What to do on the bike for 45 minutes?

So, that's a great question.  It is much harder to read on your bike when it is not a recombant stationary bike, that's for sure.  It is harder to blog here too.  Today I am sacrificing my time to get a post in because I haven't in a few days.

This is a pile of books that I gathered up from my shelves.  Once apon a time, I belonged to a couple of sites for bloggers who read and posted their review on their blog.  Some of these books are from that time.  Some I bought for guidance and wisdom for myself, some were gifts... 

I follow some bloggers that post their list of reading material and it got me thinking about my time on my bike and trying to make the minutes pass faster.  Over the course of this challenge I have used my time to listen to some podcasts, check my mail, blog and read.  

Yesterday, it sank in that Lent starts on Wednesday.  As a Catholic, we observe in three ways: fasting, prayer and alms giving.  I think I am going to focus on getting the sugar out of my diet over lent, I am also going to tackle this pile of books, or at least the POWER OF A PRAYING  MOTHER one.  And this weekend I am going to talk to my children about who we can give to and how.  

I think that is a good plan, don't you.  Of course I will still be figuring out my training plan for all the races ahead this year, too!  

*NOTE:  I wrote this on March 1, 2014.  Editied and posted on March 2, 2014.  

Planning on a yoga class today for my exercise.  I also sat down and scheduled time with my trainer again, I have not worked out with her since maybe Christmas time!?!!?  SO, I booked all of the Mondays in March and what she had available in April, that's a start and gets me to my next race.  I am planning, weather and children illness permitting to attend the Hard Core Class on Tuesday mornings and the 7-week Interval Treadmill class on Thursday mornings at the gym.  Now to get the running legs back and add more yoga classes…  Currently I am committed to a 6am Wednesday yoga session, I would like to add at least 2 more times a week to that schedule.  Fingers crossed that it happens by April!!!  Happy Sunday to you all.

Off n Running,

AnnMarie

45 day challenge RESTART...

I was doing so well too!  Over the weekend, I get sick.  :(  I threw up and everything.  Light-headed, achey, and just plain yucky feeling all over.  Needless to say that won over my challenge.  I was really mad about it all too, as I was doing so well.  For those just joining me, read about my challenge to myself here.

Yesterday, I sat down with my calendar and my training plans and looked at the year ahead.  Or at least to my first race this Spring.  I am not sure if I told you all that I signed up for a running challenge with the Badgerland Striders Running Club in Milwaukee, but I took the plunge.  The challenge…  Run 8 of 9 races that the Striders host, starting with a half marathon on April 5!  (South Shore Half Marathon)  I looked at my calendar and the only race that I cannot commit too is the last one in November.  (If I am re-elected to the massage Board that I am currently on, we have something planned that day already.  AND if the Spartan Race is the same weekend as last year, that is the same weekend...)  When I cross all 8 finish lines, I will earn a Strider jacket!  AWESOME!!!!!  Plus I get all the race swag before that.  I see I am going to get some gloves in April.  I have been told they are pretty loud colored, that makes them even cooler!!!!  If you want to join me in the Super Strider Challenge, go here and sign up.  We can attend the banquet/party together.

Today, is day one of the challenge re-start.  I biked for 45 minutes and hope to start adding some strength stuff this week.  I really need to get into a yoga routine too.  Baby steps, and I will have the perfect work out plan.  As it is I have about 6 weeks, I think to get ready for this first half marathon.  I still have yet to see a doctor or chiropractor about my butt issue.  So that is on the adgenda for this week too.  One day at a time I guess.

Off n Running,
AnnMarie

My training partner...

My beautiful bike, a birthday/mother's day gift one year.

                                   

We got the bike trainer back!  

So, my DH, I love him but…  A couple of years back, he had this contraption called a bike trainer.  OK, for those who know me, I am a farm girl.  I didn't have a good place to learn to ride a bike except for the grass and gravel roads!  I didn't know the difference in bikes until I graduated from college and some of my track and cross country team mates started something called cross training and triathlons.  What the heck is all that about?  I just ran.  

Fast forward back to this contraption my DH bought/inherited from someone, I can't even remember the story correctly.  Anyway, he got this thing, set it up one winter in the basement and used it maybe two times.  (Honestly, he had good intentions.)   He complained that it was crooked and clicked and was too loud and…  You get the point, I hope.  It collected dust in the corner.  Then two winters ago, he insisted that he would use a trainer all winter, if it worked correctly, to be prepared for riding into work all summer.  (In my head I thought YEAH RIGHT!!!)  So off to the bike store he went and came home with my new training buddy!  

Last winter, after I finished the Tyranena Half Barrel race.  I rested a few weeks, then my body started to morph back to flabby.  He had set up the trainer and used it a couple of days/weeks.  I asked him if I could use it and one morning before he went off to work he hooked my bike up to it.  Isn't she pretty!!!!  I used it quite a bit in February and March of last year to get back into sweating again.  Then the snow melted and I met with D to encourage her to start running and the next thing I knew the trainer was back in storage.  I completed 3 half marathons last summer and it was AWESOME!!!!

Here we are in this weird fridged winter in WI and I do not have the right winter gear to be out in the elements.  Summer clothes are sooooo much easier to come by, anyway, I am getting off topic.  And my DH lends the trainer out!  YOU DID WHAT?  I thought!  That is my training buddy, how dare you do that without talking to me and getting approval!!!!  OK calm down AnnMarie, I can go to the club and use their bikes and elliptical trainers for rehab.  That was ok for awhile, but the 10 minutes to the club and 10 minutes back cuts into my training and sleeping time.  SO, we had to ask for our trainer back.  

I set her up on Tuesday.  Today, Friday is my 3rd day of using her!  She is going to get a few good 45 minute rides in this next month as I get this leg/butt thing figured out.  Welcome back training buddy.  See you again tomorrow.

Off n Running,

AnnMarie

45-minute challenge starts today!

Yesterday was a fun filled 45th birthday.  I decided I have to beat the winter blues and get my body healed.  Staying inside is not fun!  So I set a goal, I small about those, and I do not want to disappoint my kids or myself.  

The challenge:  Do at least 45 minutes of exercise a day for the next 45 days, plus.  I picked 45 because it is my new sassy age.   Last summer, during a run, I did something to one of my butt muscles and it is still bothersome.  During this 45 day health kick in the pants, I WILL be searching out doctors and other healthcare providers to figure out what I did and how to fix the problem.

The challenge:  Clean up my diet!  I truly believe I have a Candida overgrowth in my system.  I currently have toe fungus  (eeewwww), and crave sugar ALL THE TIME.  The past two or three

 days, I have woken up with a yeasty smell on my hands.  Gross!!!!!  

So here we go....  I chose the bike today because it does not agrivate my butt too much! And I can blog and read while on the stationary bike too.  Almost at 40 minutes in and read my devotion, worked up a good sweat and finished this posting.  Not a bad start to my day.

Off N Running,

AnnMarie