TT Cross Training Thread

“Whatever...


I'm getting back into biking, both trail and road, mixed with "more than hiking, not really running", more like Nordic Walking, Got some trail running shoes today,

Down to 187# now, time to step up the fitness level. Yesterday I rode a 5 mile, 1000 ft climb from 5400 to 6400, to the lower tram terminal. 20 lbs of water, rain gear, hiking shoes and poles. I'm acclimated to the heat, but thought I was going to throw up in 95 degreewith about 200 ft more to climb. Some elderly couple stopped me in my anaerobic air sucking stupor to ask for directions to the casino, and I had to walk that last 200 ft. to the tram. I then packed on with the poor tourists, sweat dripping off my nose and into my eyes. I took the tram to 10,000ft, 78 degrees, hiked for about 4 miles in an hour, took the tram down and rode down the 1000 ft five miles.

Anybody got a good training log on Excel that they would like to share?”

“I use the log at coolrunning.com.

Sounds like you had a fun workout yesterday. You might consider looking at adventure racing as a motivation/reward for all of your cross-training efforts.”

“Competition is exactly what I don't need in my spare time! A better reward for me is a being physically ready for freelance adventure, which comes end of Sept. in the Pecos Wilderness.


I've been wanting to get back on my bike, getting bored with the only trail, 4 mile round trip, open. All others are closed because of fire danger. As soon as those open, my trail variety improves drastically. I can create an endless combination of hike and bike in summer, hike, bike, ski and snowshoe in winter.”

“I like that coolrunning log, thanks for the tip.”

“Great thread. I'm condensing my kayak club, biking club, running club posts to here!

I've got to go check that coolrunning log now.”

“Hey pathman, I have an excel log that I made up. It's geared toward running, but, as a spreadsheet, you could also just modify it. It's a little under 1 meg - OK to email it to you using the addy in your profile?”

“yeah! that would be great.”

“This winter I may add a little swimming to my workouts. 8-}

I'm seriously getting better at cross training. I've been doing bricks of running/biking, biking/horseback riding. Running/kayaking etc. It makes for a fun outdoor day as well.
These work best on weekends for me. Although I've put a lot of focus on biking this year, I'll continue to use running for base fitness. 'cause my dog needs exercise too!

What are your favorite combo workouts?”

“Doin' the tri thing here - swim, bike, run. Did my first swim today snce getting back from my thru. 500m kicked my butt! Oh well, I'll get back.”

“I don't do much back-to-back/combo, but mix up days during the week. The bike to the trailhead is a new thing for me, but I had fun. If I could find a place to store stuff at the top, I could bike to ski, road to mountain.....”

“I need to make more of an effort to cross train...seems I'm always concentrating on one thing or the other and not keeping fit for all the activities I enjoy.”

“Hey Pathman - you've got mail. I just sent that spreadsheet file. Let me know if you have any questions....”

“Bricks? never heard that before.

One issue biking to a trailhead is the extra gear. Going up into the mountains I had hiking shoes and road bike shoes, trekking poles, pump, rain gear, water, and snacks. I weighted it-20# !

I have already started thinking about this and had picked up leg and arm warmers to use instead of a long sleeve shirt and long pants. My raingear though, is very heavy goretex. I picked up some REI biking raingear that is probably 1/4 the weight. Also, my Montrail light weight hikers were actually very heavy and bulky. Replaced them with some light weight Montrail trail running shoes.

With all of this, I've cut the weight by at least 50%, and most of that is water on a long outing.

Tried it all out together yesterday evening. Felt great and I had to pick up the pace with more running (at 10,000 ft) to keep my exertion level high enough.”

“Pathman - you could always do a gear drop if you have a way to secure your stuff.

I usually carry, cause you would have to if racing.

Wish I had mountains here!”

“No way to secure small, loose stuff, I can only lock up my bike. My setup now is great. Feels like nothing compared to what I was packing, and its in my hydration pack, anyway.”

“dhutch1, I'll give you one of ours- we have plenty. In fact, I'd like to get rid of the one I crashed my Mtn bike on.”

“lol @ aero! Hey...I can crash my mountain bike with or without a mountain!”

“The top of the mountain is my gym. I love getting into the forest, cool temps and fresh air. I hate the gym. (Have I said that before?)”

“17 miles of flat road biking yesterday. Tough to find no hills here, had to go down by the river and the mosquitoes!”

“I got on my rollerblades yesterday for the first time in about a year. Found some muscles in my rear end that I forgot about. Got home and did some more weight lifting. I feel awesome today! And I'm concentrating on drinking more water, too.”

“I've decided rollerblades would be my best "dry land" training for XC skiing. Need to look at Play it Again Sports for some”

“I'd love to buy some new blades. Seems that my feet have grown enough over the last 10 years that they're cramped inside of them. They're in decent condition, but just too small!

I couldn't get my heart rate up very far last night. My muscles were crying too much!!”

“I bought a new scale that measures body fat. I'm so excited! I can't wait to watch that drop! A woman's body fat should be 10-14%, correct?”

“SG, you should be shooting for, like, 4%.




j/k, actually you should just get plenty of exercise, eat right, and not worry about silly numbers.”

“A female athlete's body fat (depending on the sport) is probably going to be between 18-24% It is higher than a male athlete. at 4% body fat smiley, you would be wearing sweaters in the summer and look like a cadavre”

“I agree with Fritz btw. If you can perform the tasks/events that you enjoy to acheive your personal goals the numbers mean little.

We're not going to win the Olympics next year or anything, eh Smiley Girl!?”

