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Fitness Weekly Discussion
What have you been doing lately for your own fitness? Try out any new programs or exercises? Have any questions for others about your training? Want to vent about poor behavior in the gym? Started a new diet or have a new recipe you want to share? Anything else health and wellness related?
Cycling is my main sport. I live in Colorado and love to participate in cycling events in the mountains. This July I hope to participate in the Mt. Blue Sky Hill Climb and the Triple Bypass Ride. I've successfully completed similar distances and elevations before, but I'd like to to better this year.
I'm at 193 lbs right now, and I'd like to be at about 173 lbs by July, so I've got to lose about a pound a week for 20 weeks to hit my goal weight. I've made a spreadsheet and maybe posting here about my progress will keep me motivated!
Wow, those are both pretty intense. 6.5k elevation in ~26 miles is quite the go, you should be so stoked!!! I tried skipping the 100 mile mark and doing a 200 mile event as my first event and injured myself in the training process. Shook my confidence in long days a bit. What do your trainings look like as you ramp up to the events?
I'm not really aiming for times or anything, so all I need to do is keep upright in the saddle for 7-8 hours, so my training is just really long days in the saddle. I did a 100 mile, 7k elevation ride in September, and that took me 7 hours to finish. The weekend before that I did 85 miles and then heavily ramped down in the days before the event. Otherwise it's a 3-4 hour ride every weekend in the summer leading up to the event and that's generally enough.
Nine days out, so I have 3 more proper training sessions and then only two very easy days next week. This week I was feeling pretty beat up. Lots of fatigue, some brain fog, not really sore but achy. So I took Wednesday off, got about 10 hours of sleep, played some video games, did chores, went to the gym, and cooked my partner a nice dinner. Feeling much better now.
Looking forward to an easy week next week. Taper save me.
Two victories to report, the first being that I haven't quit or broken with my goals yet! Tomorrow will be 5 weeks since I started, minus about half a week for being sick. I don't count that as a break in the streak, I actually count it as bonus points because it would have been really easy to quit then, but I didn't. I also haven't weighed myself or restricted calories. I'm sticking to functional goals and keeping a positive mindset. I'm not feeling much stronger or more energetic in my day to day, but I know I am making progress because victory number two, I can do a push up! Just one, but it's more than I could do before! I'm debating joining a gym so that I have access to easily measurable and scalable things like weights and machines, but I'm not sure I'd stick with things as well if I had to go somewhere and interact with people and see all the mirrors everywhere. Maybe when it's warmer and going out is less of a chore.
Congrats on the double milestones! I know that can feel incredible. If your schedule and area allow it, consider joining a 24 hour gym. I personally don't like working out around a bunch of people unless I'm with a friend, even then I'm not a fan. But that 3AM workout when nobody else is around and it's just you and the mirror?chef's kiss
Also it might be valuable to you to find a sport that you know you could be passionate about. For me it was rock climbing (my city has a few indoor gyms that are quite good)
Edit: the increased day-to-day sense of energy WILL increase, I promise.
There are no 24 hour gyms around me unfortunately, but that's alright because the mirrors are always there and they bother me just as much as the people. I know they're important for examining form and stuff, but if I was happy to look in a mirror I wouldn't need to go to the gym.
I do have a rock climbing gym nearby! I actually keep meaning to check them out. It doesn't seem like they offer classes though, and they require certain levels of proficiency to use the walls which I'm not sure how to get. It's also completely possible that's wrong and a translation error because the website is in Swedish and I'm still learning. I need to just go in and ask but I keep putting it off and I don't really know why. I should hurry up. Maybe if I start soon I'll be good enough to do some outdoor climbing before next winter.
I'm also doing a dance hall class that's super fun, but really taxing. I don't feel it much at the time but I did it two days ago and I'm still sore and a bit fatigued. The increased flexibility from the yoga is definitely helping my performance in class, though, which is nice to see!
I've almost finished building my ebike, I want to be done by the end of the week but there's a bunch of soldering left to do (end of the month is my hard goal).
Then I'll be able to commute without a bus, and get back into bouldering which I haven't done for 3 months now.
More than the fitness side of an ebike though, I'm excited for the personal transport freedom I'll get back after selling my car in 2018. Buses and trains have limits to their convenience, whereas personal transport doesn't.