Bucket List

I started reading Swim Bike Mom's blog. She's a lawyer, wife, mom, triathlon goddess. She is also an Athena. She started training while still a bigger girl. She was a marathoner and triathlete while still in the double digit sizes. We didn't let her size dictate that she couldn't do these things. How inspiring is that!?!  And yes along the way she has slimmed down. 

Reading her story got me thinking about triathlons. Ive wanted to do a tri since the first time i saw Ironman Kona on tv but I  always assumed that it would be when was thin and fitness goddess but she believes anyone can do it no matter where their starting point is. 

I'm 2.5 years away from being 30 and I thought it would be a good idea to have a Fitness Bucket List. So after talking with dad and him tell me my goals whereby completely crazy. 

So here we go!

1. 2014 MS 150

2. 2014  Rock n Roll San Antonio half Marathon

3. 2015 Big Deal Marathon

4. 2015 70.3 Austin Ironman 

Let the training begin!

Killer wind

Since I ended up doing my long ride on Sunday but still wanted to ride Monday, I decided to do a short 8 mile ride geared toward speed. 

Trying to make sure my calories, calories were good I sucked down a Power Bar apple squeeze before heading out. 

The plan was a two mile warm up, two mile tempo, one mile recovery, two mile tempo, two mile cool down.

Two slight problems with this. My goal was to keep a 15 mph pace during tempo, problem was that 15 mph is still slow. I need to keep around a 17 mph tempo. Which is challenging when all you have is a GPS app telling you skewed paces every 1/4 mile. I'm thinking a tempo ride with dad would be good. He knows what true tempo training is. 

Problem two was head winds! Good grief, first tempo interval was nothing but head wind. After a mile of pushing my pace I was done! I slowed my pace and on the way home picked up some speed thanks to the now tailwind. However, by the time I was still a good1.5 mile away from my car my legs just shut down. My goal at that point was just to keep peddling consistently without taking "cruising" breaks. 

It was a rough ride overall but I finished it. It's rides like that get your body and mind ready for tough situations on actual ride day. Today is a 15 miler. Nothing to exciting but to get as many miles in this week as possible. 

"Calories, Calories"

One of my favorite movies is Steel Magnolias. I love the small town southern-ness of it all. My favorite scene is  when Dolly Parton's charter is eating a piece of wedding cake  at Shelby's wedding, when some chick reminds her, "Calories, calories."

S, the roommate, and I have been riding for about a month now. We started off with a measly 4 miles, not even half way through I thought my heart was going to jump out of my chest. However, the next day we did 7 miles and a week after our first ride we were up to 10 miles.

Which is one of the reasons why I love riding. Most beginner running plans have you start off with making gains by 1 min, not miles. For fluffy girls it is a lot more encouraging to see double digit miles rather, "Yahoo I ran 2 minutes straight!"

S has really been the driving force in Project 150. She was the one who thought to ride 150 and to do a ride in September. I did however, know we need a goal sooner than September. So after some googling I found a ride in late July in our area. S and I agreed that we would do the 21 mile course. I knew that by late July we would actually be able to ride longer than 21 miles, however it's S' first ride and it's JULY in TEXAS!

While we were discussing our riding schedule I mentioned to S, "You know we should be able to do the 63 mile course in September." She was a bit skeptical. She had just upgraded from her Target hybrid and was still getting used to her road bike but I told her all we would have to do is add 3.5 miles per long ride and we would be ready.

So that has been the plan, which meant an 18.5 miler was on tap for this weekend. I wasn't sure how I was going to make it through the ride saying after our 15 mile rides both S and I have been exhausted. The only thing I could think of was; calories, calories.

I called the endurance guru, my dad. Dad has mainly been a runner, running in several marathons. He is also who got me into cycling and has ridden a several rides.  I asked him when we needed to start worrying about nutrition since we are starting to get up in our milage. He reminded me that on rides there will be stops every 6-10 miles and that we should start training with that in mind. Well darn. All we had been taking with us was water...which I usually came back with my Camelbak still pretty full. What can I say I don't like water.

The plan was to stop every 6 miles to fuel up...and for me to drinking water every other song on the iPod. This would be the first time I had done this on a training ride. I ate a bigger breakfast than I had on previous training mornings and loaded up with fueling goodies.

I packed my Camel for while I was in the saddle, the water bottle for when I stopped, half a bagel, and a Poweraid apple squeeze (which was my favorite). 

I got to my favorite park a little after 9am, later than our normal start times, and the temperature was already 86 degrees. When mile 6 came around I hopped off Beca and quickly realized how the heat of my late start had taken its toll. I sat, ate a few chunks of bagel, sipped on, and let my heart rate come down. 

After a couple of minutes I was ready to go again. I made three stops total and could feel the difference that fueling up was making. My legs felt fresh after the calories, calories and it gave my hands and tush a chance to get the blood flowing again. Turns out nutrition was the missing link to our rides!

Wonder if bring a slice of cake would be a good idea for our next ride?

Belle

Let me tell you a story...

Once upon a time there was a young girl who grew up over weight, that by the time she was in college she weighted 225 lbs. on her petite 5'4" frame.

Finally one day she was tired of being overweight and decided to do something about it. After a year and half of hard work she finally hit her goal weight.

Hitting goal, 145 lbs.

She was so inspired and in love with fitness that she wanted to help others, so became a Certified Personal Trainer.

I was hired at a big corporate gym!

 Then one day things started to crumble and the weight crept back on. The girl was left feeling like a failure and humiliate because this one time persona trainer had put back nearly all of the weight. 

One day the girl's  roommate said, "I wanna ride the 2014 MS 150!"

The girl at one point been a cyclist, riding in a couple of local rides, and being a cycle class fanatic. 

First ride with dad, who got me into cycling. 

So the girl in her quest to go from flab back to fab is training to ride the 180 miles from Houston to Austin raising money for multiple sclerosis research. 

Let the training begin!