Reform

Mountain biking has lost it's edge for me. I ride, I train, I enjoy it to some extent, but it is nothing new. After a couple years of riding pretty consistently and intensely, I am faster and stronger, but less excited. We won our division again in the Summer Solstice 24-hr race. I didn't really care and wasn't surprised. Nonetheless, it took me more than a week to feel fresh again.

Scratching my head and wondering, it occurred to me that I enjoy lifting weights but have been too embarrassed to be so vain as to bodybuild. The feeling I get from a workout is better than the feeling I get from spinning (my form of training during the week for mountain biking). I'd rather workout with weights than spin, and, like putting money in the bank, I should have something to show for it after a while.

This goes with a philosophy first expressed to me by Hector Zubiate, "When in doubt, go for the money." Many jobs and many workouts are very similar. There is a whole industry of self-help books feeding on this vagueness. Thousands of books claim to have the answer for finding just the right job for you - as if we were put on this Earth to do our part in the working economy.

Exercise should keep you healthy and be fun. Work should gain you money and be fun. Work should also have a long-term plan, as should exercise. My exercise plan, right now, is, like most things in my life, vague - as is my career plan...

My vague exercise plan is to follow a three-days per week, full body, routine. Each exercise is basic and compound (versus auxiliary and isolated) focusing on my quads, hams, back, chest, triceps, biceps, shoulders and abs.

To vary things up (although I have not done this yet) I will do three week cycles - 15 reps/set one week, 10 reps/set on the second week, and 5 reps/set on the third week. I am also supposed to start each week with 15 percent less than my 15, 10, or 5 rep maximum weights.

This is my third week of 8 to 10 reps per set. I find it hard to have enough faith in this little system to actually reduce my weights and vary the number of reps. I also do not really know what my 15, 10, and 5 rep maximums are for all of the various exercises. I should record this information, but I find this too pretentious... Get over it, eh?

Approximate 10 rep maximums:
Quads - leg press (400 pounds (max of machine))
- squat (it is a new exercise, so I am starting at 135 lbs - easy)
Hams - curls (140 lbs)
- dead lifts (new exercise, 135 lbs)
back - pull up (220 lbs)
- row (150 lbs)
chest - machine bench (250 lbs)
- free bench (205 lbs)
triceps - cable pull down (150 lbs (machine max))
- dips (have not done weighted dips yet)
biceps - curl (50 lbs dumb bells)
shoulders - inclined press (shoulders, triceps, chest?) (65 lbs dumb bells)
- lateral raises (easy 25 lbs - afraid of damaging shoulder)
Abs - machine crunch (180 lbs)