Get Fit Chicks!

but it was a pretty great ride! Today I set out to do the bike ride I was SUPPOSED to do last week – leaving from my house and biking to the top of Cypress Mountain and back.

Last week I let my brain get the better of me and talked myself out of the ride – I just didn’t think I was ready. I was wrong. So this was the week to try it for the first time, and it was great! The total distance was 75km which is my longest ride so far. The first 36 was almost all climbing…small hills and inclines from my house to the base of the mountain and then of course a BIG climb to get to the top. Even still the ride to the base had me nice and warmed up and I ended up getting to the top of the hill one minute faster than I had the last time I rode it.

There were a TON of road bikes riding up which was nice for pace setting and then once we got up there (I was riding with my roommate) the descent felt SO good (and much warmer than the time I did it in the rain!) I was a bit fatigued by the time I got to the last small climb on the way back home but overall I was surprised how good I felt. It was a long ride for sure but I wasn’t tired and my legs were in pretty good shape considering. Now I can’t wait to do it again! Next time it’ll be Seymour. Bring on the climbs!

I was having a conversation with a couple of my favourite workout buddies at the gym the other day and we all agreed that summer is a REALLY tough time to stick to diet plans. Working out – not a problem – the motivation to keep the bikini body combined with beautiful days for running, cycling, climbing, etc. outside keeps us going but it’s the diet that’s the hard part. What is it about summer that seems to bring out tempting food everywhere? BBQs, patio’s, vacations, etc. all combine to mess with our diets. I’ve been guilty of this as well, vacation brain takes over and I’ll have “oh, just one bite of ice cream” or “just one cookie” and before you know it you’re worried your shorts won’t fit anymore! The ridiculous thing is that I really don’t even enjoy these “cheats” I feel MUCH better when I’m eating clean and I enjoy my activities (especailly running) so much more! So that’s it – it’s time to really focus on the diet and making sure it’s on track and supporting my workouts! I’ll keep you posted on how that’s going.

That said I had a REALLY great weight workout yesterday with Caroline and Devin. It was a full body so we went through bosu lunges with shoulder press, bosu squats with a bar, incline sit-ups holding a plate, cross crunches holding a plate, pull ups, hamstring curls, single leg dead lifts on the bosu, push ups with toes on the bosu (then on the floor), side twists and finally ended the workout with some “jump-ups” (my absolute favourite!) It felt really great. Some biking afterwards to burn out a bit of cardio and that was it.

Today’s workout is a 10k race-pace run and some intervals. It’s nice and sunny out but not TOO hot so it should be great!

Lately quite a few friends of getfitchicks.com have set some fantastic fitness goals and keeping up with them is keeping me motivated too – there is nothing like hearing about someone else’s goals, training program, highs and lows to keep you going in your own training.

First up: AndreaClaire – winner of the “what motivates you?” challenge that we posted up several months ago. Andrea has a bucket list that she has been working towards – most notably to do the Chilkoot trail – but recently to train for the Victoria half marathon! She has agreed to do some guest posts for getfitchicks.com updating us on how her training is going, the challenges and the rewards as she gets ready for the race in October. Watch for posts coming soon! Andrea also blogs about her adventures at Chilkootchubby.

Next up: Sarah – Sarah plays on our “Hit and Miss” ball team with Caroline and I. She’s always been a great motivator and super high energy and now she’s decided to train for the Disney half marathon with her husband Brand and friend. The runners blog about their training at “Piraterunners” – it’s an entertaining and motivating site, well worth checking out!

So now I’d like to know who else out there is training for something special and telling the world about it? Share your stories or your links here – we’d love to see how you’re doing!

Today was my hill training ride…my program has me scheduled to do a three hour ride on Sunday’s including one of the local mountains. For the last few weeks I have been doing a mountain ride every weekend – but JUST the mountain – as in I would drive there, ride the mountain and then drive back. That alone was a tough ride – only an hour and 10 minutes but each of those minutes was hard work.

The new program has me doing the mountain but adding in 2 additional hours of riding. That could take the form of doing the mountain twice, riding to and from the mountain instead of driving or adding some distance before or after (eventually the goal is to do BOTH in one ride and then go for the triple crown).

Unfortunately today my brain got in the way (I HATE that!) I just didn’t know if I had it in me to do the ride out and back as well as up the mountain…so instead I took it down a notch and decided to ride to SFU hill (Burnaby Mountain), up and back. This is a tough ride too – approximately 40kms with 5km being up a mountain (the mountain last weekend was 17km up) but not NEARLY as tough as a real mountain ride would be.

