That was fun!

I'm teaching spin classes at the Ada bike shop every Tuesday night @ 6:30 p.m. All you need to bring is your bike/trainer. And water. Lots and lots of water. Trust me, there is a great deal of sweating going on!!!

Yesterday was our second class and I had a blast. The workouts are geared towards building fitness/strength and plan on the class being an hour and a half long. And I promise to try my hardest not to let my "inner dorkiness" to come out. For some reason I have this strange urge to clap and cheer after every interval :-)

Below are some pictures taken with my not-so-great phone camera. Mental note...must buy a real camera!!!

Class setting up!

My mountain/cross/spin bike. Note that I still have my saddle bag on, just in case we had any mechanicals in class!
Juli had to be creative with her front wheel stand!

Hope to see you there!!!

Enjoying the last of 2010

I hope that everyone had a good holiday weekend! Mine was pretty awesome. I didn't do anything extraordinary, but spent a lot of time with my family and a lot of time eating cookies. And really, what more do you need? The only bummer was that my middle sister Michela flew out on Christmas Eve. It was really great seeing her and I hope to get out to L.A. to visit her sometime this winter. Something about the sun and warm temps sounds really appealing right about now.

So far I really like following the plan that Lynda has me on. I had some longer days this past weekend, and it was hard to fit them in around all of the holicraze. My ride times fell a little short but I think I did OK. I'm also totally counting the hours I spent dancing with my little sister Toni as workout hours. We got her the Michael Jackson game for her wii, and that thing is a. addicting and b. holy cardio. We were thumping around until Midnight Christmas Eve and back at it at 7 a.m. on Christmas Day. Instead of listening to Christmas Carols we were blaring Thriller!

Scott and Toni getting ready to dance...

There was some serious competition going on....

I got the most cheers though, and I think it's because I sucked THAT bad. I was always one step behind and had absolutely zero rhythm. As a result anyone watching felt obligated to cheer for me. My little sister Toni just left for Florida to train with her swim team and I think I'm going to practice the Thriller routine the whole time she's gone. Ha ha!

Now that the holicraze is over things are going back to normal. Yesterday I went and worked out with Jason and Gareth. For the most part we've been lifting 2 times a week, and I'm starting to notice a difference. Not only do I feel stronger, but I can workout and still be able to walk the next day. Sure I'm still sore, but not sore like I used to get when I first started!

Usually Jason and Gareth work out together and I do my own thing. As you can imagine, I can lift A LOT heavier weights then them-which is why I use separate weights.

Gareth getting ready to work out...

Powerbar sent Jason some ProteinPlus to review, which is cool since it's by far my favorite protein powder to use. Yes I'm sponsored by them but trust me when I say that I've tried almost every protein powder out there. This one tastes really, really good, which is what I look for most.

Jason mixing pre-workout protein drinks...

Getting enough protein in my diet is something I am constantly trying to do, because I am a carb junkie. I mean, I would be perfectly happy riding/racing with a giant baguette in my back jersey pocket. However muscle recovery is not one of my strong points, so Lynda really upped my protein intake when I started working with her.

This week I'm especially paying attention to recovery because I have a lot going on. First there's my cycling workouts from Lynda. Then I have one more lifting session on Thursday with Jason. And finally I'm doing the Wolverine Resolution run around Reed's Lake. I'm not quite sure how I got into this but I'm racing a co-worker (George) and the odds are not in my favor for several reasons. First he ran in college. Secondly, I barely run. Third, I have maybe one fast twitch muscle in my entire body. Not nearly enough for a 4 mile run!

To make matters worse I've been talking A LOT of smack. I'm not sure why, but I've been really cocky about something that I'm not very good at. I should have just kept my mouth shut!!! George says that he's taken some time off from running but he could be bluffing. I think I'm going to have to run 4 miles in a little over 25 minutes if I want to have a chance at beating him. I have no idea how to pace, and no idea what 4 miles in 25-ish minutes will feel like or if I can even do it. So I'm just going to go out as hard as I can and hope for the best. In other words, I'm going to do the exact opposite of what I do in endurance mountain bike races. The worst (and probable) case scenario is that I completely erupt. If that should happen I'll just run down a side street and call Scott....hee hee!

Normally I don't do New Year's resolutions, but I'm doing one this year and it's for this upcoming race.

My New Year's resolution is to NOT SUCK!!!

Powered by apple pancakes...

This morning I went snow biking with Ted. You remember Ted, right? Scott made amazing apple pancakes for breakfast and I was responsible for eating the majority of them. So freaking good. After breakfast we rode over to Robinettes orchard, which has about 4 miles of mountain bike trail and is only about 10-15 minutes (by bike) from my house.

This was my first time riding the trail this year, and it's obvious that someone has been doing some maintenance on it. Most of the trail was pretty packed down and fun to ride, but there was a sheet of ice underneath the snow. The secret was to do minimal braking, and never around a corner!!!!

