Fitness Thread

[Supe]

Much safer here in the Carolinas.  We just get attacked by copperheads.

 

[akwooly]

We have been riding a lot in Denali and that is one of the warnings, be cautious of bears while riding your bike! 

 

[Supe]

 

[csb]

I feel like the Colorado bike scene is a little more douchy than some other places. 

 

[FLBuff PE]

I feel like the Colorado bike scene is a little more douchy than some other places. 

Granted, this is the only place I've ridden, but I would tend to agree. There are definitely the douchy types here, both mountain and road. My first mountain bike here in CO was $200, and my first road bike was $600. Don't spend $$$ on your first bike, but DO get fitted properly. It will make the experience of riding enjoyable, as opposed to painful.

Back to general fitness, I went for a jog (for exercise) on Tuesday for the first time since high school when I was forced to for crew (24 years ago). I ended up doing almost 2 miles, with some walking mixed in. I thought my quads were in good shape from cycling, but man, they were hurting on Wednesday.

 

[Dleg]

Yeah and on the opposite end of that, since I haven't hardly cycled at all for the past few years, my quads are non-existent and hurt all the time after I run. I need to either get back on the bike, or start doing lunges....

 

[Road Guy]

I enjoy running but I am going to pass for a while until the knee is 100%- I like the low impact of the bike - I just need to get over the mental aspect of being able to engine out more than 30 miles...

Man we did our first barbell type workout tonight and it f’n killed me- I though I had worked out over the shut down but holy ****—- 50 power cleans and 50 burpees over the bar(which I hate) went a tad heavier than I should on the PC but I was dead last for the day.... oh well.... onto the next one..

And I hate lunges too-

 

[csb]

I finally took today off. I realized that doing Murph and walking a 10K on Monday and then following it by three more days of workouts was maybe a little crazy. The workouts in our programming haven't been crazy this week, but just enough that my body is like, "HEY, ************! HOW 'BOUT WE DON'T."  

 

[Road Guy]

yeah I was wondering how you felt after murph and then bolder boulder!.. I took Tuesday off

There was a new lady in our class last night, I am glad she was there because I would have been dead last, I think she transferred from personal training to group classes, but I crawled out the front door to get air after I finished my last burpee and I could see her crying as she started her last set of burpees.

The owner did a good job of getting her to finish, ive been in her position before in front of the class when they are done and I dont want others to encourage me so I stayed out side as he did his normal routine of getting down in front of her and saying  "good,now one more, good do one more, good do one more" (25 times) - There were 2 others in the class and we hung outside until she was done and then we came in and congratulated her.

But it made me think, man if I could just lay off the ice cream and beer I wouldnt have to do this ****....

 

[akwooly]

with running and biking i have lots of "power" output from my huge quads n hammies but it very very short in duration. i need to work on endurance.

 

[FLBuff PE]

with running and biking i have lots of "power" output from my huge quads n hammies but it very very short in duration. i need to work on endurance.

Ride a century. The training will get your endurance up for sure.

 

[Supe]

We finally hit our first trail yesterday.  It was one of the ones listed as good for "beginners" on the site that runs all the local trails, even though the MTB Project app showed it as an intermediate.

Junior would definitely agree it was "intermediate", LOL.  Lots of big roots and rock gardens.  At least a couple spots where you had about a 12"+ drop at low speed, and had to shift your weight WAY back to not go over the handlebars.  A few pretty steep low speed sections as well, including one where I just heard yelling come from behind me and then looked back to see Junior hugging a tree.  I was surprised that I only needed to touch down twice where I lost momentum for a short , rocky climb, and one where I had a pedal strike and lost momentum, but it sure felt like a LOT longer than 2.2 miles!  Took about 45 minutes or so to get through it.  I was not brave enough to attempt the narrow log bridge or the man-made jump.

