Biking + Run/Walk

Background: For quite awhile my friend Jamie and I have been thinking and planning on training for a sprint triathlon; however we don’t plan on doing the triathlon until 2010. So any hardcore training won’t begin until next year. At the same time I’ve been very curious how my legs/endurance would feel biking and then running right afterwards. Something I can experiment with now.

Today: I spent the early part of my afternoon with my niece, nephew, and sister at the park. The humidity is down and it was a gorgeous day, although a bit hot in the direct sunlight. So after about an hour of hard playing we went to Cold Stone Creamery and got some ice cream. I got a kids cup of chocolate ice cream with Heath Bar (in honor of my dad) mixed in. I’ve been craving ice cream all weekend and it hit the spot!

I was a bit worn out when I got home, so I relaxed with my book for about an hour. But while I was reading, I kept seeing the beautiful sky above the top of my book and biking was running through my mind. That was it, I decided to go for a ride!

I filled my Camelbak up, changed clothes, fought with my helmet briefly, remembered to put my stopwatch on and got my bike off my balcony. My warm-up entailed carrying my bike down a couple flights of stairs, lol! I was off! Overall, I rode ~9.4 miles in 44.10. I realized when I’m on my own, there really isn’t a leisure pace. I rode at a steady and what felt like a good pace for the whole ride. I had to slow down to cross at a traffic light and one cross-walk. I rode on a bike path. I’m not one for riding on the road, just don’t trust drivers out there! I could feel my quads burning for the duration of my ride. I felt it was a good mix of inclines, declines, and 1 pretty big hill coming and going.

When I got home, I carried my bike back up and I was feeling so good that I decided I would go for a walk to stretch out my legs. But since I was feeling so good, I decided to do a bit of run/walking. I ended up doing a total of 2 miles. For the first mile I did 1:1 min ratio of run/walk. The second mile I did 2:2 min ratio. I’m not sure how long it took me to complete the miles. But my overall workout took me about 1 hour and 10 minutes. That included the 44.10 bike ride, carrying my bike back up and then the 2 miles of running/walking and then about .25 miles of walking for my cool down.

At the beginning of the run/walk session my legs felt tight from biking, but I felt them loosen up as I got into it. My lungs/breathing was feeling a bit “tired” but I powered through and eventually I got that under wraps! For my stretching I decided to try one of Yoga is Yummy’s videos. I did the Yoga for triathletes video which lasted about 10 minutes. I really enjoyed it and my muscles felt great afterwards, thanks Polly!

I now have confidence that I will be able to survive a sprint triathlon with the proper training and of course incorporating the swimming in. In due time! I will note that the next time I decide to do the biking and running scenario I’ll eat a snack before (my stomach wasn’t hungry nor did I feel out of energy, just good practice) and remember to wear my knee strap during the running portion. My knee felt a little sore, but overall I felt really good!

Yesterday I made a quick stop at Trader Joe’s and came out with a few snacks to try:

Bonefish Grill

Monday’s workout was another hour session of Power Yoga. I’m thinking this is going to be a staple in my workout for the time being. It was way too hot to run outside and I don’t enjoy going to the gym in the evenings due to the crowds. Yoga was the winner. This time I eliminated any distractions and threw myself into the workout. What a difference that makes! I felt stronger and more relaxed then last Monday. I built up a good sweat.

Can anyone suggest any other good Yoga dvd’s? I’d like to change it up some so I don’t get bored.

Early this morning I forced myself out of bed and headed to the gym. I started out with a 10 minute warm-up on the Arc Trainer. I focused on my Quadriceps and abs. I supersetted Leg Extensions with Front Squats and I did 3 sets of 12-15 reps for each. I then used another machine which I have no idea what it is called. But you squat in it and depending on your foot placement you can work your glutes or your quads. I of course worked my quads. I supersetted that machine with 1 minute wall-sits. Feel the burn! For my abs I supersetted hanging leg raises (12 reps) with bicycles (25) and did 3 sets of those. My last ab workout focused on my sides. I laid on my back with my legs bent. My feet were spread shoulder width apart and I moved back and forth along the ground touching my heels with my fingers. I did 2 sets of 30 reps. I finished up my workout with a 2 mile run on the treadmill. It’s the first time I’ve really run in a few weeks. I felt a bit tired, but powered through! I was drenched in sweat when I was finished, which I like because I know I worked hard!

