Indoor Fun!

This past weekend, we had a cold front move into Colorado, so I knew I would have to do my long brick inside.  I wasn't really looking forward to it, but I knew I just needed to get it done!

My alarm went off at 4AM and I DID NOT want to get up.  It was so warm and cozy in my covers, but I managed to drag myself out of bed, get dressed, and head to my basement.

Here is where I would spend the next 6 hours!

Yes, that is a concrete wall!  Our basement isn't finished yet, so it's a little creepy.  BUT, it makes for a great workout area!

This is my "Motivational Wall"  This is right next to my treadmill and I love it!

Here I am at the beginning.  A little sleepy eyed, but I'm ready to go!!

I started my bike workout by doing the IMAZ spinerval.  Coach Troy is awesome!  My husband and I have quite a collection of spinervals and I have to say I really like them.
The IMAZ spinerval was roughly 2hrs. long, and basically did 1 loop of the 3 loop IMAZ bike course.  Doing the spinerval actually made the first 2hrs. go by pretty quickly.  Coach Troy had a lot of great tips throughout the workout that I plan on incorporating at IMAZ.  One of the big things was that because the course is relatively flat, you'll be able to go pretty fast.  He said a lot of people will go super fast, because of their egos, and end up burning out their legs.  Instead, he suggested really concentrating on cadence during the first part of the 1st loop to make sure that you don't go too fast or try to push a bigger gear, which will kill you legs pretty quickly.  Overall, I liked the spinerval and thought it would be a good resource for anyone doing IMAZ.

I was originally planning on doing the spinerval twice, but decided to put in a movie instead.  I ended up watching 2 movies, which really helped the time go by.  BUT, I have to say, after 4hrs, I was dragging.  I was ready to be OFF of my bike and I was tired of being in the basement.  Because I was home, I could have easily quit, but I pushed through those thoughts and continued on!

FINALLY, I was done!  WOOHOO! 


73 miles isn't too bad for a 5hr. trainer ride!  Besides, it's all about time in the saddle..right??!


















SOOOO glad to be done with the bike!  I don't know if you can tell, but my hair and shirt are completely soaked!!


After a quick change of shoes, I was onto the treadmill for my 1hr. run!


I started off at an easy pace for the first 15minutes and my legs felt great!  Gradually, I increased my pace and just kept on going.  Before I knew it, I was almost done with my run!  I couldn't believe the time went by so quickly!  Then, I looked down, and this is what I saw:

YES!!!

5 hours on the trainer....DONE!

1 hour on the treadmill...DONE!

Woohoo!!!







I went upstairs, and this is what I saw:

Are you kidding me?  BRRRRR!!
I am soo glad I decided to do my workout inside!












I was pretty gross and I'm pretty sure I smelled awful, so I took a shower, and pulled on my favorite Zoot recovery tights.  I also put on my favorite warm and cozy slippers. :)





For the rest of the day, we hooked up our laptop to our TV and watched the live streaming of KONA!  What an awesome race! AND, I cannot believe Chrissie ended up winning!  She is just simply amazing!

Spring has sprung!

So, today has just been awesome and it's not even over yet. :)

I got up at 4:30 for my swim and I felt completely rested and ready to tackle my new set of drills.  Usually when I wake up early I am tired and want to crawl back into bed.  Not today!  I got to the pool and had the lane to myself for my entire swim!  Woohoo!  I love not having to share a lane.  My legs felt a little tired from my 11M and 5M runs, but they loosened up after a couple 100meters and I was good to go.  After awhile, I put on my fins and started on my drills.  I realized another benefit of fins, other than helping with my kick, is that they help me focus on just what I'm doing with my arms.  It's nice to wear them and not have to worry about my kick, balance, and hand position all at the same time.  I swam for about 45 minutes, hit the shower, than went into the gym to do a short lifting session.  I got home, made myself a pot of Mate tea, went in the basement for some core work, and enjoyed some quite time by myself before my boys and husband woke up.  Even though I was basically alone while I worked out, the quiet restful alone time is something I don't get that often, and it was really nice.

Oh, did I mention what the high today and tomorrow is going to be?  No?  Well, take a look at this!

In the 70s!  Hooray for spring weather...finally!

