I have biked 1,024 miles this year!

After today's ride I checked my miles and couldn't believe it, 1,024 miles! If you would have told me 4 years ago that I would ride my bike over 1,000 miles in a year I would have laughed at you, now here I am and it feels great!

We are getting ready to head out on vacation, I am going to accept that we will not be able to eat organic and just live with it, there are no absolutes in this world, right?

Off to prepare for a family birthday party. Oh, I have to mention the cake and icing that I made, it is amazing! You can find the recipe at the food network, it is a Barefoot Contessa recipe, I didn't have the instant coffee powder for the frosting but it still tastes delicious! I am glad a I got a work out in so I can truly enjoy eating a piece!

Pushed my Big Chain Ring!!

I tried to do the entire ride in my largest chain ring in an effort to get adjusted to pushing a bigger gear. I am the granny gear queen and I don’t want to be any longer! So I spent a beautiful morning ride really thinking about technique and form–pulling and pushing with my hamstrings, or as Jen likes to call it, scraping gum off the bottom of my shoe. It is working! I could tell when I was climbing hills that I was more efficient and climbed faster–yippee!

Moved quickly into 2 miles easy off the bike, no calf cramping, I was grateful for this. The run felt great we purposely took and semi-hilly route so the flat race route will feel easy (or at least that’s what we are telling ourselves :-).

Another brick on the books!

April 4 -- I swear I was going faster than that!

Only my feet were freezing, it was nice to not have to fight the wind!

Workout:

• Type: Cycle
• Date: 04/04/2009
• Time: 13:15:00
• Total Time: 1:55:00.00
• Calories: 1502
• Distance: 28 miles
• Average Speed: 14.61 mph
• Max Speed: 31.4 mph
• Ascent: 1,289 ft
• Descent: 1,157 ft

Hill Training Drills

Here is the approximate workout, 10 min. wu L4 6×1 min. hill climbs L9 (coast back down to recover) cd L4.

On a completely different note, I am leaving for Hawaii on Wednesday and I cannot wait, this snow/wind/rain/sun/clouds/green grass/slippery gravel roads has finally worn me down, sun and sand here I come!!!

Workout:

• Type: Cycle
• Date: 03/09/2009
• Time: 19:36:55
• Total Time: 00:35:00.00
• Calories: 457
• Distance: 8.75 miles
• Average Speed: 15 mph

Week 2 off to a good start!

I am mixing up the schedule a bit to accommodate my schedule but it feels good to be in such good shape going into my training, last year my conditioning was marginal, this year I feel great! Today’s workout was a 12 mile bike at level 5-6 with 6 30 seconds spurts at level 10, that hurts! I am really excited about the 70.3!!

Workout:

• Type: Cycle
• Date: 03/04/2009
• Time: 08:58:40
• Total Time: 00:40:00.00
• Calories: 627
• Distance: 12 miles
• Average Speed: 18 mph
• Max Speed: 28.1 mph

Day 1 of 16 week training program!!

Long day, good workout :-) I had to work outside of the office today with 3 or so hours of driving, the first half was snow covered and slippery, yuck! It was a great day, I got a lot of work done.

After I wrapped things up I went and visited a friend in the hospital, she had a heart procedure done (it went well, yea!). It worked out very well that I happened to be in the town where she had the procedure done. As I expected she was her old self--she has this big laugh that makes me smile, way deep down in my soul. She will be in the hospital for the night and then hopefully will be able to come home tomorrow.

Oh yeah, it was the first day of my 16 week workout program to get ready for the 70.3, I am really excited and want to do well, so my plan is to kick ass and take names in my training. That is my plan today, ask me in 8 weeks, things might be a little different :-). Today's workout was a 10 miler at level 5-6 with 4 x 30 seconds at level 10. I ate pesto pasta way too close to my bike ride, I felt a little like Michael Scott when he ate fettuccini alfredo before the rabies run, oy!

Back from Lazy town!

I just wasn’t feelin’ it yesterday so I just took the whole day off, which had me feeling not great about myself this morning, it’s a vicious cycle!

Anyway, great ride this afternoon, had to do it on the trainer because it is still too cold here. I can’t wait for the sun and sand! While I was riding I watched an Oprah show that I had DVR'd, it was about cleaning up your messy life, getting organized, all that good stuff. It was kind of funny because just this morning I purged my closet, the mountain of shoes and clothing to donate is ridiculous! Anyway, what I did this morning was reinforced by the "organization expert" that was on the show, I think I kick ass (just kidding, kind of), how do you get to become an organization expert anyway? Nobody would ever hire me if I tried that as a profession, a professional painter maybe (walls, not canvas) but certainly not anything to do with organization. Well that was kind of a tangent...

Training for the 70.3 officially starts on Tuesday, and I can't wait to get back into the pool on a regular basis (just kidding!).

Workout:

• Type: Cycle
• Date: 02/21/2009
• Time: 16:10:26
• Total Time: 1:00:00.00
• Calories: 941
• Distance: 17.11 miles
• Average Speed: 17.11 mph
• Max Speed: 31.7 mph