Day 20: Uphill Grind

We are up to Day 20 in the Spinervals 32DayChallenge. While I would have LOVED to honest to goodness do this challenge as designed, my work travel made that impossible and I have had to miss quite a few days of cycling. However, when I'm home, my butt is on that trainer for my workout. Even on mornings like today - I have a holiday event tonight so I moved my prescribed strength workout to last night. I NEEDED a hard, hard workout with weights so I pretty much pounded myself into the ground. Fell into bed in a heap and was asleep before I shut my eyes. One of those kind of workouts, you know? When the alarm went off this morning, my first thought was "Ouch, I'm already sore. And wicked tired. I should sleep in." Thankfully that thought didn't win out and I was able to pull myself out of bed and get down to the trainer.

Today a new workout was on the schedule: 41.0: Ascending Mountains. I bought myself the latest 3-DVD pack (among others!) for myself for Xmas, and this workout is currently wrapped and under the tree....... I was THIS close to sneaking it out and replacing it, but thought better of it. I'll have to wait until next week and swap it in for something else to try it out.


So today I did and oldie but a GOODIE: 7.0: The Uphill Grind. I love this one because the cast is all women - all ridiculously accomplished, strong women (among them Olympian Joanna Zeiger), so it's very inspiring. In addition, at a mere 45 minutes, I thought it would be a good one on a day where my legs were already seriously fatigued from the strength workout less than 12 hours prior, but still fit the bill for the scheduled workout of the day. Ha. Hahahahahaha..... That's maniacal laughter - the kind when your brain is totally deprived of oxygen and you are beginning to lose consciousness.....

After a solid warm up and a fun sprint set, the main set consists of 4x5' - where those 5' are 4' of climbing (big gear work) following by a 1' descent (fast hard spinning). Troy is sneaky, sneaky, sneaky in this one - you make it through the first rep feeling pretty good. Solid. Strong. Ditto on the second set. And now you see the pattern forming - we'll be standing in Big/12 for the last 30 seconds of each climb rep - that's after a solid 3.5 minutes of hard big gear work. Ok, got it. During the third set he's upping the intensity and you are standing more often, or worse, sitting in Big/12 while keeping your cadence up (for you non cyclists out there, that hurts). I finish the third set literally just DRIPPING with sweat, my lungs heaving, chugging my water. One more to go. 5 minutes of serious business. Ok, I got this.

Then Troy gets mean. He looks all cute and preppy in his khaki shorts and polo top, but don't let that fool you - he's clearly a mean bastard at heart..... The last rep is almost all standing, right from the get go. We move around from Big/15 to Big/12, but we are standing. Some brief seated work, but only as a tease, really. Half way in, and I am saying bad, bad things out loud to my beloved Coach Troy as my legs are begging for mercy. At the time, I truly mean it when I'm yelling at him to "F&%K OFF!" as he yells at me to keep my cadence up, to stay on that wheel in front of me, to keep pushing up that hill. But I don't back off, no, I do as he says, as I think about climbing Gates Pass and Mt. Lemmon at his training camp in March. I need this. I hate his guts at this moment, but I need this so I do as I'm told. The set finishes with a strong downhill minute, and when it's finally over I happily sit up to soft pedal and towel off for our minute of glorious recovery before the last sprinting set. I'm dizzy, I'm breathing as my good friend Claire describes so eloquently "like a fat girl in gym class," and I can barely see straight.

It's going to be a great day.

Day .... 18?

Well, travel will put a wrench in the works, that's for sure. I kept up as best as possible while I was on the road, but that's not saying much!!!!! The hotel exercise bikes just suck - ugh.

It felt GREAT to be back on my own bike yestereday - wow. For a variety of reasons I've been in a bit of a grumpy mood but I was just determined to get in my workout yesterday. It would have been SO easy to blow off - I had been up early and run in a local fun-run 5k with my daughter in the morning (that didn't really count as exercise for me as it was a slow jog - SO much fun though!), spent the early afternoon making treats for her holiday party tomorrow and snuck in a little too much frosting..... And I was taking my son to see a movie later that night. It would have been easy to convince myself that I didn't have enough time to workout, even though the clock told me otherwise - I had plenty of time for a workout.

