Riding to nowhere: Making the most of the bike trainer

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After several weeks of the weather forcing us to ride our bike trainers instead of the road, I was less than enthusiastic to do my 2.5 hour bike ride last Saturday morning. Then, I had an idea: What’s my first important triathlon of the season? Rev3Tri’s Quassy in Middlebury, CT. We had heard the bike course was grueling. So I thought, Hmmm, I’ll create a trainer workout that simulates the Quassy course. Now, without a computrainer (the $1,700 price tag is prohibitive for us right now), this simulation is not an exact science. But, with a little bit of time …

Siberian Soaks

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“Hoowwwwwllllleeeeee,” I scream as I plunge my legs into the snow and water filled tub. “La, la, la, la, la, la,” singing now, as my not-so-little tushie, hips and lower belly hit the water for my daily 10-15 minute Siberian soak. “Oh, God, Oh, God, Oh, God…” I repeat almost at the top of my lungs. I know it’s not good to take the name of the Lord in vain, but really, I am praying. The water is as cold as a tub filled with two 5-gallon buckets of freezing snow. Clearly, the real thing is descriptive enough – no …

Hard work isn’t easy & easy isn’t worth it

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I was riding my bike on the trainer on Tuesday. To lessen the boredom, John hooked up a TV in the garage so we can watch while we ride. As I flipped through the channels, I noticed that various fitness products were being reviewed on Rachel Ray. Eh, I guess I will watch this for a minute. The show’s producers had several former Biggest Loser contestants test various “get thin quick” fitness products – you know the ones you see on informercials late at night? The BL contestants, Amanda, Sunshine and Matt, were to use the products for several weeks, …

Training begins anew: setting goals for the new year

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When I was a young girl, one of my favorite things about the beginning of a school year was a clean notebook, with its crisp white pages just waiting to be filled with notes of my learning experiences. Today, I still enjoy the promise of empty pages, waiting to be filled. Now, however, those clean pages are those of my training log for the 2011 season. It’s time to start filling them with experiences as this week marked the beginning of the 2011 training season. It’s not like I have being doing nothing. It’s just that I’ve been working out, …

The ideal size

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In the summer, I was talking with my friend Courtney about life after the ironman. (Yes, life now is split officially into the BIM “before ironman” period and AIM “after ironman” period.) “Are you going to be working out as much?” Courtney asked. “Oh, no! We’ll be able to have a life again, less working out – more time for hanging out,” I replied. “Are you going to be okay with that?” I’ve known Courtney since I was about 11 years old. She knows me as well as any other person could. And, she got right to the heart of …

Spirit of the Holidays: Exodus 10 mile Holiday Run

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The sounds of “Eye of the Tiger” awoke me as my alarm went off at 6:30 a.m. Race morning! I can almost hear the blare of trumpets in my head on race mornings. I walked into the kitchen to get the coffee started, and took a quick peak at the thermometer. 18 degrees. Hmmph. That’s cold. Er, I mean, invigorating… John and I were running the 10 mile Exodus Holiday Run, hosted  by Exodus Wellness in Ocean City, NJ. To give you a sense of the spirit of this race, the announcement from Exodus Wellness founder Amy Godfrey started with …

All training and no playing makes me a cranky pants: Thoughts on the holidaze

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I love this time of year: Thanksgiving, my birthday, Christmas, each complete with gatherings of family and friends. Yet, all of this merry making, combined with  colder temperatures, dark mornings and evenings, and busy days, comes with a price with respect to training and health. I’m by no means an expert in overcoming these holiday hangups with training and nutrition. But, I have few key guidelines to keep in mind during the holiday offseason. All training and no playing makes me a cranky pants. We can’t train hard every day, all year long. Well, I guess we can if we …

The Best Year Ever

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Saturday, December 11th is my birthday. And, to celebrate, John and I are going to see Railroad Earth and the Hackensaw Boys at the World Cafe in Philadelphia. Naturally, I am excited. “This is a GREAT way to cap off the best year of my life so far!” “Wow…I didn’t realize finishing an ironman was that big for you.” John immediately hit on a key contributing factor as to why my 37th year has been the best one yet. Certainly, part of what made this year great was setting and achieving difficult goals, such as completing an ironman and running …

Johnnie’s Run – A return to “fast”

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The last 5k race I ran was Zach’s Run on October 4, 2008. The last time I did anything resembling speedwork was about about 6 months ago, but even that was more like tempo running than all-out, out-of-breath, feel-like-my-lungs-are-going-to-explode running. Yup, it’s true: I can run 50 miles, I can do an Ironman, yet a 5k still scares me. It’s not the distance. It’s the speed. It’s the burning, searing pain that comes from pushing your body past the redline into anaerobic zone. True, it’s only little more than 20 minutes. But, those 20 minutes are grueling. It’s not like …

Collecting Runs in San Francisco

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I woke up Monday morning at 5:00 a.m., and headed to the hotel lobby for a cup of coffee. As I entered the lobby, I heard a muzak version of the Rocky Theme. This is going to be a great day. I was headed to the Golden Gate Bridge and the marina district for a run–a run that I had been dreaming about since I first realized the conference I was attending would be held in San Francisco. When I travel, one of the first things I want to do when I arrive at my destination is go for a …