What Lance Armstrong just accomplished in the 2009 Tour de France ranks up there with his unbelievable comeback after cancer. My gut level feeling is that, had he been the sole team leader unencumbered by the need to support Contador, he would have won the Tour. But, his third place finish isn’t what pisses me off me …

The thing that really puts a burr in my cycling shorts is all the hype about Lance being “old”. GET REAL, FOLKS! How the hell can anyone refer to thirty-seven years of age as being old? The median age of US residents is 37, with the average life expectancy being 78 years. He's just a mature teenager ...

Although the research does suggest that VO2 Max (maximal aerobic capacity) decreases about 1% per year after age 25, this is based on the entire population (not just athletes). Research also shows that, for well trained athletes, the decrease can be as small as 3-4% over a 25 years period. Bottom line …. Lance is certainly not old from a physiological perspective (and … neither am I at age 60!).

Enough about Le Tour and old folks. I’ve gotten quite a bit of feedback from people regarding my most recent newspaper column (“Building Fitness Back Up”, July 25). Interestingly enough, the people who contacted me regarding that column ranged from young (mid 20’s) to a senior citizen (age 77). The common thread ….hmmm, maybe anyone could start a fitness program if they just planned a little and started at an appropriate level.

One of the promises that I made in the 7/25 newspaper column was that I would post some of my “Starting Over” workouts and a few excerpts from my training log. Here are my journal entries from Saturday, 7/25 and Sunday 7/26, and my workout plan for the coming week is also listed below. Completing this week’s workouts may be a little dicey, since this coming week is a chemo treatment period (Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday).

Training log entry, 7/25: “Completed a 40 minute walk/jog workout on the Dirt Road From Hell at Middle Concho Park. Started with a fast paced 10 minutes walk, and then did eight repeats of jog one minute @ 9 min/mile and walk three minutes. My heart rate while walking fast was 95-100 BPM, and then rose to 150 by the end of each jog interval.”

Training log entry, 7/26: “Completed a 50 minute, 6.2 mile mountain bike spin on dirt roads with my wife. Pace was very easy, average hr =96 and max 123. I could have ridden much further and faster today”.

Workout schedule for week of July 26:

Sunday – easy paced bike ride 45-60 minutes
Monday – 15 minute cardio warm up, then 30 minute full body strength session (light weights, 2 sets w/ 15 repeats per exercise.
Tuesday – 35 minute walk/jog, 10 min fast walk warm-up, then 6x 1 min jog with 3 min fast walk recovery.
Wednesday – easy 30 minute spin on stationary bike w/ 4x 1 minute high RPM spin-ups + easy gym workout (note: I’ll be hooked up to a portable chemo pump)
Thursday – 30 minute fast walk on treadmill (note: I’ll be hooked up to a portable chemo pump)
Friday - easy 30 minute spin on stationary bike w/ 4x 1 minute high RPM spin-ups + easy gym workout. This is the final chemo day of the week, so I may opt for a nap instead.
Saturday - 40 minute walk/jog workout, warm up with a fast paced 10 minutes walk, then eight repeats of jog one minute @ 9 min/mile and walk three minutes, cool down.



UPCOMING EVENTS
August 6: Mountain bike TT series, www sanangelobicycleassociation.com
August 9: Wool Capitol Triathlon, http://www.ironheadrp.com/
August 8-9: Texas State Time Trial Championships, Castroville (near San Antonio), http://www.txbra.org/
August 13: Road bike TT series, www sanangelobicycleassociation.com
August 15: Southland Shuffle, roadlizards.org
August 29: Tiparrary Creek King of the Rockies mountain bike race, Winter Park, CO, http://www.epicsingletrack.com/default.asp?page=racedes/race8des.html
Dec. 10-13: Cyclocross National Championships, Bend, OR, http://www.visitbend.com/Bend_Oregon_Activities_Recreation/National-Championships/Cyclo-cross/default.aspx