Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Grinding into gear

I can't ride the trainer today. Nope, can't. Usually it takes awhile for my trainer hatred to manifest itself, but with the cold and all, I seem to have fallen right into it. So far my first week back in "training" has looked like this:

1/15/08 - 25 min run
1/16/08 - 15 min treadmill run, good ab workout, good upper body, 2 sets squats, 1 set leg press, etc. 15 minute sweat in the sauna.
1/17/08 - 22 minutes on the computrainer, solid tempo, followed by light sprinting through freezing water in socks. Solid (for me) bouldering session--actually completed 4 boulder problems at the super cool El Dojo in Northampton in varying numbers of tries over the course of an hour and a half.
1/18/08 - 90 minutes of cx skiing, light effort. Went up to the lighted trails in Glens Falls' Crandall park and it was beautiful! Between my (abysmal) technique, a blister and the fact that the trails aren't groomed for skate skiing, I didn't exactly max out the HR, but I burned some calories and had a great night with my lady.
1/19/08 - 60 minutes riding rollers, endurance/tempo pace.

If I were just a human trying to exercise for fun and better living, I would be doing pretty well, but instead I'm a bike racer and, thusly, have an ingrained self loathing and tendency to believe whatever I am doing isn't good enough. I was going to ride today, but a couple of hours in the books, combined with an early afternoon blood sugar drop conspired to rob me of all motivation.

Tomorrow it's the trainer or bust, and Thursday and Friday it's 4 hours outside, hell or be damned. That ought to remind my body what it's supposed to be doing after a month of slackin'.
That and handfuls of vitamin D, I may even be reduced to tanning again. Oh the northeast Winter...

-n

2 comments:

  1. Is it snowy?
    I did 40 miles on Sunday, and it was awesome. My morning commutes are bitterly cold, but the afternoon ones not so bad. No matter how hard it is to drag myself out there, it is worth it at the end of the day.
    but its not snowy here - just cold and foggy this week.
    Now, if i could EVER do a good ab workout, i'd probably be happy.

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  2. Ha! And how's the baby? Yeah, we are having one of the snowiest winters in recent memory. It's been cold enough to stick, so there are snowbanks like I remember when I was a kid, which is nostalgic, and also disheartening.

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