the great indoors

I've been out riding in the rain a couple of times this week. It's sort of like jumping into a cold lake to swim--it's not so bad once you get going, but it's pretty hard to get motivated to do it in the first place. Also, I don't think it's the smartest thing to do. It's a lot of wear and tear on the bike, plus I worry about the traffic.

So it looks like it's just about time to return to indoor training. yay.

I hit the "Y" a couple of times this week. I'm trying a new approach to weight training based on an article that I read over the summer that indicated the amount of energy expended while lifting was actually more important than the weight lifted.

So instead of doing a limited number of sets and repetitions and ramping up the weights over the winter, I'm using far less weight, but doing reps until exhaustion. For example, instead of doing 3 sets of 8 leg presses at 300 pounds (or whatever), I do 35 reps at 220 pounds (or whatever). I'm impressed at how horrible it is. At first, it feels easy to move the lighter weight, but then the burn starts, and eventually it feels like my muscles are setting concrete. By the end of a workout, I'm limping out of the gym.

I still haven't setup the trainer this year. There are still plenty of decent weather days ahead and I'm not in any hurry to start that.