Weekend of Coaches

This Past weekend John and I headed down to Washington DC. We actually left Thursday night. The car was packed with more workout gear than anything else.  3 Bags of workout clothes, 2 Bikes and 1 Boston Terrier! Since My brother Mike and Sister Michele live next door to eachother we will take turns staying at a diff house during each visit. This trip we stayed with Michele and Travis. I don't think Mike minds to be honest!!

This is how the weekend went...

FRIDAY-
7am arrive at CYCLELIFE for RMR Testing (Resting Metabolic Rate). This test I had to fast for, which I was not happy about but I wanted the most accurate results so I was hungry!
Josh Frick, Director of Fit Services did this test. The results showed that if I were to do nothing all day my body burns 1267 calories! I can afford to eat more food if I want...awesome.

8am still at shop and with Josh, it was time for my bike fit. The TT (time trial) bike I have now used to be a road bike that my brother Mike and Travis converted into a TT bike about 5 years ago. Being so petitie and at the time that the bike was assembled there wasn't much to offer a smaller rider in terms of equiptment, without spending $10,000. So they did a great job with what they had, and it was up to Josh to get it even better. He took video of my position on the bike and later superimposed it on top of the new position, and boy was is night ad day. I essentially used to ride like superman, which is not good. Now I have proper form and feel really fast. Pat and my brother Mike did a great job of putting the new compenents on my bike, making it clean and super fast looking, thanks guys!

Sometime in between i met with Colin Shah, he as a new coach at CycleLife and worked with me on some of my weight lifting routine. He also informed me on how inflexible I am...awesome. Looks like I will start taking some Yoga classes. He also arranged for me to work with his swimming coach on sunday..more on that later.

11am with the bike fit done it was now time for me to meet with Eric Sorensen, Director of the Athletic Performance Department and Triathlon Coach. First he performed the body fat test. I sat in this machine called the Bod Pod. Its done in a series of three tests and they take the average. I weighed in at 108 lbs with a BMI (body mass index) of 13.3%. This was great news. That is a great BMI for a female athlete. Once that was done it was time for the last test, my VO2 max. This will test the oxegyn output, and how efficient my body is. I ride on my bike with a mask attached to my face and it measures my oxygen intake and carbon dioxide output, in addition to a heart rate monitor measuring my heart. Eric increases the resisitance on the bike but i have to keep the wattage going, otherwise I won't be able to peddal. The test was hard and brother stopped working to come up and watch (he works there too!) John and arrived at this point as well. I didn't do as well as I would have like and it would have been a good idea to tell Eric about my existing oxygen intake problem..ie i don't take in that much..genetics. I learned from this test that I burn more carbon dioxide than i take in oxygen. which is not good. this means I have to be very aware of how much food i'm eating...which means i need to always be eating when i workout..lucky for me I already did that.

Sat slept in and then rode for 30 miles followed by a 6 mile run. Then off to Ikea for wedding stuff and hanging out with the girls. We had an awesome dinner at Micheles, cooked by both Michele and Alycia, chicken enchilada with a tomitilla sauce, fresh quac and chips!

Sun 10am meeting with the swim coach of AU, Mark. He took vidoe above water and underwater so we could watch my form. After watching the video i learned that my kick is good, but my left stroke is bad. He showed me a ton of great drills to work on to improve this. He was great.

I am exhausted from the weekend, defiently not relaxing, but super educational. 

I just want to say my biggest THANK YOU's to EVERYONE at CycleLife. As Travis says "you rolled out the red carpet for me". It was such a great oppertunity to have this done, I learned soo much and couldn't be more greatful. If you are ever in Washington D.C. you HAVE to go to CycleLife. This shop will change your life and the staff there is the real deal. 

CycleLife

3255 K Street, NW
Washington, DC 20007
202.333.8883

 I have to run, but will be back with more about this week.

Week 6 and mor fun to come

It seems like the older you get the less time you have. The weeks, days, years are flying by.

Over the weekend I turned a big 28. I don't feel any different or the sudden urge of "omg i'm almost 30 and i'm not married or having babies." There is alot of pressure on woman to have kids, a husband and a home before the age of 30. For me, I have the pressure of getting to Kona before the age of 30... I like my way better!!

I am so excited to get married, but John and I are in no rush to have kids together yet, the house would be our next step. But let's get back on focus, training.

By Sunday after a packed week I was done. The festivities started Friday night with Pat, Helena, John and I for sushi and Gelato. YUM! Saturday I changed my run from 4 miles to 10 miles. The weather was amazing and Helena and I miss running with each other. Sat afternoon, My sisters from DC arrived and we headed to my Godmothers for a big Post-Christmas/Surprise wedding/birthday party. Lots of food, family and Fun. We couldn't end the night if we didn't stay up to watch the Colts game. Sunday we did lots of wedding stuff and after my sisters went back to DC i still had to swim and ride.

Let's just say I was in bed at 8:30 sunday night. TIRED would be an understatement.

This week is as follows.

MON- Off
TUE- Turbo Sprints on Bike
WED-Swim 1200 yards
THUR- Upper body/core weights
FRI- Run and Testing
SAT- Swim
Sun - Bike & Run

This Friday John and will be in DC. Thanks to my brother-in-law Travis and his awesome staff at CycleLife USA they are doing all sorts of tests on me to see my wattage output, VO2max, lactatte threshold, body fat..etc and so much more. I will be sure to take lots of pictures of crazy things straped to my face and me sitting in the BodPod machine.

If your ever in DC check out CycleLife USA, it's an amazing bike shop/fittness center.

www.cyclelifeusa.com

have an awesome week.

Where does the time go

Today is the 5th week into my training. Somehow last week came and went before I knew it.

My week last week was pretty crazy. Early morning workouts, Swim test in the pool which I aced, work, too much wedding stuff and a great run in the FREEZING cold with my favorite running partner Helena.

This week poses the same craziness. I think from here until the wedding it will be crazy every week....awesome!

Workout at a glance:
Mon: OFF
Tue: Run
Wed: Swim and Weights
Thur: Bike (wind sprints)
Fri: Weights
Sat: Swim, Bike and MY BIRTHDAY!!!!
Sun: Run

I feel like the training has been going well. I am not hating the lifting as much. I am finally comfortable with using the free weights and don't feel so awkward using them. I probably still look like a dork though! I can feel a difference in my swim stroke from the lifting I have been doing which is always rewarding. And the best news of all is that I don't look like a body builder. That has been a big fear of mine lifting weights. I'm already very muscular and I didn't want to get bigger muscles, just stronger. It's important that when I walk down the isle that John sees a woman and not a sheeman!

I'm looking forward to the weekends festivities. Friday night John and I are going out for sushi with my Brother Pat and sister-in-law Helena. YUM!
Saturday is a big party at my Godmothers and my sister Michele and sister-in-law Alycia will be coming up from D.C. Lots of family, fun, food...and of course training.!

Next weekend is another packed weekend, I will tell you about that in a few days when I have more of the details hammered out.

Talk to you all soon.