One Step Forward

You'd usually finish this phrase by saying two steps back... right? But I'm hoping for only 1 step back... I'm okay with staying in Neutral; better than moving backwards!

After yesterday's wonderful ride my left hamstring was really hurting and I chalked it up to the hamstring isolation drills we did during our team spin (In hind sight I should have refrained from this drill). By the time I got home, I was able to admit it wasn't just sore.  Alas, while watching the Super Bowl at a friend's house last night I freely admitted that it's pulled. This wasn't quite the way I wanted to start out my week of training.

I shot my coach an email letting her know of my predicament before hitting the sack around 10:30 last night... Up well before my alarm clock at 5 a.m. this morning, I was hoping and praying it was all a dream and my hami was fine, but that wasn't the case... and at 5:20 we headed to the Y for laps and Yoga.

Aside: When asking everyone I know how long it would take to swim 400 yds, the answer ranged from 5 to 15 min.  Let's just say I was on the high end of that estimate.  In my life I had only swam laps once before today.

The laps were tiring, especially for my upper body which was awakened by exercise for the first time in a long while.  The yoga was "okay".  Background: I have a 6" scar (and I'm being nice here, I've never measured it and it could easily be longer than 6") on my left knee... that knee can't bend as far as the right.  And I definitely can't sit in a kneeling position, which apparently happens a lot in yoga classes.  The scar tissue also makes it interesting anytime the knee is flat on the ground bearing weight.  And the teacher's name... "Pandora"... seriously?  I'm guessing it was her stage name.  Anyway... yoga is not my cup of tea... but if it helps build my core and my flexibility (previously accomplished with martial arts)... I'll stick with it... I simply wish there was not so much kneeling involved.

After that class on the way home the hubby kept inquiring as to what was wrong... I kept telling him nothing, I'm just tired.  And being the wonderful hubby that he is... he knew that "nothing" always means something... So he kept asking.   Finally we both agreed that we're both exhausted from the late night and early morning (first early morning is always the worst)... and on top of that I'm pissed about my hami.  I know... there's nothing to do about it now... but I can still be pissed about it right?  Especially after getting this response from my coach regarding what I can and can't do:

"Schedule a deep tissue massage... NO spin No bike and NO run... Be VERY CAREFUL. U do NOT want to tear it more! Rest and recover."

That first part I like (scheduled for Tuesday at noon), but not at the expense of my workouts... And there we have it folks... this is what I'm very pissed about. No pub run tonight... no 4-5 mile tempo run Wednesday... and possibly no night ride at RideOn Thursday!  Too many No's when everything started out so promising.

But I'm going to be a good girl... b/c the rest of the message contained the following: "Do it right and u can be back on the bike this weekend! Be stupid and be out 2 weeks!"  I trust her... and I'm not going to be stupid... after all, that's what got me here in the first place!

On a good note - we did have super yummy quesadillas, nachos, red pepper dip, and hershey's kiss sugar cookies last night while watching the Super Bowl.  And while I didn't get a picture of them, I'll share a picture from a mahi mahi fish taco fixed at the end of January:

Cheers!

Weekend Woes & Goals

Have you ever anxiously awaited an order from the internet... constantly checking the tracking status, and then... the wonderful day comes when it's "Out for Delivery"... and you never know when between that 7:30 am time stamp and the evening it might arrive.  So you're constantly checking the updates to see if it's been delivered.  Friday was like that for me, and thankfully the package arrived around lunch so both the hubby & I were home.

The Omron Full Body Sensor Body Fat and Body Composition Monitor :
This monitor is very easy to setup and use... however the numbers it provided me weren't exactly what I was expecting... let's just say my body fat percentage (the reason I bought the scale in the first place) was waaaayyyyyy higher than expected.  I always thought myself pretty lean... but apparently there's not as much muscle present as I'd thought.  I used to workout (strength training) 3-4 nights / week and played a couple different sports so I know I was leaner then, but I thought... with all the riding I do... it has to make up for the lack of strength training in some way... right?  We'll see.  Some of the reviews I've read say that the numbers are sometime a little off, but at least they are consistent.  So I'll wait for my body analysis and do a measurement on this scale afterward.  The percentage they are off, I'll use that for my calculations going forward.

