This has been a rough winter for me on the training front .. Two years ago, we got all fitness nuts. We joined weight watchers and sweated on the trainers three days per week. We lost alot of weight and started the season off with a huge bang. The middle of the summer brought some burnout, and I couldn’t follow the WW program with my summer riding schedule, but overall, I held my own.
Last winter, I was a little less vigerous .. we trained 2-3 nights per week and went out to the bars a bit more … Overall, I think I did enough to keep myself in decent shape for the spring. Not too shabby, but not killer like the year before. The summer was rough with bike fit issues and general head-case business .. and by the end of the season, I was ready to hang the bike up for a bit.
This winter, I’ve been pretty lazy. We joined a gym down the street, but only go there once or twice every couple of weeks … We haven’t been training in the friends’ basement quite as much and we’ve spent much more time on the couch than previous winters. Realizing, tho, that spring is just around the corner, and clothes are getting tighter, we sort of shifted to a higher gear this past week.
Thursday, we did a 90 minute spinerval workout, it was killer. Knowing that it was going to be a really nice weekend, weather wise, and that there were a couple of long rides planned, Friday we felt the need for recovery and rode for 45 minutes while watching an episode of Stargate.
Saturday we rode 26 miles with the tree farmers (long, painful ride for me – because I’m generally oblivious, I didn’t realize that my rear shock was set up for someone much lighter than me who’d borrowed my bike in the fall, and my front shock was locked out because I’d been riding it on the trainer so much…i wasted alot of energy and therefore rode very slow, but felt like i was racing) .. As an attempt at recovery from my tough tough ride on Saturday, we pulled out the single speeds and attempted an ‘easy spin’ on the Macomb Orchard Trail, Sunday. Well, it was less of recovery and more of chasing – I was on a much smaller gear than the boys (they both had 29er SS bikes with strong guy gears) and Jess just had a ton more energy than I did .. so I chased .. heh .. It was good enough tho, that I felt good and strong at the end of the ride.
Tonight, we’re planning another Stargate ride .. tomorrow will probably be another long spinerval. I feel like I’m ready to join the ranks of the bikers again .. hopefully I can keep this up and actually get myself into shape before we really start hitting the trails .. I’d like to see if I can spin my legs in some form every day….. not HARD every day, but just enough that they’re moving ……
