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New Years Day Polar Dash

What?  It was fun!  and this was all about a bucket list and picking up a medal for little sister.

I decided after I inherited my little sisters mountain bike this summer, I would honor her by running a few races every year, after all how could I not follow in her footsteps...Lisa was the Gold Medal Queen of the Special Olympics (in my eyes).  Just a few weeks before her unexpected death Lisa participated in the South Dakota Summer Games for the Special Olympics and earned 5 gold medals.  She was so proud and lived for her Olympics.  Precious.

This was a bucket list thing too. I really wanted to experience a "fun" run in the snow.  What better way to bring in the new year than with a check off your bucket list. Perfect.  Even more perfect was my friends humoring me and joining with me in the run.  It was Angie's first 5K in Minnesota and it was Peg's first race ever. WOOop WooOP! Was it for the cute fleece?? and stocking hat?  I think maybe that too,  isn't it always about the gear?? Just sayin.

I was pumped when I heard it was finally going to snow...and just in time for the race.  This winter has been snow"less" to date.  It really has been mild and I was starting to worry that my bucket list would not get a check if I would not be able to run in the snow.  But whaaa laa!  The wind whipped up and the large wet flakes started to fly 15 hours before race time. Yay. 

The air temp was a balmy 26 degrees and the wind chill above zero. With winds gusts up to 35 mph, the wind chill reading was a mere 13 degrees at 10am New Years Day.  A pretty darn nice January morning  in Minnesota, yah, you betcha. 

I thought I would be a smarty pants and start my iPod before the actual blast of the starting horn.  My cold hands did not want to cooperate and about 100 yards into the race I figured out that my playlist was one song long.  Crud....so looking down while running, trying to reset my playlist, I hit a pot-hole in the road.  Ouch! Double crud.  If you are familiar at all with Minnesota,  you know what I am talking about.  The winter really does do a number on the roads around here.  My ankle was it's latest victim.  Bummer.... I damaged my suspension.

Anywho, the little ankle mishap did not stop me. I think it was it too frozen to feel any pain.  It didn't take long for the shooting pain to subside and I kept moving on down the frozen tundra.  Halfway through mile two it hit me that maybe, just maybe I should have thought about going out on a few warm winter's day training runs.  Goodness knows there were plenty of opportunities.  But I didn't so the run really started to stink.  It really didn't feel so great and I am just going to blame it on the cold.  But you know the story, anyone can go out and run for 3 miles, in my mind.  It might stink, but it is do-able and do is what we did.   A respectable turtle pace of 9 min miles, we finished in under 29 minutes and earned our medal, hot cocoa, goody bag and even a mugshot with the penguins.

Another great day with great company...and ChecK!  off the bucket list goes the race in the snow.  And I got a purty little blue medal in honor of Lisa...making me a very happy girl.  What's next you say??.... in 2012 I am looking forward to competing in a few duathlon's and my first team triathlon. 

Be Well

What the heck was I thinking???

Have you ever had one of those training sessions where you just wanna take the trainer and throw them across the room?  Funny thing, but I bet there are many trainers out there thinking the same thing (sort of)...man I would rather throw her across the room than put up with another whiny client! Enough said.

Last night was one of those moments for me. Don't get me wrong, I adore my trainer. I know that this is what it's all about... a love - hate thing.  Yes, that's it....love - HaTE!  OK, well let me tell you, I didn't feel it (feel like training) and I was more than just a wee bit off my mark.  This was probably my first clue that I should have just stayed home.  

Power class is only 2 hours long.  OnLY....yes you heard that right.  This is not the class to be "just a wee bit off".  You need to be spot on, ready to go with a mindset of train hard and make no excuses...not even "I am going to puke!"

Yup, you got that right, little princess almost puked.  I lost count of the 15 to 20 second sprints at 97% output and you better stay there or you are off the team...meaning, I hit 27 mph as my peak so I was expected to hit 27 mph mark time, after time, after time, after time (or you are OFF the team, kicked off the island).  This is where I lost count and almost lost my guts. And this is exactly when the fun began.

Lovey (aka my trainer Leah ) decided we should emulate a mini duathlon, a friendly sort of little competition.  She looks directly at me and says, "I know you are competitive."  UGH. Well I am, I admit, but I become a pile of goo when I feel like tossing my cookies.  I wanted to curl up and cry.  I know, I'm a baby, a pampered one... who's fault is that anyway?? Well here was Lovey's plan:  Ride at 17-18 mph for 3 minutes (on the honor system), transition to running around the building 2x...which worked out to around 2 - 3 minutes...and do this 3x. The tying of shoe laces is what really got me...but that's a story for another day, promise.

Wait... back up, doesn't major gagging reflexes disqualify you?  Well , no not in Lovey's world.  She says to me on transition 2 back to bike, "That is what duathlons feel like, puking." OK, now princess is pissed off.  Pissed off because I am in third place behind one gentleman and his wife, and pissed off because I realize I have gotten myself in over my head (again!).  As I am throwing daggers at Lovey, she innocently smiles.  Man I hate that.  Love her, hate her.  Just saying.

