A Work in Progress

Something that impacted my blogging this Fall was the process of buying and selling my home.  I had wanted to live in another town closer to my office for quite some time and the time was finally right to make that move.  It took about two months to list and actually sell my house and once a contract was in place the time flew by.

I moved around Labor Day and dealt with moving the same weekend as racing three triathlons.  Yikes!!! Thankfully I have an amazing family and awesome sisters who helped me clean the house and unpack.  The next months were spent slowly making the house my home and finishing my training for my Grand Canyon Rim to Rim adventure.

When I returned from finishing Rim to Rim I quickly got absorbed in my job with a hectic schedule that left me little time for much else.  The problem with this was that since October I had been trying to find the time to meet with my contractor to discuss flooring options for my home workout room.  This was one of the rooms that I was most excited about with my new house...a room just for my gym stuff.  Even better bonus was that my sister's treadmill was moving into my house too.

The house came with horrible carpeting that I replaced on move in day.  I was undecided on the gym room so that was the only room still with the original carpeting.  Fast forward to a few weeks before Christmas and discussing my wish list with my sister.  I told her that my big wish was for someone to coordinate my contractor for me since it is so hard to get away from the office to meet him.  And she did just that...she arranged for him to meet me on a vacation day after New Year's and I was able to finally get quotes and start arranging to have the flooring replaced.

It won't be done for a few weeks but tonight I got my bike set up and did my first trainer workout in my gym room.  I'm still working on hanging the motivation wall.  I need a few more race photos to go with the motivation quotes and I especially need to get a Grand Canyon photo printed to go with a cool Rim to Rim sign my parents got me for Christmas.

Here's the before and hopefully by February I'll have an after photo!  This is a panoramic photo taken while riding the bike trainer.

Fueling My Workout with Huma Chia Gel

Disclosure: I was not financially compensated for this post however I did receive a free product sample from Huma Gel to sample their newest flavors.   All opinions shared below are my own based on my personal usage of the product. 

Last fall the founders of Huma Gel reached out to me about trying their new energy gel.  I had heard lots about Chia seed and was very interested to try it out.  Once I got my hands on the original sample flavors I fell in love with the great tastes! I was surprised at how natural the tastes were compared to most energy gels out on the market.  I quickly joined the Huma Gel IndieGoGo campaign to help fund the company's expansion into new flavors.  

Huma Gel launched it's two newest flavors at the end of last year...Blueberries and Mangoes.  I tend to rotate between using gels and chews but today I decided to fuel my workout with the Blueberries flavor Huma Chia Gel.  Hope you enjoy my VLOG posts! 

Part one

Part two

Part three

So...I'm a dork and jumble my words while working out! And I'm so glad you can't see how much sweat I was dripping during that final video.  Yikes! 

One thing I forgot to talk about in my videos is the taste! I really enjoyed the new Blueberries flavor.  It's very natural and tastes like a fruit puree.  The chia seeds are ground up so it isn't chunky or anything.   It makes me think of those sauce purees that you get served swirled on a dessert plate.  

You can find out more about Huma Gel by visiting their website at Huma Gel.  

A View from my Trainer

Friday afternoon I hit up the bike trainer for a workout and movie.  Here's a few pics of what I saw during the workout.

I cover my handle bars with Christmas hand towels to mop the sweat.  I move a bar stool nearby to hold TV remotes, water, and my cell phone.

I put in the movie Super 8...it started off a little slow and I wasn't super into it but I toughed it out and stayed on the trainer for the whole movie.

Midway through my workout the UPS man came by with a delivery.  I had to use one of my hand towels to cover up since I just workout in bike shorts and sports bra on the trainer.  I hit the hour mark and had to get the box from outside to see what had been delivered....a Twitter contest prize from #FitStudio. 

Hershey is pretty indifferent about the trainer...here she is sitting on her couch.  I keep that couch covered in a slip cover since she sheds a ton and it's easy to wash.  She rests her head on her squeaky toys and it is pretty cute. 

And lastly for a little festive atmosphere I had my Christmas tree lights on.  I just love the lights of a Christmas tree.  I watched out the window waiting for that moment when the outdoor lights would come on but they didn't.  Somehow my timer had gotten turned off. 

The movie finished and I still had about 20 minutes to go to hit the 2 hour mark.  I channel surfed for a bit and then ended up watching a little bit of Can't Hardly Wait.  It was funny to see so many actors so early in their career.  My workout was pretty boring since it was so long.  I did 10 minutes in each gear through my middle ring and the first hour.  Then I took it to the big ring and switched to shorter intervals for about 30 minutes on the big ring.  I ended up with mixed intervals for the last 30 minutes back in the middle ring.  Overall it was a great workout but I wish the movie had been more entertaining. 