I WAS pleasantly surprised that despite being in the 80's and having like 100% humidity, the shade from the canopy made it feel much cooler, and any sort of movement kept enough of a breeze that I didn't feel like I was going to die.  

 

[csb]

Through all of this I've been doing dragonflies using the couch. It's a sub for toes to bar. You basically secure your hands under the couch and then drive your legs up and over your body, like a pike into the air. 

This morning I was working out outside, so I clipped by TRX strap to the hammock hook on the tree. Turns out dragonflies are a lot harder when I don't have the couch acting as ballast. Add in the unevenness of TRX straps and I was looking around the yard for where we might put a pull up bar. Cripes. 

I don't have T2B, but I definitely have knee raises. 

 

[Road Guy]

Supe  - sounds like you all had a good time!  some of the mountain biking gets pretty tough and isnt  a ton of mileage if you are going up and down.. Did you daughter like it?

I was supposed to get some mtb biking in Saturday as the wife was doing a "virtual" 10K and I was going to take my bike and ride the large trail network that runs up and down Boulder County - Except when I dropped the wife off I realized I had left the key to the Thule bike rack at home   (bike was locked to the rack) So i just walked around and was generally miserable until she got finished..  The last time I used this trail several of the ped bridges were still out due to the 2013 flood so I was looking forward to making a long run now that they have finally finished them.

When my elbow was hurting me we did dragon flies and then added some wall balls to your toes for fun- I think they were just as bad as doing hanging knee / leg raises.

We did some squat snatches this am. Had not not done any in so long that the last record of me doing this was over a year ago and I recall I wasnt doing it well so they only let me use the stick.. this time I got up to 75 LBS... lol, when is the deadline for the Olympics?

 

[Supe]

It's funny.  I get way worse of burn in my quads from just riding around the adjoining neighborhood, because it's all hills, so quick downhill, and then constant grind back up.  But, the rest of me is actually sore from having to constantly fight to stabilize and keep control of the bike.  It's a definite whole-body workout.  

Junior described it as "fun but terrifying".  We didn't even make it onto the actual trail before she had already rear-ended me.  She has no concept of progressive braking to scrub speed.  She starts rolling, has an "oh ****" moment, then locks them up and slides, exacerbated by the fact that she doesn't think to shift her weight back to let the rear tire have any real bite.  She literally had to bail and went face first into a tree about 2/3 into the loop.  I looked back over my shoulder, and it looked like the Coyote had hit a phone pole going after the Roadrunner.  I am wondering if I should just pay the $100 for the kit and convert her to hydraulic brakes, which have way more initial bite/progressive grip than her mechanical discs do, and maybe a little more confidence.

For our next outing, I will definitely stick to the nicer areas of town and go with something known to be a little easier.  The Whitewater Center has some really good easy ones (more mileage but much flatter/hard packed dirt), and the local membership-only greenway does also, but both were closed due to all the rain we've had.  I think we may try the greenway next, and hopefully on a weeknight where there won't be much of any other bike traffic.  There were only two other people on the loop we went to, and we never saw them other than in the parking lot.  I think if a lot of experienced riders go whizzing by her, she'll get intimidated by it.

 

[csb]

But how's she going to learn my favorite mountain biking skill? The stand on the side of the trail saying, "Go ahead." I said it so much at races that they started calling me Goat Head. 

 

[Supe]

They won't be able to understand her when she's smooshed against a tree anyways.

 

[csb]

Hey, @Road Guy - Did you see this? Spartan Races Resume

 

[Road Guy]

But, I assume each state still has to give some sort of OK for it to happen? I see that one is in Florida - I did see some other August events in other states cancelled?  

But if there are no sandbag or bucket carries I wonder if the rope climbs are getting the axe also?

And honestly I never really cared for the water obstacles, those sucked in the army and just didnt bring back any positive memories..

Well See! I just mainly want the doucehbaggy t shirt...

 

[Supe]

So for Spartan races, that leaves what - bunny hopping over a Duraflame log after an intense jogging session?