Pelofondo and Challenges

After a few weeks of not writing, I have accumulated a few things to write about. 

First and foremost, Pelofondo. Last Sunday was my fundraiser ride. In the month leading up to it I did a fundraiser for Relay for Life, and was overwhelmed at the support. We raised over $1,100. Yea. Crazy. 

I structured the fundraiser in a way that offered "Sponsorships" for different donation amounts. Different sponsorship amounts would get you different benefits. For example, an Ironman Level ($75) sponsorship would get you baked goods of your choice, and I would lip-sync a song of your choosing via FB live. Every hour at the top of the hour (starting at 11a and finished just before 3p) I would go live and do an update of # of miles rode, sing a few songs, and talk about the people that donated. All of this was on the seven year anniversary of mom's passing and in her memory. In total I rode 62 miles in 3 hours 54 minutes. 


Other fun stuff has happened since I last wrote too :) I have officially started Triathlon training! At this point that involves more structured and specific bike and run workouts. I don't have access to a pool so no swims which is a challenge. However the swim is only 500 meters, so I am going to rely heavily on my overall fitness, experience from high school, and just a few open water swims that I will do the 3 weeks leading up to the race. I got my outfit, or "kit" as it seems to be called :) I am starting to get pretty excited about this.

As part of preparation for training I retook my FTP test. I believe I have talked about Power Zone training in the past, and the FTP test is what sets your zones. All your training then is based on those zones, and its a way to really have training customized to your current fitness level. By retaking this test I will know that my rides during training will be really well positioned to help me grow stronger and build endurance, and not just maintain my current levels. The below picture shows my test from February (bottom) and this past Tuesday. Everything is up!



Hmm what else...I don't know that there is too much more. Last thing I will just share that during my WW meeting yesterday and then again today we talked about the word "challenge". My WW coach, Vicki, always talks about how important language is and word choice. And what we discussed is that so often the word challenge is used with a negative implication, but why is that the case? Often the question is "What challenges did you face this week" and instead Vicki asked "In what ways did you challenge yourself this week". Just the different usage of the word is really hitting me. And in my head I am thinking about things as challenges in a positive way, as a chance to grow, as a chance to thrive and live, rather than something that stops me in my tracks. 


That is all for now. Thank you for reading!!







Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Little update: 2 weeks until race day

Image
 I am two weeks out from my triathlon and to say I am getting excited is an understatement.  Today I had a 70 min ride and 20 min run on the schedule, and I was supposed to do it at race pace. This was my third time on my bike and it went really smooth. I was able to go faster than I have yet on the bike, getting up towards 18 mph at times. It just felt awesome to move that fast, I felt like I was flying.  After the ride I headed right out on the run and I still cannot get over how weird it feels to run after riding. Mainly that whole feeling of running through molasses. Because I found myself yet again just crushing the pace (for me) and feeling really awesome. I finished 2 miles in 17 min 25 seconds. This blows my mind. When I was running previously I would have be thrilled for a 10 minute mile. I 100% know that it is strength training and cycling that has helped my running tremendously. The turn over of the pedals when riding really feels like it helped my running, bec...
Read more

My first triathlon: Island Lake Tri & what's happened since then

Image
I've had a draft of this post partially written since the day after the race. Its fair to say I am overthinking it. Part of me wants to capture the perfect words for my first ever triathlon. But I don't know what those are. On September 7th I took my first real steps towards this goal, and in just a touch under 9 months I did the dang thing. I go back and forth between celebrating this accomplishment and reminding myself that this is just the first step towards my ultimate goal of 70.3.  So, to get down to it. Friday afternoon Pam arrived and we pretty much immediately got in the car to head to the race site. Once we arrived we waited in line to get my packet, which was a neat backpack with all my stuff in it, and then hung around waiting for Triathlon 101.  We stayed for about 45 minutes of it and then I was feeling a bit of a time crunch and also felt like at the pace they were going through things we would be there all night, so we left and headed back to Jackson to go to t...
Read more