But that body fat % stuck with me the rest of the day... and into the evening.  While cooking Friday evening the hubby and I received our training plans for the next two weeks... here's what mine looks like:

Sat - Spin 2 hour focus on pyramid intervals
Sun - Outdoor Ride - Heritage Loop
Mon - 6 am Yoga @ Y & Swim 400 yd PM run 3 miles (pub run)
Tues - Off
Wed - Run 4-5 Miles
Thur - Outdoor ride or Trainer Class
Fri - 6 am Yoga @ Y & Swim 400 yds
Sat - 30 mile ride and Run 10 min
Sun - Heritage Park Loop
Mon - Swim 200: 5x50's with 1:00 rest after each 50: 200 cood down & 7 pm KettleBell @ Y
Tues - Interval class 5:45 am & Outdoor Ride
Wed - Swim 600 yds & 7pm KettleBell
Thur - Outdoor Ride or Trainer
Fri - 6 am Yoga
Sat - Spring Training Series Race

Thankfully we have relatively similar plans so we can do much of the above together.  Finished cooking and enjoyed some "Fancy Mac-n-Cheese" (Macaroni with Artisanal Cheese & Chorizo):

It was a great dinner and we headed to bed dreaming of our 2 hour Pyramid Intervals trainer class at Roadwaves the next morning... the last thing I said to the hubby before falling asleep, "xx% body fat!? I've got xx% body fat!?!"

Saturdays Intervals and a team spin class came and went... but come Sunday morning my hamstrings were tight... especially my left one.  I stretched it for about 15-20 minutes and started prepping for the ride.  The sun was shining and the very thought of riding outdoors, no matter how cold it might be, was too much to resist.  The hubby and I had two simple breakfasts about 2 hours apart to make sure we had the right fuel for the ride and headed down to Simpsonville.

There were close to 30 people in our ride group which later split to an A & B group.  First... I can really see the difference the trainer workouts are doing for me.  My usual place in a ride is at the back of the front group, the front of the back group... or no man's land in between the two.  Sunday I found myself able to bridge more easily than ever!  Perhaps after a hill I was dropped back in no man's land and instead of coasting to the rear group... I'd let out a burst of energy and sprint ahead to catch the front group.

Another group would get ahead and I'd be exhausted thinking there's no point in trying to bridge b/c once I get there I'll be exhausted and they'll leave me again.  But that didn't happen.  Mentally I knew I could do it and I'd bridge, realizing once I got there how much easier it was to recover while drafting off the riding in front of me.

As we got about 1 mile from the entrance to Heritage Park my teammate Jackie and I were once again in no man's land.  Larger group ahead and a group behind... so I came around her wheel and said "jump on, we're bridging this!"  I got in the drops, found a cadence I thought I could hold (channeling my inner Jeni) and pulled us up to the group ahead... by the time I got there I had such momentum and could see the entrance so I kept pounding it out, almost catching up to the hubby.

The feeling of satisfaction after that ride... wow!  I saw some real changes in my riding and can't wait to continue the hard work!

The longest day...

I've had longer days... actually not that long ago I had trully long days that didn't seem to end (October P3C3 ride)... However today ranks right up there with some of the longest...

It started with a 6 am alarm... which quickly became a 6:30 alarm.  That one could not be ignored.  Exactly 1 hour from this point I needed to be on my way out the door and headed to a 2 hour trainer class... In that hour I needed to eat, prep, make post class snack, pack car, play w/ the pup, and wake up, not necessarily in that order.  Alas - made it out the door at 7:31 (w/o forgetting bike and trainer... but still forgetting other items).

