Week 3: Cross-training szn

In what will probably be my lowest mileage week between now and August, I spent more time on the treadmill than I did on my bike! I really enjoyed the variations in exercising that I was able to do this week, though, and it will hopefully all make me a stronger cyclist in the long run.

Sunday: I finally ordered some new running shoes with a giftcard I got for Christmas, so I tested them out with a 3 mile walk/run on the treadmill. I’ve never been a fan of running but I’m hoping that decent shoes will reduce my misery.

Monday: There was a hill repeat workout on the schedule today, so I went up the big hill in my neighborhood (which isn’t very big at all) five times before finishing out my miles on the trail near my house. I was plenty hungry for my family’s traditional dinner at the Japanese steakhouse for me and my grandpa’s birthdays!

Wednesday: I ended up swapping the scheduled ride for a two mile run and strength workout indoors because of my schedule and the cold. I spent the evening at Looney’s Pub in College Park for trivia night with some of my college friends. Our waitress bent the rules a little and gave me their free birthday shot even though I was a day late (:

Thursday: Another Thursday rest day… I’m sensing a trend. I slept in and had a mid-day meeting that ruled out an early day activity and just didn’t have the energy later that night. I did get two pieces of exciting news, though: my 4K bike shipped and I received my first PhD acceptance!

Friday: Honestly, running for 30 minutes is harder than biking 15 miles for me, so I didn’t feel too bad about another swap! I didn’t feel as good as I did on Wednesday so I had to take a few breaks, but still got about two miles in. I had a phone check-in with one of the 4K coordinators in the afternoon and then drove up to Arlington to stay with my friend, Julia.

Saturday: Julia and I woke up bright and early to go skiing at Liberty Mountain in PA. I wasn’t sure I was going to go skiing at all this season so I was very excited when she suggested a day trip! It was cold and windy but otherwise conditions were excellent; we got some great runs in.

I am a pretty good skier and felt like could maybe handle a small feature in the terrain park (in hindsight, a severe misjudgment), and Julia was recording in the event that I actually managed to hit it. Instead, I wiped out HARD and we spent probably an hour laughing at the video (I’m not going to post it here but you can click through the disastrous progression below). The worst part was that I very rarely fall when skiing and don’t really know how to get up anymore, so trying to get up was probably more embarrassing than the fall itself. I fell over again trying to get my ski back on!

Mileage: 20.47 miles/1 ride (skipped two rides, but also ran close to six miles)

Lessons learned:

• I might like running?
• Ski skills on regular slopes do not translate to terrain park skills.
• Related: stay out of the terrain park.

I obviously did not do much riding at all this week, but I’ve really been enjoying cross-training (including running? who am I??) and the flexibility to move my body in whichever way feels good each day. I also don’t want to continually force myself to ride in miserable conditions and make riding a burden. I’m about to head back to Kentucky and will hopefully be seeing some warmer temperatures though, so I’ll be spending more time in the saddle soon!

Until next time,
Lauren

P.S.– next week’s update will feature something new :D