My bike hanging out....

It was really pretty in the woods, but right now I am camera-less and trying to take pictures with my phone is a pain. Especially in wet conditions. You'll just have to take my word for it :-)

At one point I managed to go the wrong way and Ted asked how I could have missed the bright yellow arrows pointing in a different direction. It was because I took an icy downhill so fast that I was practically going sideways...and I think I closed my eyes!

I ended up riding for 3 hours outside, and finished the last hour on my trainer. A good day for sure. And it's a good thing that I ate so many apple pancakes for breakfast, as my water bottle froze up almost instantly and I forgot to bring any other food items for the ride. I managed to ride outside that long without eating or drinking anything and had zero bonkage. Though I don't recommend doing that....at all.

The next couple of weeks are going to be very busy with the usual-usual (work and training). For the next week though, I'll be mostly hanging out with my middle sister Michela. She's on school break and back from L.A. until Christmas Eve. I'm considering kidnapping her so that she can't go back, but I don't think she's that fond of this cold weather. Already, she's completely acclimated to warm weather and views Michigan as the North Pole!

Training fail

I made it a whole week and a half on the training plan Lynda has me following before my first complete training failure.

Not so sure what went wrong but I'm pretty sure that it had something to do with the fact that it was like 15 degrees out. Ok, I'm exaggerating. It was 23 degrees out. It was cold enough that all of the melting snow had turned into ice and the shoulders on the road were completely covered. And cars were being really mean too. Usually I wear Pearl Izumi lobster gloves when it's this cold out, but yesterday I wore my fingered gloves and I'm glad that I did. I had to use a certain finger once or twice :-)

Anyways, back to the workout. It was short hill repeats which is good when you live in Michigan. Do you know how hard it is to find a hill that takes longer then 3-4 minutes here? Normally I really like hill repeats, but not so much yesterday. I felt awful. It was super cold out and I had so many layers on that I could barely bend my legs. If I were giving myself a grade I think it would be an A for effort, but C- for performance. From now on I'm going to try to do intervals inside on the trainer when the weather is nasty, and then longer rides outside.

After riding outside I went and worked out with Jason and got a really good strength workout in. I did one of my favorite workouts (Bulgarian split-squats) and totally feel it today. I'm walking around like an old lady and could use a walker!

Luckily today is a rest day and I'm taking full advantage of it. Last night was the Mel Trotter undie-fundie-raiser and we stayed out much later then I'm used to. I think I only got about 5 hours of sleep last night, which is not enough. Right now I feel like a walking, talking zombie. Time for a nap I think!

Baby it's cold outside...

So, my first week of training under the plan Lynda gave me is done. I'm on a less custom plan then in the past, but so far the only difference that I really noticed is that snow boarding is listed as an option for the weekend. Trust me, snowboarding would not be a good idea for someone who is as uncoordinated as me :-) Anyways, back to the plan. Most of the days were short but painful intervals, and I ended up getting a nice 4 hour ride in outside during the weekend.

My friend Bonnie joined me for the ride outside, and it's always nice having company this time of year. My legs were a tiny bit tired from the intervals, but the fact that my lungs are finally 100% again makes up for everything. It was so nice to ride outside and not feel like I was suffocating. Like I said, I have a whole new appreciation for my lungs!!!

They main roads were pretty dry, a novelty in December...

Dirt roads...not so dry. But that's OK. We got to practice our ice riding skills!

Bonnie stopping for a drink. Looking at this picture now makes me wonder why we thought it was a good idea to stop on the wrong side of the icy road with oncoming traffic!?!?

I think (key word being THINK!) I've officially made the transition to winter riding. It usually takes about a month for me to get used to the layering, the cold and the never ending grey. Once I actually get out though it's OK. And it's funny how quickly the cold weather becomes relative. For instance, on Saturday temps were only in the mid-30's, but it felt warm to me. But then I think I jinxed us because I kept exclaiming about how tame the weather was and what happens the next day? A whole lot of nasty. A combination of single digit temps/rain/snow/ice/watching cars do doughnuts outside of my window made it a good day for HBO and the trainer.

Looking ahead, my schedule looks a lot like last weeks. More hill intervals and longer rides on the weekend. In fact I'm currently taking applications for winter ride buddies, so feel free to apply. My only requirements are that you like coffee and gummy bears....

PS. Have you seen the NUE series schedule yet??? A lot more choices next year!!!

Because everyone needs socks (and undies)

It's that time of year again. Time to Drink, Drink, Drink (just kidding mom!). I mean Give, Give, Give! The annual cycling event to collect socks, undies (and money) is December 16th from 7-11. Full details are available here!!!

I plan on going as it's a fun event with a really good cause. Plus it's a good excuse to hang out with all of my cycling friends. So see you all there!!!

PS. Thanks to Naomi (the cutest greyhound in the world) for assisting me with pictures for this blog post. I assure you she was payed well with plenty of her favorite bacon begging strips :-)

Ho-Ho-Owwwww!!!!!

