Andrea's Training Journal

[wickedraw]

Hi everyone!

I've been lurking around here, and figured it's time I start a training journal! First a little background info: I have been vegan for just over 3 years, and for the past 7 months have eaten mostly a high raw diet. After graduating high school (before I went to vegan from veggie), I weighed 195lbs. I had been overweight my whole life, greatly due to a lack of exercise, and knowledge about nutrition, emotional eating and a family that overeats at every meal. For the past few years I've slowly evolved my diet and changed my relationship with food to be my fuel and not something to do when I'm bored. and started adding in some exercise to tone up. I've lost 65lbs since then. I've been keeping a training notebook since November, so I'm excited to start one on here! I mostly lift weights, elliptical, recumbent bike and mountain bike, and I run occasionally too. I have my first mountain bike race in two weeks, so I'm trying to get ready for that!


Today's workout:

50 minute mountain bike ride (Desert Classic at South Mountain, Phoenix AZ). I wish I could have gone longer but I took a nasty fall on some rock and decided to head back

60 second plank

2 pull ups-I'm a work in progress

That's all for now! Any tips and comments are greatly appreciated!
Andrea
@WickedRaw

[Iron Clad Ben]

Welcome!

[wickedraw]

Thanks, Ben!

[wickedraw]

A little sore today after my fall yesterday, but I still managed to get a workout in! I need to build muscle mass in my legs so that they don't burn out as fast when I'm riding, any recommendations?


reverse close grip pull downs:65lbsX8, 65lbsX8, 65lbsX8

wide grip pull downs: 65lbsX5, 55lbsX6, 35lbsX12

tri push downs: 35lbsX7, 35lbsX5, 15lbsX15

direct chest press: 35lbsX8, 45lbsX5, 35lbsX6

leg extensions: 35lbsX8, 35lbsX10, 35lbsX12

leg press: 65lbsX15, 75lbsX10


Andrea

[Iron Clad Ben]

Cycling uses quads the most, in fact cyclists often over-develop their quads vs. their hamstrings. The legpress you're doing is great for quads. So are squats, start doing those.

[viciousvixenx]

Keep up the work with the pull ups.... they are so hard and it took me awhile to be able to get just one! Two is awesome for not having worked out in awhile... I'm impressed.

[wickedraw]

Good to know, Ben. I'll get on that!

V, thanks! I was so pumped when I got my first one down. It took me weeks to be able to do one

[wickedraw]

Short workout today, tomorrow I plan on biking and doing some upper body/core

30 minutes of tennis with my husband
one set of suicides on tennis court
8 push ups

later in the day:

60 second plank
20 sit ups
1 pull up
25 dumbell squats (dont have weights so I used a bundle of bananas in each hand)
15 squats

[Iron Clad Ben]

Oh hey now I totally get the whole "wicked" and "runnah" thing. I saw you guys were living in AZ and was kinda confused. Didn't realize you were from NH, it all makes sense now. I grew up outside of Boston. Weather up theyahhh is so retaaahhhded, I was in Concahd last week, it was in the thirties or fohhties every day.

[wickedraw]

Haha, Ben! Gotta represent New Hampshahh!

I got in an hour and a half of mountain biking this morning. It felt great! I got passed a ton, but that just gave me the chance to watch their technique which helped a lot. I still need to work on my climbing technique, but I'm getting better. Every time I had to bail on a climb section, I walked my bike back down and tried again, and again until I made it up. Tomorrow is my rest day. Sunday I'm going to do a ride on the course I'll be racing on next week. I'm going with a seasoned racer, and she's gonna give me some pointers, which I'm super stoked about!

Andrea

[wickedraw]

Did a 13 mile trail ride (about 1 hour 45 minutes) on the track I'm racing on next week today. The race is 10 miles long, but I did the beginning portion an extra time in the beginning. The track is 3 loops that connect to each other (sport, tech, then long). The sport loop was super flowy and fast! The rider I went with was recovering from a 12 hour race from yesterday, and she still kicked my butt! It was nice having a buddy because it definitely made me push harder to keep up. I made it up the uphill portions that I burned out on last time, which was sweet! Had to pop it into a granny gear, but hey whatever works. There were a lot of riders out today, which I have to admit was pretty intimidating at first, but everyone was pretty nice. I think they could smell my newbie-stank so they were extra outgoing


Nicole thinks that I should shoot for 1hr5mins for my time, so I'm gonna go back this week and see if I can work on it.

Andrea

[wickedraw]

I went out and rode the course for the race this weekend again. I managed to power through almost all the uphill sections which made me sooo happy! My balance/coordination is improving which rocks, gives me much more confidence. I did it in 1:14 so pretty close to my goal time! Saturday I hope to shave some time off, I'm sure the adrenaline will help with that. I've got 5 other girls in my class so I want to do well. I'm going to be resting until Saturday, just to be sure my legs are ready to rumble! I'll post tomorrow with a photo of me and my bike and my jersey!

Andrea

[wickedraw]

My race is tomorrow! I'm wicked excited/nervous! I rode hard on Wednesday, so I'm taking it easy until tomorrow. We just loaded up on more fruit, so I'm going to be eating nice and light today. I made the best smoothie yesterday, and it was just the good old bananas and spinach combo with ice and water. It hit the spot like nobody's business.

There are more races coming up, and I want to sign up for at least a couple more if I can afford it!

[wickedraw]

Today was race day!

Last night and this morning I was so nervous making sure my bike and everything were all set. Once I got to the track I could feel the adrenaline start pumping. It was seriously the most fun I've ever had! I shaved 4 minutes or so off of my practice run time, not bad considering the track was packed with racers (from marathoners to first timers like myself). I ended up coming in 4th out of 5 for my class!

I'm glad I didn't come in dead last, but I'm also glad that I even finished! Hell, I'm proud that I even signed up to race! It was intimidating for me, but now that I've got my feet wet there's no going back!

Start line


Finishing


With a fellow Team Beads of Courage rider!



Andrea

[Iron Clad Ben]

Awesome! Guess you'll be doing lots more of these then