How do you really feel about the trainer?

Below is a little exchange that popped up on Facebook this weekend. 

I've been riding indoors since early October and as you can see from my response I don't mind the trainer at all.  My buddy Jeff is another story...he's a cyclist and very good at it.  He rides a ton of miles and is part of our local cycling club that is known for being hardcore.  Let's just say they don't even wait for each other let alone a newbie joining their group rides! Jeff hates the trainer and will ride through all kinds of weather instead of indoors. 

So this morning I had to continue the fun when I saw that he tweeted about a flight delay.  You see my morning plans included a trainer workout! I did feel bad that he was stuck at the airport with a flight delay though.

I don't know why the trainer gets such a bad rap.  How can you not have fun on the trainer when you've got Vin Diesel and Paul Walker keeping you company!!! That's right, today my trainer entertainment was the movie Fast Five. 

I have found that a good action movie is the perfect company for a trainer workout...you don't have to worry about the dialogue in case you miss something and the fast pace usually keeps me spinning at a faster rate too.  Today I rode for an hour and did my favorite 10 minute intervals.  I ride within each 10 minute interval in a ladder of increasing difficulty for 4, 3, 2, 1 minutes at each rung and then start over again at the easy level.  It's fun and is an easy to follow interval. 

So tell me, how do you really feel about the trainer? I'm all for it and use it to catch up on movies and stuff.  I've even had a trainer workout at a friend's house after she got too pregnant for outdoor rides. 

Twitter Fun and Trainer Karaoke

Wednesday night I participated in the #FitStudio twitter party.  This is a twitter party that takes place every Wednesday and is sponsored by Sears I think.  This week it was hosted by David Grotto and he asked participants to email a picture of their fridge.

Sadly I didn't win for the healthiest fridge but on a positive note I didn't get a call out for having a shamefully unhealthy fridge either! For a single girl, my fridge looks awfully full and yet I still stare at it and feel like I have nothing to eat! Some of my favorites that I always try to have on hand are bottled water and yes there is chocolate milk hiding on the top shelf.  My friend Kyla always has Lemonade at her house so I made some to have as another drink choice.  I have some leftovers that I doubt I'll eat...anyone else do that too?  In the crisper bin I've got some apples, kiwis, and grapes as well as a salad kit and mix veggie snack pack.  On the freezer side, my shelves are separated as breakfast on top, then dinner type stuff, and the bottom two sections are mostly all frozen veggies.  I don't drink coffee but have a stock pile of coffee packs for when my parents come to visit. 

Today I never got up the gumption to go out for a run.  It was a chillier day and windy and I just didn't want to break out my cold weather gear yet.  Instead I decided to go for a bike ride on my indoor trainer.  I love my Cycle Ops Jet Fluid Pro trainer! I watched some Burn Notice for the first 20 minutes and then decided to turn on the iPod.  Pretty soon it was Trainer Karaoke night at my house! I just couldn't help from singing along to the music. 

I did just over an hour on the trainer and could have kept going.  I had to take a quick break at one point to move my iPod dock closer to me since I was having trouble getting the remote to work from where I originally had it.  What a difference it made and then I was able to change songs much more easily.  I couldn't believe how many songs I had to skip over...either they were too slow or just not fun enough to sing along with.  It took about 38 songs before I hit one by Flogging Molly too.  I love Flogging Molly and Irish rock! Random side note:  There is a commercial out right now with a song by The Pogues and I love it every time it comes on!

After an hour on the bike, the perfect song came on to end my workout.  Don't judge me for having the Glee cast version but it was Journey's Don't Stop Believing! I've been having a down few weeks and singing along to this song reminded me that everything we go through makes us stronger and whatever you do...don't stop believing!

The Wheels on the Trainer Go

Round and Round!

My plans for bike riding outdoors tonight fell through earlier this afternoon.  I got home from work and somehow the time got away from me and before I knew it I was getting on the trainer at 7 PM.  I put my iPod on the speaker and then jammed out while I rode the trainer.  I put the music on shuffle and let the various songs set the tempo of my workout. When a fast tempo song came up then I did sprints and when a slower country song came on I slowed things down for recovery or did simulated seated hill climbs.

Listening to music helped my hour on the trainer fly by.  My dog didn't enjoy it as much as I did and she wandered around the living room moving from one spot to the next every 10 minutes or so.  At one point, she just looked up at me with this look of "why are you singing and please stop!"