Today officially kicked off my training for 2011! Phew...

I'm following Lynda's "kick-asses-next-season-plan", which is designed to make you very, very fast. I'll let you know how it's going :-)

Luckily my legs are finally starting to feel normal again, as I have some hard intervals coming up over the next couple of days. This past weekend I did a 10K and afterwards I thought my legs were going to snap in two. Just for the record, it's probably a good idea to run a little the days/weeks leading up to a running race.

Here's the deal with running. I don't especially like it. But I DO like running in races with my friends, especially if they are around holidays! Which is why I ended up racing a 10K santa shuffle with my BFF Juli.

PS. The race promoters handed out these hats to everyone participating. For some reason I feel like I have to declare that I DID NOT actually show up to a santa shuffle race wearing a santa hat :-)

PPS. I think I was the only person (dork) who actually raced with the santa hat on. The only other people I saw wearing them were the old lady walkers bringing up the rear. And do you want to know how hard it is to run in an oversized hat with the pom-pom bouncing up and down? It took a huge effort to keep the thing on my head. If it would have been warmer then 25 degrees I would have tossed the thing. Oh well. I survived.

Anyways, back to the run. The most mileage I had ever run before the race was 4 miles, and I have to admit being a little nervous about doing a 10K. I started to build up the extra 2 miles in my head so much that you would think I was running 100 miles instead of 6.2.

Here I am before the race intimidating the other runners with my warm-up poses...

Juli and I lined up right behind the National Guard and high school track team and before I knew it we were off! It was one of those surreal moments where I was like, "where is my bike?" and even more importantly, "why am I running on pavement in a group???" The first 2 minutes were completely brutal and oxygen deprived but after that I kind of settled into some sort of pace.

At least I think I did. I didn't have a watch and there were no mile markers so who knows what my pace was.

During the race I was actually experimenting with my stride, and it was evident I had no clue what I was doing. My arms felt completely awkward flopping around and I almost wanted to pretend that I was holding on to a handlebar.

The first 3 miles flew by and after that it was all downhill. Figuratively, not literally. My hip started to tighten up and I never wanted to see the finish line so badly in my life. And the hardest thing about running races is that everything seems to take so much longer!!!

Finally Juli and I made it to the finish line. We ended up finishing a little under 45 minutes, which was good enough for both of us to get "wings" for winning our age divisions! BTW...I didn't just win my age division. I completely DOMINATED it. Which was easy to do since I was the only one in it :-)

So, now that I did a Halloween race and a Santa race I feel like I have to find a New Year's Day race!!! However, it would have to be a 5k. I may love endurance racing on a bike, but I think 3.1 miles is my limit for running....

Tomorrow it's back to intervals for me. Time to break out the balaclava-or not. Maybe I'll wear my santa hat instead-ha!

December already???

I had to ban myself from my own blog this past week in order to refrain from whining and complaining nonstop about bronchitis. I know it's not that big of a deal and there are a million worse things to have...but I AM sick of coughing.

Moving on....

This past Sunday was my first day riding outside in a long time. It was also the last Kisscross race of the season. For some reason I decided that it would be a good idea to ride out to Holland and and then do the race. Needless to say, my ride did not go as planned.

My friend Bonnie joined me for the ride and we took off around 8:30 a.m. The roads were dry and it was sunny, but temps were also only in the high 20's/low 30's. Instantly I felt like I was suffocating. Ugh. Within 2 blocks I realized that I wasn't going to race, and within 2 miles I started to worry that I wasn't going to make it. To date it was the worst ride of my life. We had a headwind that made it almost impossible for me to breathe/move and I felt like I had a giant weight on my chest. I was so happy when we finally made it to Holland. After a quick stop for an Americano we were able to put on warm clothes and cheer on the rest of the racers.

So I am one race short of doing the series but not racing was the smart thing to do for sure. In fact, if I would have attempted racing I think I would still be out there!!! The one bright side to the ride is that it will forever put all other rides in perspective. I'm knocking on wood, but it would take an awful lot to make me feel as crappy as I felt during that ride.

Moving on....

I have some major catching up to do with 2011 sponsorship over the next couple of weeks. I feel like I blinked and November passed me by. I also have to start figuring out what races I want to do next year!!!??? I've been putting it off because I don't want to build a schedule without knowing where 24 hour Nationals is going to be, but who knows when it will be announced. I think that "the powers that be" should just make it easy for themselves and move it back to Wausau!

As of now, there are 2 races that I'm doing for sure and they are both in Michigan. I'm going to do Barry-Roubaix at the end of March as a training race. I'm also going to race Lumberjack 100 and will be doing it on my SS again!!! Not only do I like the course, but I've done the race every year since it started. So far I've raced 600 miles there. Now I feel like I have to do it every year :-)

The rest of the season is a mystery for now, but I'm hoping to nail it down within the next couple of weeks!!!