H140 Training: Better Than Last Time

This was one of those weeks where nothing really went as planned, training-wise. That's okay.  I didn't get a bike ride in on Saturday, my usual riding day, because of a commitment I had made (emceeing a Girl Scout Pinewood Derby), and even though I usually don't do much of anything on Sundays, I know that if I'm to complete my planned 70 mile ride this next Saturday, I can't not get on a bike and expect it to be easy. To clarify, I don't expect it to be easy anyway, but I don't want to unnecessarily make it more challenging than it already will be.

ANYway. I hopped on my bike to get a quick ride in this morning before church. I did about the same route I did last week - LA Zoo/Griffith Park.

When I got to the hill that I hadn't been able to complete before, I told myself I'd be doing great if I could get a little further than I did last time. I was focused on trying to remember where I had gotten off last time, so that worked well as a distraction technique. I thought I was about ready to get off, but then saw a speed limit sign and told myself to just make it to that sign, then see how I'm feeling.

Before I knew it, I was at the sign, and still going. "Okay, just a bit further, then I'll get off and walk." Then someone passed me on his bike, and I didn't want to get off in front of anyone, so kept going.

THEN before I knew it, I was at the toughest part of the hill, and still going. By then, I could see the top of the hill, and figured it would be stupid to get off when I knew I was nearly there, so I just kept going.

The payoff is always worth it - the sweet downhill of 32 mph. That always feels great.

My lessons learned - Don't think about the entire distance at once. Just give yourself little chunks to bite off. Do a little bit at a time. Those little bits all add up to one big accomplishment.

Secondly - I am stronger than I think I am. I know that I struggled with this ride last week because of a fairly heavy duty leg workout I'd given myself earlier that week, but the fact that I could do this just one week after not being able to - that gives me hope.

Also, recovery is so important! I am still trying to find the balance between training sufficiently when I don't have time to do all the bike rides during the week I know I probably should so I load up my training schedule in other ways, vs recovery. And sleep. Oh, sleep, how I miss you. I need to figure out how to get more. What I get is quality, I'm just lacking quantity.

"Should" vs "Must" - thoughts coming soon.

I Do Not Think That Word Means What You Think It Means

Back story - a nice guy at work brings bananas for everyone. Well, not EVERYone, but he brings a lot of bananas, a bunch of them, if you will, and gives them to people. I sit right outside his office, and he likes me, so I get one just about every day. His name is Steve.

I had to apologize to C for delaying an IM response: "Someone came by to chastise me for having bananas on my desk."
C: whaaa?

EllJayPea: Well, you know Steve the banana guy. He frequently isn't here on Fridays. And he likes me, so he gives me two bananas on Thursdays. So there are 2 bananas on my desk, and a woman walked by, saw them there, stopped, backed up, picked one up, waggled it at me and said, "These are SO bad for you!"
She then proceeded to tell me that she has started juicing

C: Oh brother....

EllJayPea: So she was putting 1/2 banana in each "juice,"and she gained weight. She cut the bananas out, and can already tell a difference.

CinniMinion: Yeah, okay crazy juicer lady

EllJayPea: 1. I am busy, on my lunch, with my back to the aisle. Leave me alone;

EllJayPea: 2. Don't look at my desk and think you need to lecture me about stuff on it;

EllJayPea: 3. Shaddap;

EllJayPea: 4. I think you have "juicing" confused with "smoothy-ing."

H140 Training: Movies about Cycling

Yes, I believe watching movies, or reading books or learning about the sport you’re participating in is just as valuable as actually doing the sport. Whatever will get you motivated. I’m a sucker for sports movies. Seriously. Love ‘em. Here are three movies I’ve watched recently that are about cycling.

“Wadjda” -  An enterprising Saudi girl signs on for her school's Koran recitation competition as a way to raise the remaining funds she needs in order to buy the green bicycle that has captured her interest. (IMDB)

If memory serves, this is also the first feature film directed by a Saudi woman, which is noteworthy of itself. This was a good story with a lot of different layers. I know some family members who lived for several years in Saudi Arabia who may really find it interesting on even more levels than I did. Sure, there are some areas where the story could have been edited a bit, firmed up if you will, but it was certainly thought provoking.