So where am I going with this...well I took third.  Not good enough in my world.  And I took that "What the heck am I thinking??" thought and tossed it to the wind.  You see, the euphoria after the battle always has me at : 

"That wasn't so bad after all."

Kinda like childbirth...just ask my hubster what I had to say after giving birth to my first son.  BTW, I puked then too. Hmmmm...I know, it's hard to figure me out so don't even try.  Take away message from last night:

I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.

Yup you got that right.

Be well

DePLEteD!

Monday November 14,  2011

" Oh what a night!"  ...go ahead, sing with me.  All I can say is WOW! That was a fun ride.  [grinning ear to ear]

So let's recap this baby.  As my title indicates, the theme of a night at power cycling {for me really} is depletion.  They say you gain sea legs quickly via rough waters...and I say you gain "bike" legs quicker when you train tough with accomplished triathlete Leah Prudhomme at Maple Grove Cycle. 

It was a weird sensation for this avid cross-training lover.  I love to mix it up, you know that.  So the weirdness was what my legs felt like after class, immediately and post for ~8 hours.  They hurt!  Can't really explain it because it was not DOMS...it was too soon for that.  They ached, but not in a injury type way...it was an extreme fatigue type way.  My large leg muscles were completely depleted of all glycogen, in a way I have never experienced before.  OK, duh, now I get it. So... I am a bit slow.  This is what triathletes experience on race day but probably more acutely, that I am sure. My glycogen stores were ransacked, left with not-da.  The good news is that I am certain I built some mitochondria that night. Yay!

Well what happened. It went something like this:

Arrived 15 mins early to get Roadie (my bike) set up on a trainer.  First thing Leah explains is that biking on a trainer for 2 hours is like riding on the street for 4 hours.  OK, that is trouble with a capital T.  Second thing she mentioned is that mental toughness makes or breaks ya.  Let me tell you I am stubborn and very motivated by others, so in this environment I excel. But put me on a trainer at home and uhmmm...probably would not have made it more than the first 30 mins.  We spent the first 15 minutes warming up.  That was cool.  The next 30 or so minutes was spent riding hard.  Intervals aimed at hitting 25mph at 90 rpm....as fast as you can go.  Lots of things happened during this first round but it all is a blurrrrr to me now.  Once Leah was satisfied that we were half dead, we were instructed to hop off our bikes and donn our running shoes for a quick two timer around the building followed by a set of wall squats "till the cows came home".  

Next we trained hills.  That was FUN! I loved this part of the class.  Almost felt like I was flying out on the backside paths of Elm Creek.  For kicks and grins [hops] Leah led us through some climbing plyometric stair work. Single leg hops up a rather long flight of stairs X6  and two leg double stair bounds up the stairs X6.  Again, good time. {sick woman that I am, just saying}

Round three was Tabata training.  This kicked my ArsE. Yup, that nearly killed me.  Here is where I could barely hit 20 mph pedaling as hard and fast as I could.  Did I tell you 20 seconds feels like an eternity?  Yes it does.  But all for the better.

The good news was I went home, refueled my glycogen stores and WhaaaLa...no DOMS.  Just to prove my point, this workout was nothing like a hard fast heavy lift in the weight room.  It was a glycogen deplete, endurance building session doing exactly as designed: building power!  Thanks Leah that was great.  Can't wait till next time....

Be Well

No Grass Growing Under My Toes...

Been getting after some great workouts the past two weeks with Velocity and lifts designed by Jodi.  Power and speed...agility too.  Man I love to run, to move.  Perpetual motion, that be me.  Drives some of my friends nutso, though.  Wondering what my co-workers are going to think when I bring my newly purchased SB to work with me tomorrow.  Might have to devise a door for my cubie so they don't have to watch me bounce all day.  IDK, is that worse than fidgeting all day long? Hmmmm...

So the plan this week is to start into the power classes at the local bike shop with coach extraordinaire, Leah.  Let me tell you I am just a wee bit nervous, but then again, looking forward to learning something new.  At age 47 with life makings its turns, ones I do not like at all lately [more on that later], I am up for anything new and exciting... 

so tomorrow is the big day. PeeWee's big adventure. I will post the gory details ASAP, promise. 

Also starting to make plans for next years races [rubbing hands together].  Have set my eyes on three.  One in June, August and September. One of my peeps at Velocity also talked me into running the Polar Dash on new year's day! [envision my bucket list getting shorter]  Yup, you got that right, in the dead cold of winter. Well what do you expect out of a northern gal like myself.  They make 'em tuffer up here, ya know? [RRRight!] So I headed out to Fleet Farm the other day to pick up my very own Carhartt hat with face mask and snow chains for my shoes.  I think the real name are traction devices or Yaktrak pro's.  Yes, that is it.  Well this is all I got for you today.  Posted on FB, goin' after it!...that I am, I promise.  

Be Well