I quickly changed shoes and threw on a running shirt in order to do a brick run.  It took my Garmin a few minutes to link up with the satellite but I just enjoyed the cooler weather since it was now 8PM.  I tricked myself into running a different route because I secretly wanted to do more than a mile for my run.  I ended up with a route that had a lot of uphill to begin with initially and then had a huge downhill.  I stopped at 2 miles at the base of a big hill at the end of my street.  My street ends in a small park with lake access for fishermen.  The hill at that end of my street is brutal and I generally avoid it at all costs.  Tonight it served as my cooldown walk and it's just as much of a bugger while walking as it is while running. 

All in all a good workout and the extra time I took relaxing after work paid off since the weather was so much nicer for the run.  I also got to see all the fireflies coming out as I was finishing up my run.  There was even a deer that ran across the path when I was down by the lake which was cool too. 

We Interrupt this Broadcast for Commercial Intervals!

I belong to the Junior League and tonight was our final meeting for the league year.  Unfortunately this meant that I couldn't go to the Tuesday night group bike ride.  Booo! It was a lot of fun to see all my league friends but it meant that I had to make up my bike ride with a trainer workout. 

I got on the trainer without a plan.  I had the TV turned on and was watching Chopped on the Food Network.  I started with an easy warmup and figured things out as I went along.  The first commercial break came up and so I decided to take things up a notch and do intervals.  I got into a harder gear and originally started out with doing several commercials at the top and then coming down a bit for the next 2-3 commercials.  When the show started back up, I returned to my easy gear and just had an easy spin with a good cadence.  The next round of commercials I just stayed in the hard gear for as long as I could. 

It was a good set with most of the commercial breaks lasting about 3-4 minutes and then 6 minutes of the show.  I got a total workout of one hour and felt like I could have kept going.  I only wish I could have started earlier so that I could have done a short run after to get a brick workout in but The Voice was on by the time I finished.  If you are watching The Voice, whose team are you rooting for? They are all so different and so far I'm really liking the show!

Rainy Day Blues

After several days of constant rain and storms I finally got around to setting up my new CycleOps Jet Fluid Pro Trainer that I won a few weeks ago.  The trainer set up is really simple and barely required instructions. 

My new trainer setup!

Monday night I hopped on the trainer for a workout.  My goal was to do about 90 minutes and I put on The Social Network to watch during the workout.  I was not really into the movie though and struggled with all the dialogue.  Next time I'll probably choose a movie with more action or activity.  I got super sweaty during the workout and created a new hairstyle.  That's one of my kitchen towels to keep the sweat from pouring off my face. 

What a look, right! It was handy since I can never find my Bondi Bands.

About 70 minutes on the trainer I ran into a mega oops. 

Somehow I ended up dropping my chain.  I've never had it actually come all the way off the rings before so it was a new experience for me.  I quickly had greasy fingers as I tried to fix it.  I googled how to fix a chain and even texted a friend for some help.  She and her husband tried to talk me through it but I was struggling to get the chain back into the guide.  After quite a few tries and some frustration I finally got it fixed.  Woohoo, my first official bike repair!

I think it is time to clean and grease my chain, don't you?

P.S. My parents were visiting town yesterday and during dinner my Dad asked if I was going to blog soon.  I told him I wasn't sure that I had anything much to write about and boy did that change once I got home.  Normally a trainer ride is very uneventful but that changed with me dropping my chain.  Too funny! Love you Dad!

Shuttered In

You won't believe it but Northwest Arkansas received about 18" of snow this morning.  That's right another 18" on top of the 8" we got last Tuesday and the 5" we got last Friday.  That's a lot of snow for Arkansas! I believe today was a record breaker for the most snow in one day in the state of Arkansas.  Some areas just to the south of me got 24".

Needless to say, I did not make it outdoors for a workout today. I had some conference calls during the day which kept me busy but I did get out to shovel the driveway.  The sun came out and I have found that the faster I clear the driveway the better.  Not that I'm driving anywhere soon but it just feels good to know that I could at least drive down my driveway since the street hasn't been cleared yet.

Hershey hanging in the driveway

My best workout option was again the trainer.  I was due to receive some Netflix movies by mail today but the snow actually stopped the mail.  That's okay because I was able to watch Netflix On Demand through my Wii.  I went with Shutter Island for today's selection and talked myself into a long bike workout to make up  for all the junk food I snacked on during the day.  I actually went for 90 minutes on the trainer.  That's the longest I have ever ridden on the trainer for and I don't know how some of you do it! Whoo, that's a long time.  The movie was good and I have to admit that after watching the end (from the comfort of the couch!) I'm confused.  Was he crazy or not?

Don't forget to enter my giveaway for the Brooks Run Happy t-shirt, here.