In the end it was a good ride – did it in 1:33 with an average pace of 22.5kms (a few stoplight got in the way taking my speed down but overall not TOO bad). But as soon as I got onto the hill I knew I should have done the mountain ride. I DO have it in me – I underestimated my fitness. The brain is a powerful thing – it can push you through the toughest of workouts or it can hold you back – talking you out of something you KNOW you can do.

Today was I day I let my brain get in the way – I’m going to have to train on mental toughness – but next week I’m going to do that mountain ride and I’m not going to doubt my ability to do it. Lessons learned.

I have been VERY negligent about updating the blog lately! Seems that’s what happens when you go on vacation. I am now back to reality and a new routine though – the reality part isn’t that great but I’m VERY excited about the new program. Devin put a lot of work into balancing the various activities that I love to do and keeping me outside as much as possible.

More on that in a minute…first up I have to take a moment to say a HUGE congratulations to Caroline on her wedding (part of the reason I have been away!) She and her fiance got married in a beautiful outdoor ceremony on the sunshine coast. The views were specatcular, the company was fantastic and the food pretty amazing (all the more reason to get cracking on the new program!) I’m hoping Caroline will share some of the pictures when she has them…she was stunning. Overall it was a great few days on the sunshine coast!

The new program:

Monday: Climb – 30 minutes (laps, up and down), work on projects
Tuesday: Full body weight train, 50km/2 hour bike
Wednesday: 10K run at race pace, intervals (15-20 minutes), climb: campus board workout
Thursday: Triceps/core/shoulder workout
Friday: Hill repeats (bike or run)
Saturday: LSD run (20kish)
Sunday: 3 hour bike including a local mountain

There it is – I’m pretty excited about it!

Changing it up in two ways…

I bought a kick boxing DVD to try. I did a kick boxing boot camp last summer with my sister and I loved it. Since I’m stuck at home at night, I thought I’d try to do something other than yoga.

The DVD I bought has a warm up and cool down and then six or seven intervals that have two sets of four exercises each. I decided I better take it slow and just did the warm up, two sets of intervals and the cool down. Good thing I decided to go slow. My legs were very very sore today! But tonight I’m going to try to do three intervals and the warm up and cool down.

The other change was yoga today. I was really looking forward to it. Because of this, that, and the other thing, I ended up working at home last week so there was no yoga, so it’s been a week and a half since I’d been to a yoga class (which is many times better than a video) and my body wanted yoga. And I was sore.

Our usual Tuesday instructor was away, but the sub was amazing! I’d love to have her all the time and I like the Tuesday instructor. The sub taught a more flow style of yoga and it was challenging in new ways. My arms will be sore tomorrow. I loved her style and her voice and everything about this class. I know it was one of the best yoga classes I’ve been to in a while.

Change is a good thing.

Really!

I have spent the last 10 days on vacation – first in Comox for Canada day, then over to Crescent beach for a week and as I type this I am sitting on a patio on the sunshine coast watching waves crash in on the ocean – it’s pretty stunning!

I’m over on the sunshine coast because Getfitchicks blogger Caroline is getting married here today! whoohoo! The weather is perfect and the scenery stunning so it should be a great day!

Fitness wise I am hoping to get a run in shortly after I finish writing this…I have some duties to attend to starting at approximately 12:30 pm but other than that I have some free time, since there is no gym and my bike isn’t here a run seems like a good choice of activity. Even if it’s just a short one it will be nice to move – especially since last nights dinner can’t be qualified as low-fat!

It’s been a pretty active vacation so far though – running and biking at Crescent beach and biking Mount Washington on the island. I also got a GREAT ride in yesterday before we caught the ferry – probably my best ever, speed was great – all of those mountain climbs are paying off! I have to admit I’m looking forward to getting back into my groove though. Vacations are great but so is “real life”.

Stay tuned for more regular updates now that I’m connected again!

I haven’t been around much this week because I’m on vacation at the beach – and what a perfect week for it! It’s the hottest week we’ve had so far this week and my competing tan lines (from my running shirt, bikini and sundress) tell me that I’ve been getting some sun.

