.. lats too at least parts of both.

Sort of a take off from my MX training days where pumping blood and maintaining strength and control was the goal and I had one awesome trainer helping me.
 
Holeshot said:
2 hours of work time, excluding changing, etc? I'm about 60-75 minutes regularly without change time (another 10mins or so). But, my workouts are non-stop, mostly cause I don't have the time to sit around AND I'm simulating a working resistance environment, which is where the workouts are aimed to benefit me; performance. Resistance, cause traditional cardio bores me after about 15 mins...and I want s decent shape too. How much down/ recovery time do you have in a typical workout? Having shifted to a PPL workout, combining with al a carte exercises (forearms, abs, low back, various extensions), I can rest the Push/ Pull/ Legs muscles when shifting to a la carte stuff....and keep my HR running a decent pace. I'm pretty happy with how it's worked the last 6 years or so...and the workouts are super efficient WRT time management.
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Chest days are slowest but usually just 30-60 seconds between sets and I do knock them out consecutively other days when doing a variety is usually 3 sets in a row then 60 seconds then next 3 and so forth. I am ready to go once I get to the gym so its 2 hours from when I walk in the door.
 
I haven't spent more than 1h15m at the gym. My current workouts are only 45min. And they still make me want to nap after! Im doing zero cardio though so that trims the time a lot.
 
Quick update on my training for my race at the end of June. It’s been a lot like March, in like a lion, out like a lamb. I started off great working on endurance but then our trip to Hawaii happened and obviously while on vacation I didn’t ride. We got back on Monday and I’ve just been catching up on work. Two whole weeks without riding, it’s driving me nuts. I’ve kept up with my weight training and tomorrow I’m getting back on Zwift since we will be having rain for the next 4 days. Tomorrow’s schedule will be 5:30 am lifting weights, lunchtime Zwift ride. LETS DO THIS!!!!!
 
I responded pretty well to low cadence drills when doing double days with lifting. 4-6x3min threshold at 60rpm. Thankfully it was short. Anything more than 2hrs of riding was super tough on a double day.
 
I’ve been getting these random panic attacks in the middle of the night since moving to Texas and they usually come on around 2-3am - which is weird because I’m not a panic attack type feller during my awake hours. This happened to me yesterday and I got like 4-5 hours of sleep. My workout was nonexistent. All I did was practice a very complex jump rope wrap trick for an hour. Got pretty sweaty and finally got the trick. Anyway, just woke up and got a full 8 last night so I be ready for shoulders this morning.
 
Melissa said:
panic attacks are never good.. Have you considered meeting with a therapist?
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No.

These are simply spiritual attacks I see and do overcome - it's just a matter of getting through them with silence and a bit of suffering, knowing they aren't from me. The panic attacks are not me - but my ego, worries, etc. and things of the physical world. Paul told us the struggle is not against flesh and blood.

I'm not a bible thumper or hardcore Christian or nothing like that, but in the past few years, I've come to a degree of understanding of this sort of stuff. It's brought me to perfect peace. Once I understood what these frets and worries are - and what they're attacking (my ego, which is not me) - the fight is a short one. And if done right, your hand is raised at the end :)

The Catholic prayer to St. Michael literally tells us about the "wickedness and snares of the devil" - what better snare to send my down a spiritual downward spiral than a panic attack?
 
there's not a datacenter within a couple miles of you, right? only mostly kidding... :) they put off a ton of low frequency waves that really mess with human systems
 
I do circuits at the gym, while one muscle group is recovering I'm hitting the next. There is no down time aside from walking to the next machine.
 
Got up at 5am and did a shoulder workout and then for lunch did a Zwift one hour zone 2 workout on the trainer in my home office. Felt really good. Also I just purchased new tires for the gravel bike, Schwalbe G one R pros. Looking forward to getting them mounted up and see the difference from the current Maxxis Ramblers. Based on the reviews I’m expecting a big difference. Next purchase will be new shoes, Lake MX239 Gravel. My current shoes are narrow and my smaller toes have been falling asleep on rides over an hour. The Lakes are more like my Topo running shoes with a bigger toe box.
 
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