New Year - Time to Get Busy

Happy 2011! After a long holiday break filled with Mom's home cooking, I feel rested, restored, and rejuvinated (not to mention about 6lbs heavier). I'm excited to start building on my base cycling fitness from the past 6 months and turn all my training attention to RAAM. I did manage to get in a little cross training while in Minnesota in the form of shoveling snow off the roof of two houses but my legs miss the 'round and 'round motion of cycling. So after capping off a 350 mile week just before Christmas, it's time to get busy!

It's All About The "Hard Core" Image

The last three days have consisted of some fairly intense training. And on Sunday I left the house at 7am, biked 20 miles to the Hill of Life, ran on the greenbelt with friends for 8 miles, went to La Madeline for breakfast, and then biked 20 miles back home. I had an extra 15lbs of gear strapped to my bike so the hills certainly felt "bigger" than they normally do.

By 2pm I was laying on the living room floor, freshly showered and completely exhausted. I had a tennis ball under one butt cheek trying to work out a knot. Leary was on the phone talking to the "Cruise America" RV rental people about renting an RV for RAAM. I was only half listening but my ears perked up when I heard Leary say, "It's for Race Across America. (pause) A relay team of four women over 40. (pause) Oh yeah, they are going to race it. These are serious women and they are really going to tear it up out there!"

At this point I started to smile. I felt anything but "hard core" at the moment and about the only thing I had the energy to "tear up" was maybe opening bag of really salty peanuts.

Thanks Leary for always seeing me as "hard core"even when I'm flat on my back in the middle of the living room floor.

17 Piece Cycling Kit?

Silly me for thinking all there was to a "cycling kit" was a jersey and shorts. Vicki found a company that makes really nice custom team cycling kits with very small minimum orders (we don't need 100 jerseys!). She received the sample kit and it contains 17 pieces! We may end up needing another support vehicle just to carry the team kits!

I'm excited to start designing the jersey layout and start wearing our team logo!

BRING IT Tony Horton!

I've been a multisport athlete since 2000. And for the past 10 years I, like most active people, have grappled with how to incorporate strength training into an already "full" training schedule. Well I've decided to try something new. Hello P90X!

P90X is a 90 day workout program facilitated by a ripped, ubber man's man who actually yawns while doing massive amounts of pull ups. His name is Tony Horton. You know those exercise infomercials you see at 2am with the amazing "before" and "after" photos and people gushing about how they've never been in such great shape...EVER? And then the guy who comes on and says YOU CAN DO IT TOO?! Odds are, it's Tony.

I've tried a few of the P90X workouts here and there since May and with workouts like "ab ripper", how can you go wrong? Last week I did "legs and back" and I didn't walk right for four days. But last night Leary and I decided to get serious and "BRING IT"! It was day 1 of officially starting P90X in earnest and our approach is to tag team it. Perhaps it's my first timer's enthusiasm that I feel compelled to write about it but I have to admit Tony's quirky, funny, enthusiasm is contagious. Ask me how I'm doing at day 18, or even day 42! Something tells me I'll have other names for Tony.

There is another underlying reason for my wanting to do P90X. I want legs of steel so I can tackle all those mountains and hills that feel like mountains during Race Across America in June. And when I climb Wolf Creek Pass and cross the Continental Divide at 10,000+ feet, I will have no qualms about yelling at the top of my lungs, "THANK YOU TONY!"

So Tony...in your own words, I'm ready for you to BRING IT!

The List Continues...

Team Name - check!
Registered for RAAM 2011 - check!
Beneficiary partnership - check!
Non-profit partnership - check!

Raise money, buy gear, train, reserve RV, finalize crew, book airline tickets, train, order team cycling kits, have fundraising activities, attend related GoRed events, go to Interbike, train, schedule several team training events, contact a bazillion possible sponsors, train.......NOT CHECKED!

If I look at everything we need to do between now and next June, I have a mini freakout.
Breathe.
I'm going to go ride my bike now!

We Are Officially Registered for RAAM 2011

Well, we did it. Team Ride Red is officially registered for Race Across America 2011. And they say $6295 can't buy happiness! There was a bit of a fiasco with the bank. Apparently our account has a daily transaction limit of $4500. I didn't find this out until I got a note from Rick, the RAAM Race Director, telling me that our registration payment had bounced. One very urgent phone call to the bank and we were straightened out in a matter of minutes. Ye gads!


The RAAM organization officially welcomed us on their Facebook page.

Our RAAM site team page is only partially set up but we can be found HERE.

The Team Ride Red site is under constructions but the URL is: www.ridered.org.

Here we go!

2 Weeks without Exercise...

...is WAY too long to go without exercise.

I didn't bother bringing any workout stuff with me to RAAM because I didn't think I'd have time to fit in any swim, bike, or run. I could have fit in a run while we were in Ulysses, Kansas for almost two days waiting on the relay teams. Heck, I probably could have done jumping jacks in Monument Valley or push ups in West Virginia. That's the beauty of hindsight. So now I'm getting back into the groove of getting my body to do something OTHER than sitting in a van and it is NOT happy. Lots of stiff hip muscles, sore quads, and my left hamstring has given me the proverbial finger a few times. But the happy endorphins are flowing in my brain and it feels great to be moving again!

I didn't ride while I was in Austin last week and now I'm traveling again - visiting family in Minnesota. My running shoes are portable enough so I have done some running. But I am really itching to get back on my bike. Maybe I can borrow my mom's mountain bike while I'm here? Or I could pay $20 for a day pass to the local health club and take in a spin class, yoga, swim in the pool, and another spin class? Hey, for $20 I'm getting my money's worth!

I have a 25K trail race I'm doing on Sunday and I'm expecting to get my butt handed to me. But I will try to enjoy that lung burning, muscle twanging, heart about to rupture in my throat feeling and remind myself that yes indeed, it is good to be moving again.