Warning – it is subtitled, so you can’t multi-task and watch at the same time. Unless your Arabic is better than mine.

“The Armstrong Lie” – A documentary chronicling sports legend Lance Armstrong's improbable rise and ultimate fall from grace. (IMDB)

This was very compelling, if you’ve ever seen a headline in the past five years about Lance Armstrong. Even if you aren’t a headline reader, this was really good. It makes me mad that I ever held a shred of hope out for him not being liar, when it’s very clear he is and was. He also appears to suffer from a severe case of megalomania, or in my family, “big headedness.” It’s surprising there is ever enough space for him AND his big ol’ noggin in the same room. Give it a watch. It’s a great story, well shot, neutrally told, and a nice insight into the world of professional cycling.

“Rising from Ashes” - Rising from Ashes is a feature length documentary about the first Rwandan national cycling team in their bid to make history and represent their country at the 2012 Olympics. Competing in a white man's sport, reserved for the privileged, a rag tag group of cyclists coached by the first American to ride in the Tour de France, are transformed into a powerful symbol of hope for a country recovering from one of the world's most devastating genocides. (IMDB)

Of the three cycling movies I’ve watched in the past three weeks, this one was by far my favorite. The others were good – don’t get me wrong – but this one was inspiring and heartbreaking and beautiful.

Here are some great quotes from it:

"Cycling is about suffering. You cannot be a cyclist without going through a tremendous amount of pain. You can’t escape it." – Jock Boyer

“If you want to not suffer, you cannot survive to do cycling.” One of the Rwanda team members

“Trophies have no value, unless you use them to better other people.” Jock Boyer.

Watch it. You won’t be sorry.

Conference Training: Update

I haven't checked with the other people yet to see how our conference workout plan went. Ellen has been leaving comments as updates (thanks, Ellen!), so I know that for two of us, at least, it was successful.

My Saturday morning started with a bike round to and around Griffith Park (home of the Los Angeles Zoo, among other things) before conference. It's not a very long ride, but there's a nice little climb right in the middle of it. A climb that was so nice I didn't bother killing myself trying to complete it on the bike, but got off and walked/ran up the hill instead, when my cycling legs gave out. The whole route was about 16 miles, which I underestimated how long it was going to take me. Or overestimated how late I could leave the house and still make it home in time for conference. I got home about halfway through the first talk, so missed some of the exercises, probably.

But I picked up right where I came in, and overall for that morning session, did about 50 squats, four tricep dips, one plank and six or seven push-ups.

To recap, we were to do a squat for each "Jesus" or derivative thereof, and a 30-count plank for Joseph Smith. As Ellen and I observed together, anyone who says our church doesn't believe in Christ is crazy, as evidenced by the fact that the squats far outnumbered the planks.

Linda enjoyed reminding me that I needed to do a squat if it looked like I was getting complacent about doing one, or missed that I was supposed to be doing one. And both Linda and Cim were a little critical about my form if it looked like I was getting too lazy. As a note - neither of them showed any inclination in doing any of the exercises themselves; merely told me when to do mine. So supportive, those two.

In the afternoon session, the squat count was about the same, coming in at around fifty. I did five 30-count planks, and I'm not sure how many dips and push-ups.

Confession: I still owe doing Saturday afternoon's squats.

I didn't do anything for Sunday's sessions, other than listen. I'm at peace with that.

Conference Challenge

As I left my exercise session with my friend on Wednesday, we were chatting about watching conference. Recognizing it's challenging sometimes to stay awake, and both cognizant of individual goals to become more physically fit, she suggested that each time a certain word is said, we do a pushup or something similar. Together, we agreed on four words and an exercise to do each time one of those words is mentioned. Feel free to join in, if you'd like.

Atonement = 1 push up
Jesus (or any derivative) = 1 squat
Book of Mormon = 1 tricep dip
Joseph Smith = 30 count plank

One friend points out it will be difficult to take notes, but knowing myself as I do, at least I won't have my attention directed elsewhere (iPad, Facebook, etc.) so will be listening more than I might be otherwise.

