Snow Shoe Fail; Treadmill Wins

Well my plan of snow shoeing again today did not come to fruition.

First off, I slept pretty late. Then I needed to get some overdue cleaning done, in particular vacuuming. Then as we moved further into the afternoon and I still needed to make dinner and prep food for the upcoming week, it was much easier to hit the treadmill than to drive to the golf course and snow shoe for 2 hours.

My alternate plan was to “run” (if you call 12 minute mile running) for an hour. I managed just over an hour because I was so close to running 5 miles that I didn’t want to stop until I hit it. I ended up running (again, loosely used word) for 62 minutes that included a 5 minute walk/warmup.

You are probably wondering why I didn’t hit the bike/trainer for this hour. Well, with thoughts of a duathlon in my future, it’s good to start preparing. Another reason for running is that sometimes I feel I get more bang for my buck on the treadmill than on the bike. Yet one more reason is because we have a really nice treadmill and I’ll feel very guilty if I don’t use it more to justify it’s existence in our home.

I must admit that I don’t run nearly as much as I should. Granted, it doesn’t do anything for my biking abilities, but still, it’s good for aerobic fitness and bone density.

This week I’m back at my routine for training. The past rest week has really done a lot of good for me. I feel mentally recharged to refocus my training efforts on the bike, and the treadmill, too.

Foam Roller

I have a foam roller. My friend, Tracey, who is a physical therapist, gave me one a couple years ago. She showed me a few exercises I can do with it but basically I use it to roll out my IT band. (When I think about it.)

You might have read some of my postings about cramps I often get on hard rides, especially when a lot of climbing is involved. The cramps are always in my right inside thigh and can either happen on the bike, as was the case at Turtle Pond in April, or after a ride when sitting for a while.

I’ve attributed these cramps to a lot of things – nutrition, hydration, vitamin deficiency, not stretching, etc. But who really knows.

Recently I’ve been seeing a chiropractor for a back issue. Since he’s familiar with Active Release Treatments and has worked a some Ironman events, I thought I’d ask him about my cramps. He did a couple sessions of active release in this area. The second time he told me he couldn’t believe the adhesions built up in that area, as well as on the left side, but definitely more on the right.

Since he “released” me from therapy, he told me to stretch my quads a couple times a day. (As I type this I realize I haven’t even stretched them once today. Shame on me!)

He also suggested that I use my foam roller on my thigh. Basically I lay on the floor, with my thigh perpendicular over the roller, and work the thigh over it from the knee to the top of the thigh. He said I might just start out holding a position on the roller with the thigh until the adhesions got a little looser. So I started doing it. As he said, I’m not rolling on it much right now because it’s so tight and painful. Once I get about 1/3 of the way up my thigh the pain is pretty intense. So I just rest on it and work my thigh down it slowly.

I think it’s helped too, because after I did it a couple times and then stretched, I had to go deeper into a lunge to feel the stretch.

I also use my foam roller to lay on, with the roller positioned under the length of my spine and my arms splayed out to the side. It’s a great stretch to open up my tight shoulders from hunching over the bike so much.

Do you own a foam roller? If so, what stretches do you do with it?

Computer Time = No Bike Time

I seem to have more computer time than workout time these days. Between blogging. or in this case not blogging, and tweeting, and making movies for friends from photos and videos I’ve been taking, I’m spending more time on my computer, and my butt, than I am on the bike or the treadmill.

I keep saying, “Next week will be better.” Then the week turns into the month and the next thing I know I’ve gone days without working out.

Yesterday was a lovely day to bike outside but I had some errands to run so I decided to hit the trainer for a bit instead. Mistake! I should have ridden outside when it was nice because as we all know, riding the bike on the trainer sucks!

Do any of you get so you like riding the trainer? If so, what do you do to “make it fun”?

What are some of the challenges you are faced with that keeps you front the bike, or other physical activities to stay fit?