This week I met with my bicyclologist (my bike fitter and instructor), Jeff Lockwood from Lifesport, Inc. He is the most brilliant bike guru in the area in my opinion. We took time to get a baseline to see where I was starting from with a spin scan on the Compu-trainer. The good news is that I improved from 68% to 98.2% efficiency from my initial assessment on my old bike from almost 2 years ago to present time. The bad news was that although my technique was still improved, I had some corrections to make due to losing power midway in my pedal stroke and wasting energy. A little instruction goes a long way to smooth out my spin scan and we reviewed the pedal stroke and used a little biofeedback on the video screen, then moved on to the dreaded ROLLERS that Jeff has wanted to put me on for a while.
Once I learned to balance on the rollers that Jeff uses between 2 walls with wooden platforms built up to roller height for quick exit and little training wheels on the front to prevent your bike from sliding off to the sides, I fell in love with my bike all over again. You have to learn how to use your core to make corrections and it helps you pedal more evenly in a complete circle. Jeff's goal for the session was to get me up and riding on rollers and to my surprise, he had success (as I am not the most coordinated cyclist on the block!). Afterwards, he had me ride around the block outside to feel the effects and I can only describe the feeling as flying to the moon on my bike like ET! I felt like I was floating. I returned home later that day and told my husband we need to get some ROLLERS (and the little training wheels and platforms too!). Jeff and I agreed that I could benefit a lot from doing some more sessions on the rollers. So happy to finally make it back to work with Jeff and look forward to him helping me recoup and surpass my previous level of peak performance on my bike. I also had Jeff help me find the RATTLE on my bike that was driving me crazy for the past few weeks. Between Jeff and the mechanic, Mike at Curbside Cyclery it was determined that my crank was loose and a bearing needed replaced due to rusting out. I got the double lecture about making sure you take your seat post after your bike gets wet and letting the insides dry out. Jeff also felt that this may have been affecting my performance on my rides. I am more inclined to believe it was my fitness level, but I will take any advantage I can get and hope that having my bike in tip top condition will only make me pedal better.
The next person that I have drafted for my team this year is Brooke Schohl of Fuel to the Finish Endurance Nutrition Coaching to help me get my nutrition back on track. Her philosophy is trying to make endurance athletes more metabolically efficient by training the body to burn more fat. My first goal was to get back down to a good training weight and Brooke is patiently trying to help me cut back on grains and combine nutrients and increase my protein and healthy fat intake. My body weight has been directly related to the amount of exercise that I do which is a great side effect of endurance training, however, when the miles go away, the pounds return. Weight control has been a struggle my entire life and I seem to lose the same 20 lbs over and over again. Hopefully Brooke holds the magic key to helping me get rid of the excess as a lighter leaner athlete is a faster athlete. I find that knowledge is one part, but action is the other part.
So I have hooked up with a friend (and new Ironman finisher herself) from a past support group and we have agreed to be accountability partners to help each other achieve our goals. She also invited me to an online support group that are doing a Holiday Challenge since November and December are always challenging months for weight control with sweets all around.
Next week, I will return to the pool and restart my swim workouts on Wednesdays with my triathlon group and a few private lessons with Sole Swim Solutions (with the great coach Frank Sole). I feel like I can slack on the swim, but it is always a nice toning, conditioning and recovery sport that I don't want to be away from the water for too long. I made a pact with another IMIT to resume early morning swims!!!!
So for now, these are my current life savers. My TRI CLUB, ONE MULTISPORT is like the wrapper that holds all the flavors together. I just renewed my membership to a great club filled with all levels of triathletes who share the same passion whether it is to GO FAST AND HAVE A BLAST (according to founder, John T. Dean) or TO GO SLOW AND ENJOY THE SHOW (according to the Turtle with Wings).
This week I fell short on the number of workouts I would like, but that is ok after 2 race weekends in a row. I did a 7 mile trail run and a 42 mile bike ride. I signed up for a few running races in the next 2 months and am still working on putting together a training plan for IM Chattanooga.
JOKE: What do triathletes do in their off season
ANSWER: Train for a Marathon.
Well, I have tossed the idea of a marathon around, but my common sense is telling me to try and stick to the half marathon distance and save the marathon for IM....we shall see. Especially after today's attempt at a long run when I bonked at 6 miles, walked 4 and called for a ride home for last 1.5. It is always good to get a baseline check to measure "where you are today".
TEAM ASSEMBLED: Time to clock in for work!
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