First week of unofficial training

My goal is to start training now and getting into the habit of exercising multiple times per week. The training plans I have been looking at have me working out 6 times a week. This was my first week of unofficial training. This is what I ended up with...

Run: 24m 40s - 2 Mi
Bike Trainer: 50m (2 25 minute sessions)
Elliptical Training: 20m
Walking: 1h 30m (4 miles)

I logged close to 1000 miles

I went to the Christmas get together today for the Wednesday bike riding group. There were maybe 20 people. Three weeks ago I had randomly asked for this day off not knowing about the gathering. I'm glad I was able to go since I couldn't make the summer pool party. M was able to go to since he's on evenings this week.

So in the group... one guy rode 11,000 miles this year, one girl rode 8,500. That's a lot of miles! I think I got close to 1000. Which I'm proud of given how crazy my schedule was. Last year I was around 1200. So now it's time to map out my goals for next year... I'm going to say that 2000 miles is realistic.

Finally set up my trainer... I don't know how to track my miles on that... so I'll just have to track the time.

Happy Winter Training!

Getting ready to start...

My travels are over, it's time to become serious. I have found a couple 16 and 18 week plans to use while training for the Kansas 70.3. So it looks like I would need to start "training" in February. So I guess I will consider this period right now as my pre-training. My time to see what I can do and what it's like to train 6 days a week and to be fully committed. However, not to make excuses, but I caught a cold on the last day of our cruise, so I need to get healthy first.

I had my third appointment for my asthma a week ago. All of my numbers have improved! I had gone to the gym the day before that appointment and was able to run/ walk on the treadmill. I wasn't able to take deep breathes, but at the same time I didn't have the sharp pains in my chest. I felt like I was able to keep everything under control for the first 15 minutes. The final 8 took a little more concentration. But slowly, I will get there.

103rd to Lee by crazylife99 at Garmin Connect - Details

Went for a bike ride Thursday morning (Thanksgiving). 19 miles, would have gone further but had to get home. Click link below for details of ride.

103rd to Lee by crazylife99 at Garmin Connect - Details

New Garmin 310XT

My parents got me a Garmin watch for my birthday to help with my training up the upcoming Kansas Ironmen 70.3. I haven't taken it out on any real training rides yet, just when Mark and I have gone out on the trails. But I'm excited to see everything I can do with it.

Tour de BBQ Video, 62 miles- Oct 1, 2011

Tour de BBQ

This Saturday is the 3rd Annual Tour de BBQ. I'm signed up for the 62 mile route. Mark is signed up to volunteer at one of the rest stops. His shift is after I'll have already passed through. But he'll be done in time to meet up with me at the post ride party.

Sept 5th - Bike 4 the Brain (the video)

9.27 Edit: Apparently my video won "best video" for Bike 4 the Brain. I won a t-shirt! I didn't even know that my posting it to their facebook I was entering anything.

Bike 4 the Brain (and my lungs)

I have not been posting on here as regularly as originally planned, but I'm going to start doing my best to at least post once a week. I've been able to get out and ride a bit more this month, it's been nice not have those 100 degree temps anymore! Mainly I've been doing some 10 mile and 20 mile rides around the neighborhood. Last Wednesday I did the 30 mile Spring Hill loop with R.

Labor Day, Sept 5th I participated in the 72 mile ride for Bike 4 the Brain. R rode too. I did alright, but I could not breathe at all anytime we hit any type of hill! I left the ride feeling a bit defeated and scheduled an appointment to see a doctor about my asthma. I had my appointment on Friday.

They measured my lung capacity and while I don't know the technical terms, I do my best to explain the results. There are large lung airways and small lung airways. At rest, my large lung airways are working at 90%, my small lung airways at 70%. The dr said she would like to see that 70% increase to at least 80%. They had me breathe into a nebulizer for 10 minutes and measured again. My large airways stayed the same and the small ones had increased to 86%, and increase of 23%. I left there with a prescription for Singulair and a refill for my inhaler. I'm supposed to take the Singulair every day for a month and use the inhaler as needed and then show back up in a month for a follow up.

