Conditioning by Bicycle

Today we rode 30 miles in just under two hours. We rode to the beach then to Newport and up the river trail. Quite the head wind, but I was able to hang with some guys at about 20 miles per hour for several miles down the coast.

Boot camp has definitely increased my fitness level and the little rises are easy to push up and over. In six weeks I need to be able to do 70 more miles in addition to the 30. I only had a 90 calorie granola bar for breakfast and some sugar in my tea, so round about 15 miles I felt like I was beginning to bonk. I could have sure used a banana at that point. My husband, Steve who rides with a heart rate monitor, a body bug and a power tap said we had burned 1000 calories.

We will see if I can get up and ride tomorrow before church as well. Got to get the miles in.

It's light out now when we start our work outs!

I know, I got really behind on updating my blog. We have a whole new group of girls but they seem really fit and willing to do everything. There isn't even much groaning. For the first week of this session we started out with lots of conditioning including two runs up the hill on Thursday. Pat did an awesome job not stopping her jog until she reached the top. Pat blames it on Jessy, but Jessy said she was walking behind her and Pat was so close when she was tempted to walk that she just had to encourage her to finish the climb.

My husband has signed us up to do the Orange County Wheelmen Amtrak ride in September. It's a century (100 miler) which means I have to find some time to get my bottom time in the saddle to make the 6 plus hours the century will take. We've been able to ride on weekends and last week I pounded up Edwards hill but I need to get in close to 100 miles per week and I'm not there yet.

The conditioning from boot camp though has really helped me when I'm riding. I'm able to ride hard for a full hour and at a decent average MPH. I forgot how much I loved my bike. For a while I thought it was just because I was overweight and then I realized it was because my fitness level wasn't where it should be. I am really enjoying the cool wind we create when riding especially during the hot summer weather months.

In two weeks we will be going to Alaska and the excursion we signed up for was an 8 mile hike. I'm not sure of the elevation or elevation gain, but I hope my current fitness level will enable me to do this hike easily.

Roy has been working us a lot on different circuits including a lot of arm and core work which we all need.