Trainer class was good... until my trainer (bike trainer not human trainer) decided it wanted to play with me... How so? Well... say you're doing a 1 minute sprint... in the big ring, but easy gear... and all of the sudden you can't pedal b/c the trainer has decided to be temperamental... Then my hip/lower back started to bother me (I'm seeing a wonderful chiropractor for this).  Alas after some stretching and a break... back on the bike to finish the two hours of solid "pyramid intervals"

Then hit one of my great sponsors, Carolina Triathlon, to grab some goggles and a swimsuit for my new training plan which arrived last night (go figure the plan had "pyramid intervals" trainer class on it).  Aside: I've got to swim 400 yards Monday morning... and do a yoga class before work... the yoga I know is 1 hour... I've NO clue how long the 400 yards will take me... I'm guessing more than 30 min!

Next it was on to a local gym for my cycling team's "bonding" session in the rain... aka: another spin class... 1 1/2 hours later we headed to grab a bite at the best pizza joint in downtown Greenville (not to be confused w/ the best pizza joint in Greenville).

1 Jerk Chicken Salad (& 1 jerk waiter) later I'm headed home... By this time I'm exhausted but still have too much on my plate... the hubby and I were suppose to clean house today and run errands... We decided to leave the cleaning to another weekend and run errands.  WRONG ANSWER! Why?  Not because the house was more in need (which it is)... but because the traffic at 3 o'clock on this Saturday... was like the Saturday before Christmas.  Can anyone on Earth explain to me why the entire town was out shopping and driving poorly?  Seriously... I want to know how I missed this memo!

We hit Michael's (thing 1 - check).  Went to Performance Fuel only to find it only operates online now (things 2 - 6 - no check)... Went to Green's only to find the parking lot too full so we didn't bother (thing 7 - no check)... Hit The Great Escape to place a couple orders for the hubby (things 8 & 9 - check)... and where, on a whim I picked up this wonderful cap:
non-thing on list - CHECK!

Then back to Carolina Triathlon to return previously purchased swimsuit to get one that actually fits (thing 11 - check)

On to grocery store to get dinner and make up for Greene's (thing 10 - check, non-things - 11-15 check)

Walgreen's for the kinds of stuff you get at Walgreen's... then... finally...HOME SWEET HOME!

However at this point... it's after 4 o'clock... and I need to start prepping for dinner.

But... perhaps this whole day was worth the dinner... it started out with an 8 bone rack of lamb, organic red baby potatoes, some fresh rosemary from our backyard, some EVOO, salt, pepper, rice wine vinegar, shallots... A little searing and roasting later and... VOILA:

Throw in a movie (british comedy) and pumpkin chocolate chip cookies from The Fresh Market... and you my friends have a long long very long day...

More to come on: Friday night's dinner, the new scale (insert scary scream here) and riding in the Great Outdoors...

For now... good night and good riddance!!

First things first...

This new training plan hasn't even started and I'm out there buying products trying to keep this economy afloat!  "Like what?" you ask...

Well... it all started a couple weeks ago when the hubby and I were reading our latest copy of Outside and lo and behold there was an article on the best diets (not so much lose weight diets, but overall daily nutrition) for athletes (see article here).  The Mediterranean Prescription ended up working the best and we decided to try out the book, mainly for it's recipes.

Next another couple we know ordered a recipe book for athletes called, The Athlete's Palate.  They raved about it to the point where we decided it was a must have... and decided to get that as well.

At the same time one of my team sponsors, Greg Spindler, advised each of us to purchase a book he just finished, "Racing Weight". So, it was added to the same order:





I've since cooked recipes from the books: Chicken Cacciatore (Mediterranean Prescription) & Marathon Fettucine w/ Fire Roasted Tomatoes & Shrimp (The Athletes Palate) that the hubby loved. And this week I started reading, "Racing Weight"... and decided we need a scale that not only reads weight, but body fat%... and can store at least 2 profiles.