So I donned the bike shorts, filled up my water bottle, and went downstairs to the House of Pain for my session with Troy. Nothing painful on tap for the day, just a 70 minute aerobic workout. Aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh. By minute 15 the grumpiness was but a memory and I was feeling nothing but great. It's amazing what a solid workout can do for your mental state! Somehow, magically, all was right with the world, even though, it's not. :)

Thanks Coach!

Day 6: Pushing the Big Gears

Today was Day 6 of the Spinervals 32 Day Challenge - an oldie but a goodie!!!! I like these old school Spinervals - 11.0 Big Gear Strength consists of sets entirely completed in Big12 or Big13, with a mix of standing and seated work while in those monster gears. Troy is classic Troy - literally SCREAMING at us to push, Push, PUSH through the last few seconds of the sets. Calling on us to "finish with some PRIDE!" And my favorite Troy-ism: "Three, Two, Oooooooooonnnnnnnnneeeeeeee. Now soft pedal." It's fabulous. These big gear workouts are ones where I can actually keep up with the prescribed gearing - some of the workouts are a bit crazy in this regard. I'm currently simply not even CLOSE to capable of riding *aerobically* in Big15 at a cadence of 90 for extended periods of time. But in this workout, I can push Big12 HARD for the minute-long reps and love every leg burning second of it. The time flew by, and before I knew it, it was time to climb out of the HoP to start my day, already feeling accomplished.

Hilarious crazy morning hair, on top of being a sweaty mess. 

Tomorrow is where my resolve to stick with this really kicks in - I'm on a plane at 6:00am and am traveling through next Wednesday night (Boston -> Atlanta -> DC -> Tampa -> Boston). That is 8 days on the road, 8 days away from my OWN bike, my HoP, and stuck on a "cardio machine" type bike in the hotel gym (fingers crossed that they even have one!). But here me now: if there is a bike in the gym, I'll be on it. I'm packing the scheduled workouts and will play them on my laptop, and do my best, putting in the time and effort. It won't even be CLOSE to my usual experience, but it will simply have to do.

Days 4 & 5 of the Spinervals 32-Day Challenge

This weekend went by in a blur of holiday prep work: shopping, cleaning, decorating (which included hanging precariously from the porch roof as I hung the icicles - 12 years and counting without a serious neck or head injury! Woot!!!!!). Thank goodness for the Spinervals Challenge to keep me sane at this time of year.....

Sunday was Day 4 - another aerobic base building workout. This time it was 28.0 Aerobic Base Builder VI, a 60 minute purely aerobic workout. I like this one a lot - it's got a few higher cadence sets, which really help you work on your pedaling technique which helps to keep things interesting.


Today was Day 5 - and another aerobic base builder to get us ready for some tough big gear work tomorrow. On the schedule was 18.0, but I had used this one on Friday and was in the mood for something new. So I subbed in 25.0, a compilation of ABB's I-IV. Today just FLEW by. Sometimes the ABB workouts can get a little boring, but Troy really does a good job at keeping things interesting by changing up our gearing, tossing in some brief standing efforts, and putting in a variety of sets of varying length. Before I even realized it, I was over 45 minutes done - I wrapped up with a total time today of 1:20, and felt amazing.

Happy "I'm Done" Face!

I need to adjust the prescribed schedule a TAD - Troy has strength on the schedule for us tomorrow, but I'm doing this challenge in conjunction with a P90X rotation, and I do those strength workouts on M/W/F. So tonight will be P90X Chest/Shoulders/Triceps to finish out the day feeling like a rock star.

"But, Michelle, what happened to Day 3?"  Yeah, we aren't going to talk about Saturday, other than to say I had to use one of my Wild Card rest days ALREADY. Ugh. Moving on....... 