My Own Version of Ironman

I have a secret...I'm not a huge fan of NFL football.  While the majority of the country was watching the Super Bowl I watched some HGTV until I talked myself into a little workout.  I had a movie from Netflix so I decided I would watch part of the movie while doing some bike trainer intervals.

I got on the bike at 8:02 and decided a 58 minute workout would be optimal (I'm a little behind on my time goal for the month so thought I could pick up some extra minutes!)  While spinning in an easy gear I came up with my workout.  Lesson learned...never trust your math while working out! I decided on a ladder that I thought would get me to 40 minutes of intervals and then my warm up and cool down time.  It wasn't until after my second ladder that I realized my intervals were going to be short.  My interval set was a decreasing time ladder with increasing resistance.  Between each rung of the ladder I did a 1 minute standing run in my big chain ring.  I started at 10 minutes and worked my way down by 2 minutes each ladder rung with a bonus extra 2 minutes at the end too. 

You are probably wondering where my title post comes in? Well, the movie of choice for my ride tonight was Ironman 2.  I know the movie came out a while ago but I'm a little slow sometimes.  It was a good distraction for while I was on the bike. It didn't require any thought to follow the plot and I was able to stay interested and get the full workout in. 

Don't forget some great giveaways going on this week:
Tanita Body Composition Scale
Gu Giveaway Pack
My AWESOME Run Happy T-shirt and Prize Pack

Tuesday Tunes

Today I had a bike trainer workout on deck to complete after work.  I got home and decided to do a music workout tonight so I quickly changed into my bike gear and put the iPod on the speaker dock.  I put the music on shuffle and put the remote next to my bike on the trainer. 

I started off with an easy warmup to Time After Time by Quietdrive (3 min) and 21 Guns by Green Day (5 min).  Next up were some easy sprint intervals during the chorus of Irreplaceable by Beyonce (4 min).  For some reason, when she sang "To the left, to the left" I just told myself to bump up the resistance! This next song was a lot of fun and I was able to use the chorus for some standing hill climbs. I Run to You by Lady Antebellum (4 min) It was fitting to have a standing run during that chorus! I would have probably gone back and done another repeat of this song if I could have!

Next up, Mony Mony by Billy Idol (5 min) for a mixture of easy sprints during the chorus.  I was a little worn out from that so I took the entire song So Right by Dave Matthews Band (5 min) to ride in a fairly easy gear.  I alternated gears during Somebody to Love by Glee Cast (5 min).  I went back to sprints during the chorus of I Like It by Enrique Iglesias (4 min).  The song was great because I had the song telling me "I Like It" while trying to sprint during my intervals. Nothing like a little positive reinforcement to remind me that I like to work hard!

My cooldown was done to F*ckin Perfect by Pink (3 min) and Stuck Like Glue by Sugarland (4 min).  After my trainer workout, I headed down to my local bike shop for the weekly Yoga for Cyclists class.  It was a great class tonight with some challenging poses.  I felt like my legs were much more relaxed after the class and I was very glad to have warm muscles for some of the strenuous poses that we did. 

Have you met Coach Troy?

Tonight was my first workout with a Spinervals DVD.  I recently bought two different Spinervals DVD's in an effort to keep myself motivated to utilize my bike trainer this winter.  Coach Troy Jacobson leads a group of cyclists in an interval workout with directions on what positions to have your bike on for both front and back chain rings and/or the resistance levels depending on whether you are using a spin bike or your bike on a trainer.


Tonight I completed the Ride and Stride DVD which is geared towards triathletes.  The workout is divided into 3 intervals that are 15 minutes in length.  If you have a treadmill, then you do 10 minutes on the bike followed by 5 minutes on the treadmill for each interval. Otherwise, Coach Troy breaks the interval into two sets within each interval one in the big chain ring lasting 10 minutes and a second 5 minute set in the little chain ring. 

Before today I had only really been in my big chain ring on accident during rides.  I have a triple crankset on my bike and have known that I should use the big ring just have trouble shifting between the rings on the front while in motion! The workout was really good and I was dripping with sweat within just a few minutes of the workout starting.  The music was a little drab and somewhat outdated but it is easy to just not hear it.  Coach Troy kept constant feedback through out the sets...sometimes I liked this and sometimes it was a little too frequent between updates. 

The treadmill portion of the workout sounded intense and made me thankful to not be participating in it! The 5 minutes started at your base pace and then increased by 1-2 mph and 1% incline after each minute.  Yikes, maybe someday I'll be ready for that!

Overall I had a good time during my first workout with Coach Troy.  The second DVD I bought is actually a 3 series set that contains 5 hours of workout.  I'll keep you posted on my thoughts once I try that series out.