“Oh, c'mon guys! You're bursting my bubble!! I am in this running/cross trainign thing to lose some body fat and let the muscles show through. They are under there, I'm sure of it!!”

“Oh, c'mon guys! You're bursting my bubble!! I am in this running/cross trainign thing to lose some body fat and let the muscles show through. They are under there, I'm sure of it!!”

“You will lose body fat, and you will feel and look terrific.

You don't need a body fat measurement to tell you that you are doing a really good thing for your body.

If you can use that measurement for motivation without obsessing over it, go right ahead! Just don't get it in your mind that there is some ideal body composition that you have to live up to.”

“Yeah, my point is to have enough muscle on my body to still eat my cookies or ice cream once a day. LOL! Don't worry Fritz, I have a scale now, and only get on it 1-2x a month. I won't obsess about it. But I am excited to see what the % is now, and how it'll shake out in the next few months. :)”

“SG, if you get it down to 10-14%, you face the possibility of some (eh, hem) "hormonal" problems.

From Covert Bailey:

Body Fat Percentages
(underwater immersion testing)
Men Women
Fattest I've tested 55% 68%
Average American 22% 32%
Healthy normal:
Oriental 18% 25%
Caucasian 15% 22%
Black 12% 19%
Top Athletes 3-12% 0-18%
Lowest I've tested 1% 6%”

“Okie dokie....I was looking on a website earlier, and that's what they were saying....and of course I asked here, since you TT people are the smartest!! So when I get on my new scale tonight I hopefully will not get a "shock" looking at the number. :)”

“I have one of those scales, and it runs much higher than my caliper calculated BF. Now that I am getting near what I think is my ideal weight/body fat, I'm wondering how much they would charge at the atheltic dept to dunk me for an immersion measurement.”

“Covert Bailey's Tape Measure Formula for women under 30

hips + (.8 x thigh)- (2 x calf) - wrist= % BF


use cloth tape

hips measure to include hips and buttocks, measure greatest circumferance

Thigh, feet 12" apart, widest part

Calf, evenly distributed weight, widest part, midway

wrist, just above bony protuberance (toward the hand)

supposed to be +/- 2% of immersion test.”

“Uh, yeah, the scale told me that I was pretty darned fat!!


Anywhoo, back to cross training. I didn't do any last night. The night got all screwed up (i.e. G-man got to my place MUCH later than he predicted, and I was just plain hungry and cranky at that point, thus, no exercise before the sun went down and it started storming.)”

“Check out Joe Friels training bible for triathletes. My favorite is Gail Bernhardt's "Training Plans for Multisport Athletes"

Both have good sample workouts for people with different goals.”

“my evening went along similar lines. I watched the tour, worked on some gear and goofed off. I'm supposed to do 2 hours with intervals today. I'm trying out "The Lance Armstrong Performance Program" (Lance and Chris Carmicheal). "7 weeks to the Perfect Ride". This book, and Chris Carmicheals more extensive book look like they have some excellent exersize physio and training.

coolrunning.com is great. I think I'm going to stick with it. I downloaded my data into excell, came out nice. I've added favorite routes, bike and other workouts and my bike as a "shoe". :-D”

“SG, those scales fluctuate due to your hydration level too. Don't fret about what it tells you, that number may not be really acurate. Just use it as a mark of where you're at verses where you'll be a few months down the line. BTW, my home scale says I have 27% body fat (but it used to say 34%!). I don't know wether I believe it or not. Doesn't really matter though, I'm healthy.”

“Hi Sass! Told me I was at 36% last night, both before and after dinner! I've been concentrating on drinking more water to keep me full, and I really think it makes a difference in my "tiredness".

Dhutch, I'll tell G-man the titles of those books. Maybe he can pick them up at the library.

I didn't play on coolrunning.com too mcuh, sounds like you guys are having fun with it! I keep a blank calendar printed from Outlook on my fridge, and just write in when I've exercised. If I hit 4x a week, then I'm happy.”

“my scale reading is way off. It reads 22 now, I think I am more like 17. I weighed 20 or 30# more at a fairly accurate 23%. Haven't calculated it in a long time.

sounds like a BF fixation, but it helps me keep focused thinking about it as a measure of fitness. I also remind myself that I am cutting off trail weight. I am hauling 35# less than I was in Jan!”

“Pathman that's awesome!”

“I was 38" waist on pants, now 34, threatening 32.”

“Covert Bailey's Tape Measure Formula for women under 30


Um, Pathman, what happens with this formula when, um, said woman is not, um, "under 30"? :)”

“I couldn't remember the age, the over 30 is a little different. I'll look it up tonight.”

“Well, I'm only 17 days past the 3-year mark, so I'm sure the other formula would work. Unless, of course, the over-30 calculation allows me more body fat. ;)”

“run it both ways and use the numbers that fit your needs. Isn't that what engineers do? ;-)”

“LOL! Yeah, that's what we do in a nutshell. :)”

“My dad and my brother are engineers.”

“partly inspired by this thread, and partly becuase it is stinky hot and humid out .. . .and mostly because Ihave meant to for months . . ..I swam today.


First I ran for 30 minutes, then stretched briefly, chugged some powerade, showered and swam.


I did 16 laps of a standard pool (is there a standard pool size??) 9 freestyle and 7 breast stroke.

How long is a standard pool?


How many laps in a mile (do I really want to know this??)



Anyhoo .. . i swam for about 10-15 minutes . . I wasn't really trying to acomplish anything . ..just getting my feet wet (so to speak).”

“Way to go lee. I hate swimming but it's become obvious I'll have to do some work on that as well.”