After searching the web yesterday I ordered the Omron Full Body Sensor Body Fat and Body Composition Monitor.

So, thanks to my Amazon Prime membership, this bad boy arrives tomorrow and I'll get to check out my weight, body fat %, visceral fat level, skeletal muscle %, resting metabolism, body age, body mass index. The reviews have varied but for the price I think it will do the trick.  Even if the numbers are a little off, I'm looking for consistency (or consistent decreases) when it comes to Body Fat & Weight.

At least I've got a start w/ some good recipes, a good nutrition guide, some measurement tools... and my regular rides and workouts while I wait for my training plan to arrive.

Special note - last night's typical run was switched to a kick-butt Indoor TT (check out GottaRun's post about it or Yummy Noms) at the Greenville Cycling Center supporting Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.  I came in 4th... 1 second behind my rock star team manager Kelly, and 1 minute behind the hubby... not a bad start.  I'll be interested to try this course again at the end of the summer...

Until then... I've got a trainer calling my name tonight, maybe a run tomorrow, and hopefully some riding this weekend. Cheers!!

The beginning of something new...

I ride my bike... am I a cyclist? I'm on a team... we're sponsored... we train... we race... but am I a cyclist?  Initially my response would be Yes.  Definitely. Am I a Serious Cyclist? An Avid Cyclist?

Some background - I grew up playing sports: softball, basketball, volleyball, martial arts.  In college I played D-1 basketball, intramural volleyball, indoor soccer, softball, and flag-football.There was always a goal in mind... win the tournament. make the playoffs. win a sparring match. achieve my next belt. make 1st team all district. win county. win sub-regionals. win regionals. And a plan to reach that goal always came with it... and surrounded by my team we worked toward our goals.

In my twenties I focused on volleyball & tennis.  practices leads to season wins leads to tournament appearances and possible wins. That was the plan, no biggie.  Just have fun with it.

So back to cycling.  Last year was my first year of cycling and I was fortunate to be on a sponsored team.  I did my best to train when I had a chance given my work schedule and it was good.  But it could have been better.  My non-cycling friends thought I was crazy all the time and effort I put into it... But compared to my cycling friends, it was nothing...

I think this qualifies me as a cyclist... but what about the next level? In November my cycling team hosted a workshop for endurance athletes.  The first part of this workshop was about goals.  Jim Cunningham (Greenville Cycling Center) explained to us the importance of setting goals in many levels.  So I did - Place in a Cat 4 Women's Road Race, Place in the top ten of the Women's Cat 4 SC RR Championships, Complete my first Triathlon, Complete my first half-marathon.  So there are the goals, but how whill I get there?

It is with this in mind that I begin the new year and have decided to start something new: a plan (a REAL plan) to achieve my goals. I will be working with a friend who is starting a new training business to manage my workouts, nutrition, and overall health.  I will work on my body composition, core, flexibility, caloric intake, miles in the saddle, speed drills, strength trng, swim stroke, runs, all with intention of reaching my goals - the most important of which are my cycling goals. <-- Gotta win some races and keep those sponsors happy right?!

I'll be posting updates to the plan here... for your perusing pleasure... looking for ways to stay motivated! Especially as work and life get in the way!

Before I let you go... I gotta promote my latest cycling gift from the hubby:

To go with my super cool GHS Every Woman Team kit... I have a shiny new Pink Castelli Riding Cap... sporting some Italian flag ribbon... It is definitely too cool for school.  You might even catch me wearing it while typing away on this blog...

cheers!

Holidays

The holidays are a time to spend with family and reflect back... My parents, grandmother, brother, his gf, and all said persons pups joined us for Thanksgiving with the Hubby's family.  It was a tight squeeze in our house... but the dogs were great! :-)  It was wonderful to have the family around and have my mom here to help me put up our Christmas Tree... only the 2nd one for the Hubby & me.  But 5 days with 3 extra adults and 4 extra dogs in one's house can be a little trying.  We were very happy to have our house back after the holiday.

