Thursday, May 9, 2013

Spring has sprung

Last night's workout was supposed to be some quality time with my good friend Jillian Michaels, but when I got out of work and noticed that it was still beautiful outside I didn't want to spend an hour cooped up in my house when I could be enjoying this perfect day. K. was free as well so we decided to set out on a nice long bike ride. We got our bikes all geared up and ready to go and prepared my Garmin (I should name him) for his inaugural workout.


This little guy is my Garmin Forerunner 405 and I am in love with him. 

I have to admit, I don't have very much experience on a bike. K. has been cycling for years (for enjoyment, as a mode of transportation and competitively) and encouraged me to get into it as well. He bought me my bike for my birthday a few years ago and I've rode it every now and then but never really consistently. One of the things that prevented me from riding more often is that he wasn't exactly the most patient of instructors. On our first ride ever (which was basically my first time riding a bike since my teens!) I could tell how frustrated he was getting with me for being slow. After a good talking to from his cyclist friends he realized he needed to be a bit more understanding and it's been a lot smoother since then. Our rides now are longer, a bit faster and generally include working on a few different cycling skills (riding close to other people, shifting better, working on my cadence, getting out of the saddle to climb hills, etc). I'm kind of having him train me for this upcoming duathlon even though I have absolutely no expectations or time goals since I have no idea what I am getting myself into.

Anyways, back to last night!

We rode along our favorite trail for awhile but it was a bit congested with commuters and walkers enjoying the day so K. lead us on a bit of detour. We climbed up a steep bridge that ran over a highway (mildly terrifying) and into a less busy area with open roads. I worked a lot on shifting and allowing myself to gain speed on downhills and turns. After a half an hour of that we headed back to the trail to ride up to this super pretty man made lake. It was at that moment that I realized that spring has actually arrived. Everything was so green! I feel like it happened over night. I wish I'd had my camera. We enjoyed the view before heading home. I took the lead and set the pace and discovered that I could actually ride a lot faster than I thought. Don't let that mislead you I am still a painfully slow cyclist, but I'm seeing improvement and I find that really encouraging. All said and done we were on the roads for about 90 minutes and it felt great. 

One of the downsides of cycling, for me, is that right now it doesn't feel like as good of a workout as running. I'm not at the point where I am really pushing myself and I don't experience the endorphin rush that I do after a long run. I'm hoping that once I'm using the heart rate monitor I'll be able to really start putting in the efforts and feeling more accomplished at the end of a long ride. 

Post-ride I played around with my new boyfriend the Garmin and looked at the stats from the ride. We ate pierogis for dinner and finally watched this week's Game of Thrones. Does anyone else watch? It's basically the only TV show we are ever caught up on and that's only because K.'s parents let us use their HBO Go account. Shhhh... Don't tell on us!

I've kind of completely ignored my proposed training plan, but since the weather is great again today I'm hoping to get back on the bike and follow it up with a quick run. Exercise is exercise, right?

2 comments:

  1. Game of Thrones is amazing. Really good quality show. it's tough to keep track of so many characters!

    Cycling certainly takes a long time to get used to it. All of the gear, and the process of getting out there always seems to take forever. Then there's other people and cars to deal with? ugh. it's a pain. I ride all the time and hate it.

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    1. We actually rewatched the entire first + second season before the third premiered and I feel like I finally know most of the characters, haha.

      The people and the cars are definitely an issue for me! I feel like I'm doing really well and then someone will get kind of close to me and suddenly my whole body tenses up and I forget how to even ride a bike! I imagine that will get better with time but it's frustrating right now. And all the gear. So much easier to just put on my running shoes and step right out my door...

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