(For those who may read this and aren't aware of what this "conference" is that I'm talking about, twice a year, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints get to hear from a living prophet, apostles, and other leaders of the church. Here's a little video that introduces what it is:)

H140: Transportation

The other day when I was getting ready for my training ride, I told Cim where I'd be and reminded her that she's listed as my emergency contact bracelet, the Road ID, I wear whenever I'm out. She said, "Fine. But we have to put a sheet or towels in my backseat, because I'm tired of your bike getting my car dirty and torn." It's true - there's a gouge in her backseat console where my pedal bit into it once. I feel badly about that. 

To save her backseat, and mine, and to make it all around easier to transport my bike(s), I am now the proud owner of an after-factory roof rack with bike fittings. Woo! 

I was able to purchase some of the components at the last REI garage sale I went to at a significant savings. Then with part of my income tax refund, I bought the rest of the parts and paid for installation. (No way do I have the patience to measure and accurately install one of these things.)

Here's the finished product, sans bike, just after installation. You can see the REI sign in the background. They have great customer service. Yes, they were running behind schedule today and made me late back to work after my lunch "hour," but Adam was professional and courteous and took the time to show me how it all works and explain everything to me. 

Yay for no more torn seats! Now I'm THAT person. You know the one - you see a car with a roof rack and you say, "Aha. There's a biker, or kayaker or surfer..." or whatever that person has on their car. Yep, I'm that girl now. 

H140 Training: Saturday Ride

This was a tougher ride than I thought it was going to be. Some of it was that it was just tough, and some is that it's tougher than where I should be at this point, which is a nice way of saying, I'm out of shape.

Remember yesterday when I said, "Up = north," as though to make the distinction between up/north and up/elevation? Well, it was both. The last half of the "to" trip was uphill. It was very difficult. I think that it was good training for the Eureka climb - a steady incline with a couple of unforgiving steep parts. At mile 15 I stopped at a relatively flat part and just rested. I was staring at the next bit of the hill ahead of me and thought, "If I can't make it all the way up there, I'll just get off and walk my bike. At least I'd be making forward progress still." And then I started on that hill, and it was worse than what it had looked like, because it curved and kept going, and I thought, I can make it another 100 yards. And then I can make it the next 100 yards, and I found a lower gear and just kept going.

And going.

I was familiar with the route as I've traveled it in a car before, or at least, I've traveled it many times on the freeway in a car, whereas the road I was on ran parallel to and underneath the freeway. You just don't notice those hills in a car. You feel every single pedal stroke on a bike.

At one point I hit a really nice downhill, even getting up to 38 mph at one point without pedaling. That felt good. And then it went back uphill. And up some more.

About that time I started getting texts from my home base support group, wanting to know how I was doing. "Almost at the Walmart," I replied. "Pretty tired. Not sure if I can make return trip." Not because I wanted to give up, but because I and just hit that sweet downhill, and knew I would have to make it back up.

A few texts later they decided they'd come and meet me at the Walmart, right after I decided that I had just hit another hill I didn't want to climb back up on the return trip. I told them I was turning around, but then they said they needed to go to Walmart anyway, so I turned back around to finish the trip.

The good news about that was I got another wind. Not a second wind, because I was way past that. And a hill that I hadn't been able to climb before I was now able to go back up somewhat easily. It's amazing what knowing that the end is near can do for your motivation.

Bottom line - I completed 24 miles, with (what seemed like) the majority of it being uphill.

That's the same route I'll travel when I go to Ventura, but it won't be as tough that time, because for one thing I'll have already traveled it and will be more familiar with it, and for another, I won't have to go back up all those hills.

Yes, I'm disappointed I didn't get the mileage and time in the saddle I wanted, but the hills were good training too. Really good training.

Post-training note - while I waited for the girls at Walmart, I went to the McDonalds and got a chocolate shake which I enjoyed greatly.

After doing some shopping, we went to another part of town to get some lunch, and ran into some LDS missionaries - one of whom had just been transferred from our ward, and we love him. We sat  with him and his companion while we ate and got caught up. That was fun.

So even though I was disappointed with my performance, the day overall was a success.