Day 2: Aerobic Base Builder

Day 2 is on the books and it was another fun day in the House of Pain (HoP), the name I use for my scary basement when I'm down there on the trainer. Although today there wasn't much pain involved, as the Spinervals workout of the day for the Challenge was an easy one after yesterday's tough threshold test. Today was Spinervals 16.0: Aero Base Builder I - a nice easy Zone 2 (purely aerobic) session. I'm enjoying getting back in the early morning groove for these cycling workouts, as I've been doing my strength workouts in the evenings lately. I thought the early morning alarm (it goes off at 4:30am sharp!) would be brutal, but I've had no problems getting up and it just feels darn good to be up and getting ready for a good solid workout when you know the majority of the rest of the world is still snoozing.

Ready to GO!

DONE! Note that my headwrap thing is much darker in
this photo. It's completely soaked - you could ring
it out! Maybe that was a little TMI....

I'm a *little* worried about tomorrow - my legs feel fine and the workout is a toughie, but I love muscle endurance workouts so I know it will be an enjoyable 2.5 hours (yeah, you read that right....). But after being off the bike like this for a bit, there are certain body parts that aren't up to their usual endurance levels for this type of activity. So if you see me walking funny Saturday afternoon, just pretend you don't notice and don't laugh until I'm out of earshot please!

A lot of you don't know what Spinervals are or how bike trainer workouts work. Here's my set-up, which should make things pretty clear:

It's really quite simple - your actual bike is attached to a trainer, which allows the back wheel to spin as you pedal. As you change gears, pedaling is easier, or harder, depending on your gearing. My TV/DVD player is just in front of me, and that's where Coach Troy barks out his orders. You simply dutifully do as you are told! It's a GREAT workout, and a lot of fun (if you like getting yelled at, working really, really hard, and sweating a lot, that is). So, if you were curious as to what it really is that I'm doing every morning by 5:00am, here it is, in all it's glamorous glory....

I'm SO glad I found the Challenge - it's just what I needed this month. That said, word on the street is that the New Year's Eve workout is Have Mercy (if you aren't familiar with this workout, I'll simply say that it's aptly named), and the New Year's Day workout is Hardcore 100. As in 100 miles. As in a FIVE HOUR trainer workout. Have Mercy is 2 hours of wicked, twisted brutality that makes you cry for your mother (after saying bad, bad things to Coach Troy.....). Follow that up with Hardcore??? This is going to be an interesting kick off to the new year......... All I've got to say is that my legs had better be steel bands and SMOKIN' after all this work! :)

Back on the Bike: 32-Day Spinervals Challenge

Yeah, it's been awhile.....

After a crazy few months of LOTS and LOTS of work travel and therefore not much swimbikerun (but lots of strength training, which has been a fun diversion), I'm itching to get back to tri training so I can start '12 feeling strong and READY. I am going to Coach Troy's training camp again this March and want to arrive in tip-top shape when I tackle Mt. Lemmon - I'm totally getting to that pie.....

So.... When I saw that Troy came up with this RIDICULOUS 32-Day December Spinervals Challenge, I was in. At first, he was planning to slaughter us with crazy long/hard Spinerval workouts EVERY day from Dec 1 - Jan 1, but after thinking through a bit, he's adjusted it a TAD. It's still ridiculous, mind you. It's going to hurt, and hurt bad. And I'm so stoked about it I can't contain myself!!!!!

Today was Day 1 - I'll try to blog every day, even if only to specify the workout and a brief comment (such as: "I freakin' hate Troy today!!!!" j/k Troy - you know I love you!). Today was 27.0: Threshold Test and Sufferfest. In a nutshell, this workout serves two purposes: it's a great threshold building workout designed to boost your anaerobic threshold and sustainable power output for time trialing events including triathlons, and it also functions as a repeatable field test used by many prominent coaches and exercise physiologists to determine an athlete's Functional Threshold, or that output of work (power) one can sustain on average over a 20 minute period. We were using it for the latter task today, to set our zones for the workouts for the remainder of the challenge.

It's essentially an hour workout with a 20-minute segment of hell in the middle (the TT segment). I'm excited to see how the challenge will improve my numbers when I retest in January!

