What a difference a day makes

Today was great! It was still a tough workout. I still wasn't able to sustain the high cadence on the greater loads, but I did the class and I felt good afterwards. It's amazing what a difference it makes when reminding yourself of that you must begin somewhere. Don't despise the days of small beginnings.

I also adjusted my breakfast a bit that I think helped with energy level. I ate oatmeal with raisins and honey. Had a few cups of tea and a class of water. That was about 2.5 hours prior to the class. Then, around 30 minutes before, I had more water and ate a couple of bites of a banana. Finally, I added a nuun tablet to my water to add some electrolytes. I'll stick with this routine for a while and see if it holds up.

It was 57 degrees outside today so I enjoyed a short ride around one of our pathways and on a familiar street. It was good to get outside for a bit.

Thankful for today!

Do your best

Today, I woke up and, thinking about what's ahead of me during training, thought to myself, Do your best. 

Do you best. That's all I can do. So if I can't sustain a certain speed for the duration of the workout, I'll do my best. If I crash (physically, not on my bike), then I'll try to push through but I'll do my best. I've just really begun this training and haven't been riding for that long, so I don't quite know what I'm expecting. It's freeing to think about doing my best and pushing through rather than trying to do something my body and physical fitness may not be up to speed on yet.

So, today, I'll do my best and hopefully finish strong and get out of my head. I want to have fun and enjoy the process.

Here's to enjoyment and doing your best!

Defeated...in my mind

Some days I get up and get going and everything clicks and it feels good. Other days are like today, I wake up feeling sluggish, read part of my Bible study plan, eat part of my breakfast, crawl into the car and attempt to finish my training. It was a battle today. I wasn't discouraged in my soul but I was in my spirit. That may not make sense. I just didn't feel it today. But that's okay, I finished the workout and limped out (figuratively not literally) and ate and now I feel a bit refreshed.

I did learn a lot today. I learned that my upper body moves quite a bit when I cycle so I need to work on that. I'm beginning to understand pedaling technique but it will take practice. I learned it's not good to weigh yourself before a workout (haha!! That wasn't smart). And I learned that I'm not drinking nearly enough water. I'll be working on increasing water intake and retraining my thinking about eating and exercise. I'll write about all of this soon.

I also learned that if your mind isn't with it, it affects cycling. It's not like weight training. Your mind needs to be in weight training to remember things like roll shoulders up, back, and down, engage core, soften knees, etc. But for cycling, I'm learning, my mind can't concentrate on where I'm still lacking. I need to think about the workout (or imagine riding on the road if I'm not on the road, etc.) rather than think about how awful I am at it. Ha. (I'm not awful, just learning). I can concentrate on technique but if I think about too many aspects of it at the same time, I get overwhelmed.

This brings me to how kind my coach is. I was clearly down when the workout ended. He encouraged me that I'm learning. That's all I can really do. It's only the second week for goodness sake! He reminded me that as a writer, I've had to learn and things like books take a long time to come together. It was a good reminder. Also, having this much structure is new to me. We just got started.

So, today started rough but it's been a good lesson not to give up, which I wanted to do towards the end. Coach patted me on my back and told me to keep going. I did and it was good. I'll have another day like today. It'll stink, I'll want to give up. But, by the grace of God, I'll keep pedaling. I have a feeling I'm going to learn a lot about myself, endurance for life not just cycling, and perseverance.

Here's to a life of learning!

Traveling and Training

My daughter and I enjoying a movie! :) 

I feel like it's been a while since I've had a chance to type out my thoughts. First of all, my first week of training was great. I love having a program to look to each day and work from. I was telling a fellow cycling friend (well, more than a cycling friend, just a good friend) that I'm finding myself becoming more disciplined in other areas. I'm reading more, sleeping better, eating better, generally keeping a better schedule. The Lord is blessing this effort. I'm continuing to pray for sustaining grace.

Traveling

I'm in a heavy traveling season. It's one that requires my prayer and attention. I'm so honored to get to do ministry around the country. Actually, this year I'll be traveling to Germany. I can't believe I get to go encourage the faith of women in another country. Such an honor and I pray it's fruitful and encouraging to them. All this wonderful travel means I must get creative with training. In the past I would have squeezed in a workout here and there, but now I must be intentional.

One way I'm intentional is not skipping my bike ride even if it means waking up quite early to get it in before a flight. This isn't always possible, but most of the time my flights aren't at 5:00 am. If that's the case, I can get an hour in on a trainer and then get ready to head to the airport. If I can't do a cycling ride but cycling is on the agenda, I'll be looking for a spin bike or area classes. I don't always have long breaks but if I do, I'll need to take advantage of them. On a recent trip, I had weight lifting for the training that day so I just went to the hotel gym and got it in. The harder trips will be those that take me away for three or four days. But those are rare.

So, what I'm learning about traveling and training is that I must do what I can and that's all I can do. I'm continuing to feel like I'm improving (which is probably funny to say since I've only been doing it for a week). But, seriously, I think training with my coach is transforming my riding. I can't wait to see what's next!

Performance Test and Fear

Today was a fun, hard session. Here's the thing I've discovered, over the past one or so years of riding, I've actually just been coasting. Ha! I've never pushed myself--at all. I was just riding. It was fine and good and totally enjoyable. And don't get me wrong, I was working because our terrain here makes you work even if you don't want to (rolling hills). But now that I'm being told what to do, I realize that I've been coasting along.

