cycle 119 (5x hill repeats)

Flat road warm-up with some sprints and power work.  Then… hill repeats!

Warm-up

• Too Fake – Hockey: flat road
• Two Step – Dave Matthews Band: flat road + 100 watts
• Lisztomania – Phoenix: false flat and standing
• American Slang – The Gaslight Anthem: flat road active recovery

Workout

For the next five songs, follow this pattern: 1 minute seated hill climb (men: 300 watts, women: 200 watts), 1 minute standing hill climb (same power), 30 second standing sprint (add 100 watts). Flat road recovery for the remainder of the song.

• Kicking and Screaming – The Presets
• Sort of – Silversun Pickups
• Showbiz – Muse
• The Catalyst – Linkin Park
• End Over End – Foo Fighters

Cool down

• This Boy’s In Love – The Presets: flat road
• Dao of St. Paul – Third Eye Blind

Cycle 116

Flat road to a climb, flat road finish.

Warm-up and flat road start

• Strobe – Deadmau5

Climb  - ascending resistance

• Different – Pendulum
• Cult Logic – Miike Snow
• Kicking and Screaming – The Presets
• The Perfect Drug – Nine Inch Nails

Flat road finish

• One More Chance – Bloc Party
• Take a Bow – Muse

90 second cash out

• Let it Die – Foo Fighters

Cool down

• Reckoner – Radiohead
• Sleeping In – The Postal Service

Cycle 115

A couple climbs with sprints after each.

Warm-up

• Hi Friend! – Deadmau5

Couplet: seated climb/standing jog, seated climb/hill sprint

• The City Is At War – Cobra Starship/Glass Danse – The Faint
• Animal – Miike Snow/American Trash – Innerpartysystem

False Flat Sprint section

• Thoughts of a Dying Atheist – Muse
• Rocketship 2010 – Shiny Toy Guns

Descending resistance climb (heavy -> light)

• Talk Like That – The Presets
• Given Up – Linkin Park
• Jigsaw Falling Into Place – Radiohead

False Flat Sprint finish

• Famous Last Words – My Chemical Romance
• Sunburn – Muse

Cool down

• Fix You – Coldplay
• Be Somebody – Kings of Leon

cycle 114

tempo ride… higher resistance in the beginning, ending fast and flat.

1. Home – LCD Soundsystem: warmup
2. Neutron Star Collision – Muse: seated/standing climb
3. Tear You Apart – She Wants Revenge: seated/standing climb
4. Turn Your Back – Billy Talent: standing climb
5. You Will Leave a Mark – A Silent Film: false flat, accelerations
6. Going Wrong – Armin Van Buuren: time trial
7. Move Along – All American Rejects: seated climb, standing jog
8. I Was a Teenage Anarchist – Against Me!: seated climb, accelerations
9. Sunburn – Muse: false flat cadence challenge
10. Survive – Rise Against: false flat power intervals
11. Word Forward – Foo Fighters: sprints
12. You and Your Heart – Jack Johnson: cool down
13. Hey, Soul Sister – Train : cool down

Am I supposed to have five 9′s?

I spent the last 12 days in my home state of California, and I had a lot of time to chill.  Do nothing, just chill.  At one point, I sat in a creek drinking coors light and burning the crap out of my legs.  Nothing is good.  Nothing is exactly what I needed.

Over my 12 days in California spent with family, close friends, and quite a bit of alone time, I realized that many of my friends are nomads.  We travel between intense moments with little to no rest.  Any free time is taken up by one or more hobbies, which are another set of intense activities.  We’re always on.

In my industry (the computer one, not the fitness one), we have a phrase called five 9′s, which means that a system needs to be available 99.999% of the time.  That’s practically all the time.  It’s the phrase we use to indicate that something has to be always on, it can’t go down, it can’t break.  I think I’m surrounded by five 9′s people, I think I’m one myself, and I think that’s horrible.

Why is it so bad?  Because the vast majority of those people (myself included), when the 0.001% downtime occurs, quickly realize that between all the stuff, the new friends, the old friends, and more stuff, they’re still alone.  We’re so over-stimulated that everything has to be done for time, for reps, maximal effort, everything we’ve got, nothing but the best.  Sometimes we need to just mail it in to bring some balance back.

In a world where most everything is noise, it’s really hard to find the signal.  It’s even harder if you never give yourself a chance.

So when I tweeted a while back about slowing down the game, it wasn’t just in relation to athletic endeavors (although at the time it was).  I think I need to spend more time “off,” because being on all the time is impossible.

I want to the find the signal.  First stop: get rid of the loneliness, it’s been around too long.