It was great, and I mean GREAT to be back on the trainer this morning at 5:30am. It was brutal - there is something about that zone you get in during the last 5 minutes of a TT effort - where you are praying for either death or natural disaster to allow you to get off the bike right now, but somehow, SOMEHOW you are able to dig deeper and hold on to your target numbers and you don't let go. That feeling is truly incredible. When you finish, and finish strong (seemingly an impossible notion mid-way through the workout), you feel like a ROCK STAR. Awesome. Just awesome.

I lost approximately 42 lbs of sweat during the hour workout, and I'm SO happy. Clearly.

Let's Get This Party Started!

Holy Hell, that was a BLAST.

Stay tuned for my daily updates!!!!! And check me out on Facebook as well, where I will be regularly commenting about the challenge on my page as well as the Spinervals FB page. And if you are inspired, JOIN THE FUN!

ABC's of Me

Yeah, yeah, I know. This is totally lame but I HAVE to get back to my blog, and I keep coming up with great blog post ideas that fizzle out after the first paragraph. So, I thought I'd get the ball rolling by simply doing what everyone else is doing right now in the blogosphere: The ABC's of Me.

Here goes.

Age: 42 (but not for much longer!!!!!)

Bed Size: King - yet, I still sleep on a sliver on the edge, hoping every night that I won't be pushed off! What I sacrifice for my children and dog....

Chore You Dislike: Pretty much anything that can be described by the tag "chore." EXCEPT for mopping. I love mopping. I could mop all day.

Dogs: I am wholeheartedly a dog person, but not a yippy rat-dog person. Eddie is my boy.

What's not to love????

Essential Start to the Day: Training. Even if I am only doing a single workout that day, it will be the first thing I do.

Favorite Color: Fall-ish burnt orange.

Gold or Silver: Both - more silver than gold lately, but will still pull out the gold jewelry on occasion.

Height: 5'9"

Job Title: Product Manager / Independent Team Beachbody Coach / Mom, depending on the time of day

Kids: Boy Child (11), Girl Child (8)

Live: Winchester, MA (super cute 'burb of Boston)

Mom's Name: Doreen

Nickname: Missy, but only used by relatives. NO ONE else may call me Missy. From a young age, I was quick to correct anyone who tried to use a nickname on me.

Overnight Hospital Stay: Plenty - I think my parents were worried about getting calls from social services when I was a kid. Recently, for the birth of the kids (both completely unmedicated, uneventful births).

Pet Peeves: People saying they would LOVE to do XYZ if only "they could find the time." It ain't hiding behind the couch, folks. "Oh, lookie honey! I found 45 minutes tucked between the cushions!!!!! How on earth did THAT find its way there?" If you want it badly enough, you make the time - own up to your choices.

Quote from a Movie: "There is no charge for awesomeness ... or attractiveness." (Kung Fu Panda)

Righty or Lefty: Righty

Siblings: Younger sister

Time I Wake Up: Hold onto your hats, folks. Typically, 4:30am (sometimes earlier). Shorter workouts let me sleep until 5:30am. That's six days a week. All year round. See point above about making time for important stuff if you are gobsmacked by this.

Underwear: Yes (and always super cute), unless I'm working out. VPL, chaffing - just too many things to go wrong during a workout. Sometimes painfully, painfully wrong.

Vegetables I Don't Like: Used to be brussel sprouts, but I've come to like them over time. Otherwise, I don't think I've come across a veggie I didn't like!

What Makes Me Run Late: I am generally on time. It drives me nuts when people are late, so I try my best to be punctual myself. At the end of the day, I can be late getting home if a meeting runs over.

XRays I've Had: Teeth. Mammogram. Left Arm (2x, broken both times). Chest, after I tested positive for TB exposure when I was pregnant with Boy Child. Friendly Tip of the Day: Do your best to avoid being spit on by filthy homeless men in Harvard Square, especially in the facial area. Trust me on this one.

Yummy Food I Make: The kids RAVE about my pancakes (don't tell them it's just Aunt Jemima mix!!!!). I am also proud of carrying on the Xmas tradition of Sauerkraut Balls and Kielbasi & Sauerkraut. I'm also getting pretty good at a number of vegan recipes.

Zoo Animal Favorites: The ape house. I could spend ALL day watching the gorillas and chimps.

Ok, that was actually sort of fun!