Coasting for me has consisted of pedaling at an extremely low cadence. I never paid attention to the rotation of my pedals because I was, well coasting. I was just trying to make sure I didn't fall or hit someone also. I also realize that I mostly rode to get outside and enjoy time outside while getting in a little workout. All of these things are absolutely fine and good. What I have now realized is that I'm simply ready to take it to the next level of both fitness and purpose. But, during rest days or days that are recovery on the bike, I will enjoy coasting!! ;) I'll also make sure to enjoy my warm ups and cool downs in new and unique ways. So, here's to coasting during the proper times! Ha.

Performance Test

Today, I got a picture of where my cycling fitness level is. I actually don't know what it all means, even though he explained it to me. Haha! I just know that in a month or two we'll do it all again and by the grace of God, I'll have improved. I was thankful to be able to do what I did--pedaling hard for a period and pedaling steady for a longer period.* But I do look forward to gaining greater fitness. My coach has told me that I'm strong and now it's about building my muscles to endure fatigue (building strength endurance). I'm not at all surprised by this. I'm so grateful for him--he's incredibly patient with me as I ask a 1,000 questions. He's also super realistic. He wants to push me but not burn me out. It's been good for me!

Fear of Not Measuring Up

So, I wrote a book about fear and I have a chapter called Fear of Not Measuring Up. I realized today how much this fear follows me around even when I'm doing something enjoyable. I kept asking my coach, "Do you think you have something to work with?" "Am I doing okay?" I fear wasting his time. I realized how silly I was being by the time I left. He isn't judging me and he's definitely not measuring me against others!! He's quite focused on getting me to where I can go, not where the next person can go. He's been perfect! As an ex-fitness professional, you'd think I'd be able to preach this good standard to myself but I had forgotten. It was helpful to remember today.

So, here's to doing what I can with what I have. The Lord has made me and I'm encouraged to see what I can do as an endurance "athlete." ;)


*I won't be posting my specific workouts on here for a number of reasons but mostly because it wouldn't be appropriate since it's a private lesson and though no one might read this, I'd hate for my coach's work to be shared. I guess it's like plagiarism with a book or giving away someone's secret shrimp and grits recipe. ;) I'm sure you, whomever you are, understand!

And so it begins (began?)

I've started training!

I thought that I was beginning today, Monday, Jan. 4, but instead my coach sent me a workout for Sunday. I was actually out of town when the workout came in and I immediately tried to figure out how in the world I would fit it in knowing that by the time I got home and settled, the sun would be nearly set. Well, have I mentioned how awesome my husband is? He is incredibly kind and gentle and supportive. I couldn't do much of anything without him. He needed to get a run in so he decided to grab my bike and all my stuff, because cycling isn't like riding a bike*, and met me at the airport with all of my stuff!

I got changed at a Panera Bread and we were off to run and bike and play. I wasn't able to complete the full 1.5 hour workout. I got in one hour of it. I also slowed down and stopped to be with my kids a few times so it wasn't the full paced workout either. But, I got something in and I'm grateful for that.

But today it really begins. I'll meet with him to find out what all of the workouts means and how to do this most effectively and efficiently with my crazy schedule. January seems like it will be a bit of a wash because of travel but I think we are going to get creative. Mostly, I want to have fun and push myself. I simply wouldn't do much of anything without accountability. I believe God has made us for community and even with a sport like cycling which could easily be individualistic, I'm grateful for community and accountability. I have both. I'll elaborate soon, but for now, here's to the good, fun of cycling in 2016.

*Oh, I wanted to clarify my statement about cycling and riding a bike. You know how people say, "it's like riding a bike." Well, cycling isn't like riding a bike. In some ways it is, you get on a bike and ride. But most of the time you don't have tons of gear and special clothing for riding a bike. And you may have had a bike with gears but that too can get a little complicated. All that to say, for my husband to grab my bike meant that he had to grab my bike, shoes, pants, jersey, jacket, socks, water bottle, and pack it all up along with the kids and everything they needed. That's why it wasn't like "riding a bike." He is a champ!

Not all food is good fuel

So, it's New Year's Eve and I just finished a super short 30 minute spin on my bike via the trainer. It's late now, around 9:15 p.m., and we are all attempting to stay up until midnight. Okay, 9:15 isn't late but when you have small children you begin to drift off around 8 pm. We are doing various things around here but will gather together again in about 15 minutes. That's enough time to jot down today's thoughts.

Knowing that I have intense training ahead of me, I've done what any sensible person would do and gorged on food--tons and tons of food. And sweets. I've enjoyed Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Year's food traditions this year in new and unique ways. Mostly in the form of eating everything without shame. ;) What I realize is if I'm going to get fitter, I can't concentrate on riding alone. I must pay attention to what I eat. So, bye bye holiday eating and hello cycling eating.

What is fueling for cycling?

That's a good question and I look forward to learning this from my coach. I don't actually know what's the best foods to eat for endurance sports. I see many of my cycling friends popping gels and various other things but I would prefer, if possible, real food. So, until I learn I am sticking with lean proteins, whole oats like oatmeal but skipping bread, fruits and vegetables. This begins tomorrow. It's actually not far from what I typically eat I've just abandoned it during the holidays. I typically feel better when I'm eating well, so this will be a welcomed adjustment.

So, I don't know what is the best fuel but I do know that that not all food is good fuel for cycling or any endurance sport. I imagine this will be a big experiment at first. I'll need to know what I can eat prior to intense rides and what I can not. I typically have oatmeal or egg whites in the morning. I imagine that will do but we shall see. And I imagine I'll need to do figure out what to eat as I ride. The thought of eating while doing physical activity is extremely foreign to me but the journey is all about learning.

Here's to learning and fueling properly in 2016! God has been good and I am praying that He is glorified as I seek to enjoy this new sport.

-Trill