Climbing Club - April Goals

[Starfish]

Well, got in 1011 feet today. Only went 8 miles, and it took me almost an hour! Kind of a sad little ride. I had set out to do more, but felt pretty crummy and decided to do a nice recovery swim tomorrow and live again to fight another day.

[Starfish]

Hi fellow climbers!

I could use a little encouragement and/or advice. It has been a week since I have been on my bike or worked out , and I don't think I will make my goal for the month. I am in the midst of serious house packing/sorting, and dealing with siblings, and trying to grieve my parents, continuing to work of course, etc.

I know that I need to be gentle with myself right now, and I also know that one of the best things I can do is keep moving toward my biking goals. My goal event is not for another 16 weeks, so it is too soon to throw in the towel! Yet, I feel like I have lost so much fitness in the past week or two, not to mention mental momentum.

Any words for me?

[Veronica]

You have a lot going on in your life. It's okay to take some time off. But you also have to take time to do things for you. You know you can go for a ride or a swim without it being a workout.

I see you do an after school program. Is it all academic? Can you make some of that time playtime? Every now and then I play with my students at recess. It's fun for everybody.

V.

[Starfish]

Veronica, thanks.

The after school program is all academic, unfortunately, although we do some funky lateral thinking exercises, so I try to get some laughs in and so forth. I have been wondering if I should try riding my bike there. I am at two different schools, so the rides would vary. I am just a little concerned about bike security, frankly. Maybe I could sneak my bike inside with me. My other excuse there is that we are having a lot of dreary, overcast and rainy days. I have become weary, not with riding in the rain so much, but with the intense clean-up on my bike!

I had been doing a lot of cross-training...swimming and so forth, and for some reason, I just haven't in the past couple of weeks. I simply need to get moving again, and cutting out the time for it.

One thing that is good: I also do janitorial work in our business at night, so I get in about 3 hours on my feet and moving around. It is not a workout, but at least it is activity (if not exactly play time!)

[Starfish]

PS: Warning to anyone who is wonderful enough to reply...I am a bit down. I am in that space where I know a lot of what would help, but I am fighting negative internal responses to very good suggestions. I know from experience I need to dial it waaaaay back and start again with tiny little baby steps, laced with a dose of real TLC for myself.

[Veronica]

I keep my bike in my classroom. My principal likes that I'm a "poster child" for a healthy lifestyle.

Hang in there, don't beat yourself and DON'T eat a bag of chocolate chips a week. I'm speaking from experience.

V.

[Starfish]

I keep my bike in my classroom. My principal likes that I'm a "poster child" for a healthy lifestyle.

Hang in there, don't beat yourself and DON'T eat a bag of chocolate chips a week. I'm speaking from experience.

V.

Yeah, I'm thinking about riding to the program. There are hills with both routes, so they wouldn't be too long, but there would be a little interval work.

Re: the chocolate chips...tonight it was Wendy's.

[Starfish]

Oh, anyhow, V, thanks for your thoughts tonight. I have to run, but I really appreciated your replies tonight. Seems I hit a little low point and needed to reach out. THANKS!

[maillotpois]

Wow, Starfish - I just saw this. You're entitled to you low point, given what's be going on. Don't worry about goals for a month and just have fun riding your bike when you are able to do so. There'll always be time for goals.

But if you can use your bike as a diversion from what's going on and the stress then by all means do so!

Big hug to you.

That Shasta Summit thing sounds great. I have a friend who was trying to talk me into doing it. I had another ride planned for that day so not sure if it can work. Never say never, though!

[Starfish]

Hi wonderful climbers. Finally, we had a break in the rain for a couple hours today, and I got out for 16 mostly flat miles, with a couple of hills (400'). I neglected a bunch of work to do it, but when the rain started up again this afternoon, I was glad I had gone! I felt really out of shape, but I was truly grateful to be out on my bike in the sunshine. I REALLY needed that. Thanks for all your words of support. What a wonderful forum this is.

[Veronica]

Yay!

I did my Evil Coach Troy Ultra Leg tape. Then went out for a few miles. It was blustery and my knees were cold, so I didn't stay out for long. It's hard to do an easy spin into a 15 MPH headwind.

V.

[Starfish]

I did my Evil Coach Troy Ultra Leg tape. Then went out for a few miles.

This might belong on a different thread, but also about indoor climbing workouts...

Do you keep a different bike in your trainer to make it easy to go in and out, or do you switch out rear wheels, or do you just use the whole same bike indoor and out?

I have a trainer, but I have heard that maybe I shouldn't use the same skewer (or even tire) on the trainer as on the road... I don't use my trainer as much as I'd like because of these things...

[Veronica]

Before I got a second road bike, I would take my bike in and out of the trainer. I put a wider tire on the back, since my skinny tire was getting beat up. I would ride my outside training rides with two different tire sizes. For events I would change the rear tire back.

I've used the same skewer the whole time.

V.

[kelownagirl]

I am finally figuring out a rough idea of what the climbing is for my usual routes. So far this year I did:

Feb: 760 m (2470')
Mar: 1925 m (6256')
April so far: 1195 m (3883')

Total to date: 3880m (12,609')

I think that keeping track will really motivate me to do more climbing. Thanks for doing this thread.

(I can't wait to get a GPS bike computer...)

[Trekhawk]

The weather better improve next week or Im going to be hard pressed to meet my goals for April. Im going to try to head out today but I just checked the weather and they are saying chance of a snow shower.......WHAT THE!!! . I dont mind going up hills in bad weather but coming down is another matter. Between having the kids home for spring break last week and this weather I have hardly been out on my bike and it makes me very crabby.