Bike 4 the Brain

Tomorrow I am signed up to ride the 72 miles distance in the Bike 4 the Brain. R is also signed up to ride and possibly a few other people from our Wednesday morning bike group. I need to make one quick trip to Bike Source today to get an extra tube and some shot bloks. This afternoon I will work on perfecting my camera mount. One picture every mile!!

Wednesday Bike Ride

Picture from the Wednesday morning bike ride last week. The theme for the group is "No Rider Left Behind," I asked Ron if we were changing our slogan since we lost two riders on the ride... they didn't see us turn off to go up to the gas station. We laughed. We found the missing two as we were leaving and heading back towards Bike Source.

It's getting hot in here (or out here)

We've had lots of hot days here in Kansas City that have prevented me from doing too much bike riding. Most of the days it has already been in the upper 90s to 100s with a dew point around 70%. Looking forward to this ending so that I can get out and ride some more.

Spring Hill Loop

A few weeks ago I went on the Overland Park SPIN Pizza Ride. While there, I met R and we decided to meet up again and go for ride. We met up on Friday at Bike Source on 135th and Quivira and headed out to Spring Hill and back. Total distance was around 30 miles. Ride time 2:13. Good ride, quite a few rolling hills which at times seemed to get the best of me. She gave me some tips for hill training, and offered to ride with me, which would be good, because I don't think I would be able to keep myself motivated riding up and down the same hill.

Went for a 10 mile ride yesterday along the Shawnee Mission Trail. We got onto the trail off of 95th street and headed south. There are a lot more hills on this section of the trail vs when you head north.

Kansas Ironman 70.3

Yesterday would have been a great day to race, the weather was cool, no humidity. Some were complaining about the wind, but it wasn't that bad, and I think wind is just something you deal with in Kansas on a regular basis.

I was volunteering in Transition 2, I got to see everyone come in and drop off their bikes before heading out to the run. I was stationed next to where the pros had their bikes. Crissie Wellington was there and ran right by me as she was coming in. This transition was also next to the finishing shoot, so I got to see everyone come in as they finished the 70.3 mile race.

After finishing, Crissie Wellington handed out medals to everyone else as they were coming in. I used my volunteer shirt to sneak back there and get a picture and autograph from her.

I'm glad I was able to volunteer, I'm pumped and ready to start training for next year's race. Below are some photos I took as well as a link to a short video clip covering the day. When the race director is talking you can see me standing behind him in my khaki shorts and green t-shirt.

LINK TO VIDEO

http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2011/jun/13/well-well-well-chrissie-wellington-rallies-kansas-/

Kansas Ironman 70.3

I'm volunteering today at the Kansas Ironman 70.3. Originally I wanted to participate this year, but with the move I knew it would be impossible to properly train. So I decided to volunteer to give me a chance to see what the event is like and maybe help reduce some of the stress and nervousness I'll be feeling when I compete next year.

SPIN! Pizza Bike Ride

I went out Monday night of the SPIN! Pizza Ride that left from the Overland Park location. The first 75 people to sign in received a free pair of socks! I think I signed in as #20. There ended up being around 80 people on the ride, I've never ridden in a group that large before. I was a little nervous at first as we were heading out and finding a place in line with everyone. Ended up being a good ride. I did the shorter route which was around 13 miles, next time, I'm going to get out faster to keep up with the first pack to do the longer loop.

TDB 2011

Tour de Brew:

On May 22nd I rode in the 1st Annual Tour de Brew. 62 miles around Kansas City. The first 10 miles took you through the Beer History of Kansas City. However, I was too busy riding my bike to stop and look at the fancy brochure they gave us for the tour. Overall a good ride, and organized considering it was their first year. Can't wait til next year.

One Bike, One Camera

A simple concept... When I ride around on my bike, I usually have a camera with me. When I do longer rides, I may mount a camera on my bike and take one picture every mile. Sometimes I do ride without my camera, and I may use this blog to tell you about those adventures. Sometimes I have my camera when I'm not riding my bike, and again, I may use this blog to tell you about those adventures. But I assure you, a bike and/or  camera will somehow be involved with each post.