Saturday, February 26, 2011

More mountain action

For Presidents' Day weekend, we got off Monday! So we went up to Santa Fe for a quick trip. I still can't find a reason not to love Santa Fe, even after visiting the dodgy Sonic where we got panhandled (we were the panhandlees. and we got in really late Friday night and had few choices for dinner. so don't judge).

The main focus of the weekend was skiing, and after a great 3-4" of new snow that fell all day Sunday, Monday was super cold. Does my look remind you of anyone?


 
 I managed to keep all my fingers and toes, thanks to the hot packs my parents gave me for Christmas, knowing my limiter with skiing is the cold. Nobody fell off the chair lift, and J somehow managed to not drop the camera, his poles, gloves, goggles, or anything else (I had a death grip on mine the whole time). That chair lift can take you to some heights, and over areas you do NOT want to go down. I'm not usually scared of falling out of chairs that I'm sitting in. It must have something to do with the heavy skis that are slowly sliding my slickly covered butt toward the edge. We did see some dropped items; the usual poles and gloves along with some unusual mardi gras beads were seen on the way up. Someone also dropped her bra on a tree.


We were sore in lots of new places (like shins), especially after attempting the black slopes, and for me, a few moguls that were bigger than my car. The first time I tried them I spent about half the slope sliding on my butt.

It was good cross training, and we appreciated the warmer temps even more when we got back down to town. I highly recommend taking your mugger with you to Santa Fe. It's beautiful.




Today we did a more true to our sport event: a 5K. It was ugly, even for my lack of speed lately. The first mile was downhill, second uphill, third half and half. I was disappointed to find that the total elevation gain was 160ft. It felt more like 1600ft. I got smoked by one man, but passed Vibram/tights/sleeveless shirt guy early on. The husband closed the gap on me on the uphill, of all places (I'm the short stocky one!), but I solidified my win on the last downhill. Barely. He's gaining on me-- just 14 seconds behind this time. We got 2nd and 3rd OA.  I'm swearing off 5Ks for a while now. They go right into that same category with the marathons: not for me anymore. Except it seems J signed me up for Duathlon Nationals, just a few months away. Better not throw away the racing flats yet.




Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Motivators

Less than two weeks after our city's new all time low temperature record of -17F, we got to 75 Sunday and today, getting the husband and me out on our actual bikes. Outside. It hurt in all the usual places, like quads, butt, and neck. We both seem to be suffering from a bit of Winter Neck Syndrome, where it hurts to keep holding your head up after a long winter of no bike riding.

Shortly after getting back from our hill repeats tonight, my new wheels arrived at my door! Thanks to my awesome teammate who switched from 650 to 700 wheels this year, I got only slightly used, incredibly fast, best wheels without a motor-- ZedTechs. And they match my bike.


My new job, even though not physically demanding in the least, has been a major stress to me. There are things about it that have me waking up in the middle of the night too uptight to go back to sleep. This is something that has never happened to me before, and while I realize now how lucky I've been all these years to avoid it, I'm not enjoying the morning hangover feeling that follows. 

But I'm still working on getting up to swim in the mornings. It's been a hard change. I'm trying to remember my new favorite quote from Nancy, "Change is hard. Drowning is worse." Nothing like fear of death as a motivator.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Computraining

I've been on it twice now, once on the road bike, then finally the tri bike when I got the race wheel off of it (yes, it's been on there since September, along with my race number). I usually get bored and/or sore in the saddle region quickly on the trainer, so I try to avoid it as much as possible. But I have to admit that this computrainer makes it much more interesting. Not only can I get whooped by the silver bullet man who obviously outweighs me by a few stones, but I can also get whooped by the ghost of my husband who has just done the same course a few hours before more, and whose large red-jerseyed image pulls out much higher wattage than I can dream of (but um, not per kilo of body weight, ahem).

I'm not going to embarrass myself by admitting to any actual wattage marks I've hit (or not hit), but I will say that I probably won't be asked to ride for any pro teams anytime soon. I was surprised at just how slow my reported speed was given my effort, as well as how pitifully my left leg performs compared to my right. It seems to always be performing 48% or less of the work, even though I know it's my more muscular, less fat let. That fact was confirmed several years ago by DEXA. Yes, it breaks down exactly how much fat, bone, and muscle is contained in each appendage. Pretty cool. All I can figure is that my fat heavy right leg puts forth more work in the form of giving in to gravity. 

I keep working on that, as well as the efficiency of my pedal stroke. Anywhere close to 90% seems to be possible only when pulling up on the pedals as hard as possible and not letting it fall down again with any speed. Real efficient seeming. 

I'm so excited about this new toy that I'm actually planning on getting up to ride in my little virtual pink 2 piece outfit on my virtual pink bike, chasing the silver bullet man, before work tomorrow. He's going down this time.