After I picked up my son from preschool, I put my youngest down for his nap, and went outside with my oldest.  Today is the first day that he is actually able to wear shorts and a t-shirt outside and he was loving it!  After reading about this idea from a couple blogs, I decided to get my bike trainer and head outside with it.  I don't know why I've never thought of it before, but it is awesome!  I hooked up my bike, sprayed on the sunscreen, and got to work.  There was a gentle breeze that was perfect for cooling me off a little.  The only thing that sucked was the occasional whiff of dog poop that lingered my way.  Yuck!





Speaking of my dog, he didn't quite grasp the concept that I couldn't play ball with him.  He kept dropping his ball by my tire, then laying down waiting for me to throw it to him.  Finally, after trying about 10 times he got the hint and stopped trying.  Poor thing.  At least my son was there to play ball with him.





I got in a total of 45 minutes on my trainer!  Woohoo!  It was great to be outside "riding" even if I wasn't on the real roads.  I think I will definitely be doing this again.

And, check out what is blooming in our little flower garden.  It's tiny, but so beautiful and a definite sign that spring has sprung!  :)

Oh, and LOST is on tonight.  I am a total LOST fan and cannot believe that the season is almost over.  I have no idea how it's all going to end.  My husband still thinks the island is purgatory, but the producers have denied that from the very beginning.  I guess we'll see!

See you tomorrow for Humpastry Day.  :)

No Slackers Allowed!

I have been so focused on racking up the 112 miles for the Contact Cape Atlantic 140.6 challenge, that I've just been doing hour long trainer rides in the evenings.  As I'm sure you all know, that gets boring very quickly!  So, I decided to change things up and do a Spinervals workout tonight: Spinervals 1.0 No Slackers Allowed.

Can I just say that it was an awesome 45 minute workout, but it was tough!  One thing I liked about the workout was that it went through different interval sessions so I never got bored and the 45 minutes went by really quickly.  This was nothing like my regular trainer rides where I usually check my Garmin over and over again to see how much time has gone by only to find that I have only been riding for 10 minutes!

One thing I realized though is that I have definitely lost a lot of fitness since my HIM in October.  This is partly because it is winter and I haven't been able to ride outside, but if I'm honest with myself, it's because I just haven't been putting in the right kind of miles on the bike.  It is easy for me to just get on my trainer and ride for a set amount of time or distance without really pushing myself.  However, I know that I can't just "ride" if I want to get better. Doing this workout made me realize that I need to be doing more workouts of this intensity on a weekly basis to increase my bike fitness and get faster on the bike.  

In the end I racked up another 12 miles for the 140.6 challenge, which brings my total now up to 77 miles!  Woohoo!  With 10 days left in the challenge, I'm pretty sure I'll be able to do the last 35 miles, which makes me pretty happy! :)

Have any of you used the Spinervals workouts before?  If so, what do you think about them?  If not, are there other brands or bike workouts that you like?   

Christmas came early!

Thanks to the wonderful last year model closeout sale, I was able to get a Cervelo P2C! Yeah!!! I have been eyeing this bike for a loooonnnggg time! I had to change out the saddle to make it more comfortable for the "parts," and will eventually switch out the wheels, but I just think it is a beautiful bike! Here's a pic of it on the trainer in our basement. I know the picture is not that great, but it's our workout space so it's the best I could do!



I finally got to ride it last night on the trainer for the first time. The weather in Denver has been cold and snowy, so unfortunately I don't think I'll be able to ride it outside until spring... :(. But, so far I really like it! My previous bike was a Specialized road bike with clip on aerobars. I love that bike b/c it was my first real bike, it is really comfortable to ride, and I've used it in all of my tris. But, I think I will grow to love this bike just as much. The aero position will definitely take some time to get used too...I better get going on my core workouts now!

I was able to get in a 30min. ride after we put our boys down for the night. It felt good to be back on the bike after being off the saddle for a month. I can definitely tell that I've already lost a lot of my fitness and stamina for riding aero. How does that saying go...building up muscle is like a card house, it takes some time to build up, but can be destroyed in a second...or something like that! Anyways, it's so true! I wish I would have kept up with my workouts after my half ironman a little bit more consistently. The good thing is I have all winter to build back up my base before I start training again. Now, to just find the motivation to get up at 4:30AM again when it's 20degrees out and snowing....ugghh!