The following week we had our entire P3C3 crew over for a Pizza Festa... we cleaned and cleaned... we prep'd & prep'd... and they descended on our abode.  I was tossing dough and adding toppings, the hubby was grilling two at a time... and the peeps... mangiavano mangiavano... but apparently not enough because we had pizza coming out of our ears for a week. We ended up throwing most away... along with quite a bit of veggies and cheese... but a great time was had by all and we'll make it our annual Christmas party from here on... I mean, who doesn't like pizza?

The following night we participated in the Annual Greenville Poinsett Christmas Parade where we decorated our bikes with lights and rode in the parade to promote the P3C3 mission. It was wonderful to see the streets of downtown lined 10 deep in many spots with adults and children... screaming out... "Merry Christmas!".  I'll definitely do it again next year... and dress up more than my bike!

The following weekend, we had a company Christmas Party and more guests visit us from out of town for a Tacky Christmas Sweater Party benefiting Camp Opportunity.  It was great fun... but once again, we cleaned and cleaned to have guests stay over... and then we slept and slept at the end of the weekend.

This past weekend, the weekend before Christmas... we gloriously had nothing to do... so we stayed in, watched movies, went riding, grabbed dinner with friends, and had a Christmas party with my cycling teammates (okay... so maybe we had some things to do)... and now... it's the work week and we're completely unmotivated and ready to head to Florida for Christmas.

But in all this, we have something else that makes us look back and think.  I have an opportunity for some great wandering... to the other side of the world.  And if we go... it will be with the hubby and puppy, leaving all our friends and family here in the states... not knowing when we might return.  We would miss watching our nieces and nephews grow up... miss spending time with our parents and grandparents as they get older.  Miss our friends here, but for the opportunity of a lifetime.

The career move would be great, this is what we went to school for... however is it worth starting over? Leaving family and friends... not being a few hours away from family who may become ill? Will we start a family over there and our family miss out on it? So many questions, and some will be answered today.  The biggest one I can think of... will I enter my parents house in Florida filled with brothers, sisters, parents, grandmothers, aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, and nephews... and for Christmas tell them we're moving to the other side of the world?

I can't worry about this for now... I must pray for guidance... and ride my bike!  It's amazing how clearly some of my thoughts can come on the bike... and how I can talk to God as I struggle up a mountain!

Looking back

One year ago the hubby & I were riding in a Saturday morning shop ride out at the old Carolina Triathlon on Woodruff Rd (now Ride On)... Riding with the B group I was in my normal position... at the back of the front 10 riders... but ahead of the rear riders... always working to bridge up.  At the end of the ride I met one of the ladies who had stayed with the front group... she said they were starting a women's team and asked if I wanted to be on it... Me? A rider of 3 months join a team??  The key was could I do it while traveling? Would I be able to keep up with them while only training on the weekends?? I said yes, we exchanged emails & numbers... and I went through the application process, was accepted, and thanks to that morning ride... one year later I'm a different rider.

The person I met that day would go on to be my new team manager and friend!  I was accepted onto the GHS Every Woman Cycling Team... which would be a way for me to really grow in cycling and meet new people in Greenville.  While we were enjoying cycling... this new team gave both the hubby and I an in with the cycling culture here in Greenville.  It gave me people to call up at a moment's notice to ride... especially with my crazy schedule... over this past year I was never at a loss for people to ride with on a Friday afternoon...  It gave me a team of people who were striving for the same goals and trying to be better human beings.

Since that day I've clocked countless hours on my bike, never been left behind on a ride, rode farther and longer than I ever have... and had more fun that I could ever have imagined.  I am so thankful to the ladies of GHS Every Woman for taking me in and making both the hubby and I a part of Greenville's wonderful cycling community