[2/7/06 Tuesday]
Swim - 2000m, 35:37 - 250 pull warm up, 10x150 w/ 20 sec rest, 250 pull cool down
Bike - 18 miles, 1:12 - outside ride, rolling hills, Hwy PD to Paoli
I had two great workouts today. I had exactly one hour to leave work, get to the pool, swim, and get back to work. With no frills in my swim or shower routine, I made it it 1:07. The swim itself was short, sweet, and to the point: short warm up and cool down with endurance repeats as the main set. I didn't need to bother with a workout card, because I had the workout memorized before I got there.
I am preparing for my bike trip to Hawaii and am concerned that only doing spin classes is not going to prepare me for the hills and longer rides. I decided to do an outdoor ride today. There is no snow on the ground and it is 30 degrees, so conditions, while not ideal, are acceptable. I rode one of my common routes of rolling hills. Next week I need to start working the hills even more, but this week I let myself ease into the outdoors. My toes were completely numb by the end, and I didn't have enough water with me, but other than that it was ok. I started to get cold by the end. My friend told me that while some people have relationship baggage, I have biking baggage. I'm not exactly sure what that means, but maybe it has something to do with enjoying certain rides more when they are over.
Techniques that I work on in spin class were helpful to think about on my real bike today, like: keep my shoulders down at all times, use the entire pedal stroke on flats, when hills get hard only pull up on the pedals. Getting the chance to practice these techniques on my real bike at the same time that I am re-learning them inside will hopefully help them stick in my mind as the weather warms up and I don't go to spinning anymore.
Even though it was 30 degrees outside and the water in my water bottle turned to ice today, the manure on the farmland that I biked through still smelled like manure.