This evening I went to dinner with the family to celebrate my sister passing her test and remembering my parent’s anniversary. We tried Bonefish Grill for the first time. We finally got another seafood place in town besides “Ed Lobster” aka Red Lobster. Dinner was FANTASTIC. My sister and I got the meal for two promotion they currently have running. We started off with the Singapore Calamari (pretty good) and then I had a house salad which had a wonderful citrus herb vinaigrette dressing, so light. In between all that they brought out some bread and oil. My main dish was the Wood-Grilled Authentic Norwegian Salmon topped with mango salsa, YUM! My two sides were a medley of vegetables. I brought half home to have for lunch tomorrow. It took a lot of restraint not to eat it all. I paired my meal with a glass of Ecco Domani Pinot Grigio. I had a few bites of Misty’s dessert which was a macadamia nut brownie with raspberry sauce on the side; also very yummy! It seems like we ate a lot of food, but I left there feeling very light and quite content!! That’s how I would describe the food I had, light and tasty! In case you were wondering…Misty got the Sea Scallops and Shrimp and my mom got the Coconut Crusted Shrimp appetizer as her main course. Both of them liked their meals as well.

Weekend and Monday Recap

After a good 12 hours of sleep I was up at 8:30 Friday morning, ate a bowl of cereal, and was off to the gym. Since I’ve been very inconsistent on my workouts these past two weeks I worked my shoulders and arms (biceps and triceps). I started by running 1 mile on the treadmill. I started out with my shoulders, biceps, and then triceps.

Shoulders - 3 sets of circuit
DB shoulder press – 20lbs
DB lateral arm raises – 8lbs
Upright Rows w/curl bar – 10lbs on each side

Rested 1-2 minutes before moving onto next muscle group

Biceps – 3 sets of each movement
21’s (7 bottom half, 7 top half, 7 full) 20-25lb barbell
Concentration Curls – 8lbs/12 reps

Rested 1-2 minutes before moving onto next muscle group

Tricep – 3 sets of 12 reps circuit
Dips on dip width bars – body weight
Cable push-downs – 50lbs
Kickbacks – 2.5-5lbs

My remaining 20 minutes of cardio was on the Arc Trainer.

The rest of my Friday consisted of running errands, but before I headed out for those. The lovely UPS man brought me this:



The best part of all is that I only paid a few dollars in shipping, because I used a giftcard (from Christmas) that I hadn’t used yet. Fantastic! I haven’t used my camelback yet, still need to wash it. Time to start biking more, I have no excuses anymore…well my hard seat can still be used as an excuse, right?!

Saturday I spent most of my day by the pool or in the pool. I got a teeny tiny workout by catching my niece and nephew jumping off the side of the pool as well as bouncing them up and down in the water. I managed to get a bit of a leg workout in by squatting up and down…child and water resistance…it’s gotta count for something, right?! That night I went to dinner with my friend. I tried white salmon for the first time. It was cooked medium and centered on top of red lettuce and several slivers of sweet potato. There was a beet sauce that complimented the salmon so nicely. I ate every last bite and was tempted to lick the plate…it was that good! We also split a great bottle of Pinot Gris from Willamette Valley.

Sunday was a rainy day for the most part. No workouts for me, I spent most of the day with my sister running around. She was really good to me yesterday. I can’t thank her enough. Love You Sis!

The weekend went by so fast….and now its Monday and actually almost Tuesday. Work was pretty busy, can’t complain because it did make the day go by fast and I felt pretty productive. When I got home I thought about running, but decided I needed to do more of a stretching workout. So I pulled out my Power Yoga dvd and spent an hour doing that. I felt it was one of my better Yoga days; which isn’t saying much because I don’t do Yoga all that often. I would really like to get into it more, maybe one day find a class to take. I was also cooking dinner during my workout. Not the greatest ideas because my stomach was totally growling which can be very distracting when you are trying to concentrate on the poses. Dinner was fabulous. I had leftover breaded tilapia, with homemade potato fries, steamed asparagus, watermelon, and a tall glass of skim milk. It was quite satisfying. In a few, I plan on having two squares of Lindt (mild 70%) dark chocolate. My mouth is watering just thinking about it!