Quick update and more cycling than usual

Life's still proceeding at a rush, which I'm enjoying. Here's a quick update on the exercise front.

On Sunday the plan was to run with Kathryn. It was a great plan and lasted about a kilometre and a half. I was fine at the start but once we'd stopped a couple of times for Kathryn to stretch her sore calves I was done. I just couldn't get the momentum up again to run. I don't know if it was the temperature or the fact that I've put on weight lately (grr) but it seemed like such an effort. We ended up walking the rest of the way (7 km all up) so at least it was time on my feet. Oh, and the real benefit was the chance to chat with Kathryn, who is even more interesting in real life than she is in her blog.

On Monday I dashed into the gym, did a quick interval run (6km/9km) and then dashed back out to catch a bus. I enjoyed the run, burned lots of calories, earned my 25 points for the WOW program and caught the bus. I think I catapulted into the seat but I may be exaggerating.

On Tuesday I went for a short ride in the morning. Now this would have been a long ride 12 months ago and I've realised that I really can't count 5 km as exercise any more. I think I managed to burn a whole 80 calories. Mind you, it all counts on calorie king. I had a work breakfast meeting so I didn't make the gym in the morning. After work I had a slim session (grr - I hate these, but my weight was lower) and a PT session at the gym, then I had to speed off to the bike course I'm doing.

For PT I did a very short warmup on the bike, then 3 sets of 15 leg presses (50 kg), 3 sets of 12 seated rows (23 kg), 2 sets of 12 hip abductors x 2 (30 kg and grr), 2 sets of 12 bent over rows (15 kg), 1 set of 12 chest presses (9 kg with help at the end) and 1 set of 12 leg extensions (each leg then both) before being stretched.

I hurried home, picked up my bike stuff, and headed off on the bike path. I had 20 minutes to get there and it took me over 25 door to door. I forgot to turn my Garmin on at first, but I managed to capture most of the ride. I noticed that I'm definitely turning my legs over more when I'm riding, which is great. I think this 'riding under pressure' makes a big difference. It's pretty flat from my place to the course venue and I'm on a bike path most of the way. I did do something exciting. I rode in the bike lane on Northbourne Avenue for the last little bit. There's a major intersection so the bike lane goes green in between the through traffic and the left turn lane. I stuck on the green and had cars on either side of me. It was scary but there were other riders out there so I sucked it in and gave it a go. Fortunately I survived to blog another day!

The lecture last night was about stretching and we learned a number of stretches especially for cyclists. The lady who gave the talk is a physiotherapist who was an elite cyclist herself, worked with the AIS for years and sets up bikes for people. She had great advice and I'm glad I didn't skip this session. I learned a great stretch for my ITB too. Not that I have ITB problems, but it's handy to know about the stretch. It's a combination stretch that works the quad too. All I have to do now is actually do it. There was a simple PF stretch too.

Oh, we were told that we should do the stretches for two minutes each. With glutes, quads, hammies, calf, achilles, ITB and PF that's at least a quarter of an hour of stretching a couple of times a week, not counting any other stretches like neck or back. The two minutes can be made up of 12 lots of 10 seconds or 3 lots of 40. It's up to us. Mind you, yoga, which I'm missing at the moment to go to the bike course, covers all the stretches so I'll be doing one session each week once the course is over. I will just have to try to fit it in. Maybe when I do my leg sessions at the gym. I'll end up with a reputation - that lady who spends half her gym session lying down.

I rode my bike again this morning - another short ride, but at least I'm out there and building my confidence. I was working on some of the stuff that was mentioned last night, like trying not to have a death grip on the handlebars and holding a neutral spine. It will happen!

I'm writing my blog today instead of being at the gym as I am really struggling to keep up with my washing at the moment. Tonight I have the group PT session at the gym followed by the second half of trivia and tomorrow night I'm off to the Theatre to see "Menopause the Musical" after playing squash. Oh, and will you all stop blogging so much? (tongue in cheek) I caught up on my blog reading over the weekend and now there are 17 unread entries there. Sheesh! I wonder if I can talk them into setting aside a blog reading hour a day for me at work? Sigh, probably not.