Vacation, Healthy Heather Style

I've been on vacation (well, what passes for vacation in my family, which means all us crazies piling into my aunt's house in the middle of a cornfield to drink wine, swap stories around the campfire, and play bingo with the carnies at the fair across the alley) so workouts were a little hit and miss.  In fact, I said I was going to take a break from exericse but come on, be serious.  Did anyone really think I would do that?  No, I took advantage of a late start getting on the road to eeek out a workout with Capt. Awesome before we left, and cranked out 90 minutes of cardio the next day while hubby and son slept! 

The next morning I woke up thinking it would be a rest day.  Every one in a while I try that whole "relaxation" think I keep hearing about.  But by 3:00 I was itching for some activity so I hopped on my aunt's one-speed and biked to the local grocery store to pick up some 70% cacao chocolate for the s'mores and the ingredients for my Black Bean Turkey Burgers.  It's a short trip and the weather was gorgeous, and by the time I got back I felt appropriately challenged. It was the perfect vacation workout - blood pumping but not sweating, challenged but not fatigued. It was a vacation from my vacation!

As I pulled back into the yard with my backpack full of groceries, my sister called out, "I thought you were taking a break this week!"

Ha!  I just did! :)

Good day!

Get On Your Bike and Ride!

It's National Bike to Work Week!  I loooove to ride my bike.  I like just randomly riding around, exploring things, peeking into people's yards to see what kind of patio furniture they have, and most of all, I like not driving.  I'm a really bad driver and I really despise it. Driving is such a waste of time!  I'd rather be my own machine.

So I bike.  Today, I biked to the produce stand.  When I got there, it was closed.  Oh well.

Me at the produce stand that was closed. Bummer.

A few weeks ago I mentioned to my wonderful, cycling-enthusiast friend Jennifer that I wanted to start biking more for errands and whatnot.  She's a city planner who has spent much of her career developing bike-friendly communities, as well as a fellow preschooler mom to a precious little boy who I think had a bike helmet before he had a pacifier.  So, a few days later, some handbooks on urban cycling appeared in my son's cubby at school -- two cycling and walking-related coloring books (I assumed those are for my son), and one pamphlet titled, Riding Confidently, Legally, and Safely.  Apparently she had heard about my driving skills and had concern for my safety should I make good on my plans.

When I was a kid, I would ride my bike all over town and just look at things. I explored neighborhoods.  I looked at spooky houses. I remember the first time I figured out that riding against the wind was much more satisfying than riding with it as long as there was a hill immediately following.  And, if I am being completely honest, I rode around and picked up dead, flattened frogs and saved them in a paper bag in case I needed to exact revenge on someone. It's true. I'm disgusting. So if you went to Clearwood Junior High School and ever found a dead frog in your book bag, it was me getting you back for wronging me somehow. But let's be clear here - I didn't ever touch them with my hands. I picked them up with leaves. I mean, I do have my limits.

ANYWAY.

I'm not going to get to bike to work every day this week, but I am going to shoot for at least one.  Why don't you give it a try, as well? Here are some tips for urban cycling in case you do. But please leave the dead frogs on the ground.

I might need them.

Pen to Paper! This week's workout.

Ack! My head is swimming with deadlines this week and I need to get a workout schedule on paper - so here's what's on tap for me this week. How bout you?

Today - 45 mins elliptical intervals (while studying ACE Personal Cert stuff - multitasking at 4am!), then 25 mins bike intervals, some bicep/chest/hamstring stuff, and then I had to leave, sadly. I HAVE to start getting to work on time, yall. And I had to stop and pick up some greek yogurt for my afternoon snack. So...that means some sprint intervals at lunch before - you guessed it - Pilates. And that is Monday.

The rest of the week:

Tuesday: Spartacus circuit, 5-mile run, upper body class with Pomeroy (bring it), and...*maybe* some elliptical intervals if I need to study. And I need to study.

Wednesday: More elliptical/study (six weeks to test day!), cycling the hills, back/triceps/quads, and...that whole getting-to-work-on-time thingy. Bah. At lunch - Pilates. Ahhhh.....

Thursday: rest day! And a lower body class, cause you know I can't really rest.

Friday: long day! Spartacus, elliptical intervals, bike intervals, shoulders/calves/hip flexors, the dreaded plyometrics, and at lunch - sprint intervals and Pilates. Maybe an outside bike ride that afternoon if the weather is nice.

And soon I need to start swimming! Hmmmm, I can smell the chlorine already.

So... whaddya doing this week to be well?

The Bike Thing.

Yeah, so I think the first thing I need to do to prepare my bike for my upcoming triathlon is to take the baby seat off the back.

The triathlon I signed up for, then told my husband I wasn't going to do anymore because I needed to simplify my life, then decided was back on because I already paid for it, and at least twice a week decide I don't have time to train for is in about a month, give or take a few sinus infections. At this point, I've turned it into an experiment to see what happens when someone just shows up for a triathlon with no preparation whatsoever and decides to compete. And you know, I'm okay with that.

But then it occurred to me that they probably have some kind of maximum time allowance for these things, and the people volunteering on the course are likely not that interested in spending their entire Saturday waiting on some girl on a Huffy to haul her butt over the finish line. And also my son has a birthday party to attend that afternoon. So I figured I should probably train a little just to be on the safe side.

On Sunday I headed out for a little challenge - ride 15 miles on my bike, then jump off and run three miles. I got my bike out of the shed and tried to take off the baby seat. It was pretty complicated and I hadn't had any coffee so I decided to just go with it. I mean, it was just practice, right?

The little foot rests fell off as I turned the first corner.

So thanks to a handy little site called MapMyRun, which I have used in the past to chart out runs in new cities or just confirm that what I thought was six miles really was six miles, I had a route planned out, which basically involved riding a loop around my neighborhood a couple of times. I had my iPod stashed in the mailbox to put on when I returned and ran along my normal 3.1 mile route. Easy peasy. I checked my watch and took off.

And then I realized I forgot my gloves. Damn it. Luckily I remembered reading an article about how muttering obscenities under your breath helps relieve pain and created some new vocabulary for the books.

Riding out in the cold and solitude of a Sunday morning was really nice. There was little traffic, I got to see some gorgeous wildlife (15 deer!) and if I could clench my teeth hard enough to ignore my frozen hands, I could feel spring coming.

But it was pretty clear that my Giant Sedona wasn't going to cut it in the triathlon locally known as the "Revenge of the Hills." I found myself enjoying my ride, but spending more time trying to peer over fences to see what kind of patio furniture my neighbors had than focusing on my time or technique.

So I got home and did a little research on what kind of bike I should be riding. You know, just in case I change my mind and decide I actually do care about my triathlon performance. I found this article about choosing a bike for a beginner triathlete. It gave me some good ideas of things to consider when shopping, and inspired me to at least start looking in the classifieds for something used that I can tool around on.

I may not have as much time to train for this event as I need or would like, but I still want to feel like I am somewhat prepared and ready to compete, and I am fairly certain that I will give it another go when my life is more suited to focus on training. So I'm open to advice from you vets out there - what do you recommend for a beginner triathlete?

Until then, I'm pretty sure I'll be the only one lined up with a basket and a bell. :)