I’ve been a bit relaxed when it’s come to workouts – getting a solid one in every day but not quite the level I would have from home. But everything has been outdoors for the most part which is fantastic! Every morning I ride up a big hill to get the newspaper which is a great wake up then I usually either run or go for a good bike ride that day as well. Tuesday was a training day so I was back in the city for weight training with Devin (and my glutes are STILL sore!) but otherwise it’s all been outside. Today is another weight training day so I’ll pop into the local gym for a short workout but will go for a bike ride for the cardio. It’s a pretty nice way to spend the day!

I have my new workout program which has me doing a lot of climbing, good cardio (especially on the bike) and some speed work while I’m running – but less distance at the moment. I’m pretty excited to be working on that.

Off now to enjoy the sun…a few more days here and then it’s off to go to Caroline’s wedding! Then it will be back to life as normal. (or as normal as life ever is!) Stay tuned!

So, I’ve discovered if I stick close to my toddler’s diet, I feel pretty good…hmmm…I wonder why!

Well, in all likelihood it’s because I don’t want to feed her junk. Which is good and makes sense. But then I wonder, why, if I won’t feed my baby junk, would I think that junk is a good thing to feed myself?

After that light bulb went on, I thought maybe I should try following J’s diet. So, for the past few weeks that’s what I’ve been doing and I feel a lot better!

J and I have been having breakfast together since she was born and since I started back at work, most mornings we eat oatmeal cooked in milk with all kinds of yummy things in it – raisins, cinnamon, other dried fruit. We also typically have dinner together because, well, I’m home by then and Alex is off to work.

Which meant the biggest challenge for me would be lunch.

Because I HATE lunch.

Most days J gets a sandwich or some leftovers, a few little containers of fruit and I try to give her at least one vegetable – usually peas, beans or avocado. She usually has a homemade mini muffin or a home made (piece of) granola bar and a yogurt or some applesauce for her snacks and she always has a juice box with a mixture of about 1/5-1/4 juice and the rest water and one that is plain water. Those are accessible to her all day and get refilled with plain water by the sitter when they’re empty. J gets milk to drink at lunch.

I didn’t know where to start with my lunches. It’s my least favourite meal of the day and sandwiches, the lunch staple, are at the bottom of the list (I also don’t eat mayonnaise which makes sandwiches a little more difficult). Most days I take my whole lunch – usually leftovers or maybe salad (bean and quinoa or coleslaw are my favourite these days). Then there is usually a container of cut up veggies (usually I eat them plain, but sometimes I take some hummus), an apple and some other fruit and usually a yogurt or a hard boiled egg and a mini muffin. It seems like a lot when I write it down and often I bring at least a piece of fruit home. If I skip the egg or yogurt, I find my afternoons are super sluggish. If I only take part of a lunch it I pick up the “main” part of the lunch somewhere. And lunch places on campus are somewhat scarce. Healthy lunch places are pretty much non existent.

But amazingly (well, not really amazing but anyway), eating this way I feel better. I just need to make my lunches more interesting.

Any suggestions?

Today my friend and I biked Mount Washington bottom to top and it was a TOUGH ride. I grew up skiing Mt. Washington almost every day in the winter with my Dad but never stopped to think what it would be like to do that hill in anything other than a car. Over the last two weekends we’ve biked local mountains in Vancouver – first Seymour and then Cypress so since I’m on the island this weekend it seemed fitting to do Washington. It was WAY higher. First of all the distance – 17kms instead of 12-13 that we had done previously with an elevation gain of 1175m. The hills were long and steep. The one good thing was that there was more recovery time between the steeps than there are on the Vancouver Mountains – at one point there was a bit of a downhill followed by a flat which was great. But that was followed immediately by a steep uphill that seemed to go on forever.

I did the 17k in an hour and 29 minutes averaging 11.4kms/hour on the ascent. Not bad for me – I’m getting better at climbing. The great thing is as soon as we got to the top I felt great – the pain (and there WAS pain) of the uphill was forgotten and it just felt great to be there. There was a group of mountain bikers at the top who told us we were crazy for biking up, we agreed that good possibly be true. But it felt great.

The descent was cold. There are still patches of snow at the top of the mountain and flying down got a bit chilly. But other than that it was a great ride with some beautiful views along the way. Well worth doing. Can’t wait to do it again next time I’m home and see if I can beat that time.

Now I’m off to make a big salad for dinner – greens, red pepper, tomato, avocado, strawberries, mango, lentils. Yum!

Tomorrow is a run day.