February 2012
12 posts
Morning Buzz
By Erica
I’m sitting in my office with a cup of coffee (half decaf and half regular— my new thing to cut down on caffeine intake), and both my brain and my body are buzzing. It was a spin + weights morning. After leading a spin class full of watts hills & Sleigh Bells, I did a weight circuit with Eileen which included 3 x 12 bench presses at 75 lbs. It’s a lot, and my...
Janet Evans returns to swimming →
Janet Evans, a middle distance swimmer who dominated in the late 80s and early 90s, is returning to the Olympic Trials this year in the 400 and 800 meter races. She STILL has a college record (I forget in what event), and I see her name on the board of National records every time I swim at the UW pool.
My favorite part of this article is a quotation from Evans:
“I never really appreciated the...
Homemade Energy Bars Part III
By Erica
I don’t know if I’m going to keep adding roman numerals to the end of these energy bar posts, but for now it seems like the most sensible thing to do.
I tried a new genre of recipe today, and it was ridiculously simple. The base is just honey & peanut butter, then you mix in seeds & carob powder (kind of like cocoa powder). AND, everything is in equal parts! I...
Your Newest Spin Instructor
By Erica
As I mentioned in the previous post, I’m now the leader of the Wednesday morning Spin Classes for the UW Tri Team. This happy accident came about because Eileen made me email the team captain at the beginning of the semester when they were looking for a new Wednesday leader. They’d already filled the spot, which was a relief to me since I’d never actually led a class....
Former UW-Madison student Gwen Jorgensen qualifies... →
Gwen Jorgensen is inspiring.
She went from triathlon newbie to Olympian in 17 months. Amazing!
Cheer for her in London!
-Chris
Lance Armstrong gets second place in Panama 70.3 →
Lance got second to Bevan Docherty in yesterday’s Panama half-ironman. This short article has some hilarious Lance quotations, including:
“I don’t need a job, so I need a challenge in my life.”
“I played it conservative.”
“I said the other day, I think you ride for show and run for dough, and I mean it.”
-Erica
Homemade Energy Bars Part II
By Erica
Camila made the same recipe that we did last weekend, but she used two eggs instead of one. And she added slightly different goodies. Because she’s awesome, she brought a couple to morning spin for me and Eileen to try. So much better! I think we’re on to something…
Camila’s Cohesive Oat Bars
Ingredients:
1 cup quick-cooking rolled oats
1/2 cup all-purpose...
Lance Armstrong: Ironman
I just found out that Lance Armstrong is ALSO training for a 2012 Ironman!
When he was younger, he started as a swimmer, then a triathlete, and THEN moved to biking. I had no idea! His plan, according to The Sun, is to qualify for Kona (the Ironman Championship race in Hawaii) with the Ironman France in Nice on June 24th.
-Erica
The Joy of Negative Splitting
By Erica
I’m officially a Garmin convert. Today I went on a 6 mile loop that I do all the time because it’s a beautiful course in the morning. The morning light across Lake Monona is always lovely, even when its 18 degrees out like today.
Since I had my watch on, I was keeping track of my pace for each mile. After mile 4, I realized that (except for mile 2) I was negative splitting...
Homemade Energy Bars
By Erica
Last night, Camila, Eileen, Chris & I watched my one of my very favorite sports movies, “Miracle.” If you haven’t seen it, you should. It’ll make you cry and also want to do insane hockey drills while Kurt Russell shouts “AGAIN” at you over & over until someone realizes that it’s all really a team unity lesson.
In addition to...
“Gone” by Kanye West is the best...
January 2012
18 posts
"I want to look good in a bikini" and Other Foul...
By Erica
As part of our training, Camila, Eileen & I go to UW-Madison Rec Sports spin classes. UW has this amazing deal where you pay $25 a semester for unlimited group fitness classes. Given that and the fact that we’re part of the UW Tri Team, we probably owe a big debt of gratitude to our UW student statuses. It’s like the University is BEGGING us to do an Ironman as Grad...
No Obesity Link to Junk Food in Schools: NYTimes →
A study done at Penn State found no correlation between whether a middle school sold junk food and the BMI of the students. This makes complete sense to me. I know this blog is mainly about exercise & training, but it’s also about health, and nutrition is a part of that. This licenses me to give my two cents on childhood obesity rates. I think it’s all about the parents &...
My Life Without Spin Classes
Although winter break was nice and allowed me to go home for a week and then spend more time in the lab concentrating on research, that also meant that spin classes were no longer in session. I typically did 4 or 5 spin classes a week, so this was quite the change to my workout routine!
To fill this void, I ran and swam more (once I even swam 4 days in a week!) and I continued to lift. How did...
True Confessions of an American Triathlete
By Erica
I’m terrified of bicycles. It sounds crazy given that I ride 100+ miles weekly in the summer, but it’s true. I’m terrified of bicycles.
When I was in 4th grade, I got into a bike accident while my family was on a weekend ride. I fell off my bike and broke my wrist, but perhaps the worst part was that I got a scratch on my face between my nose and my mouth. And so...
Workouts Have Their Limits - NYTimes →
I’m glad that this article about the importance of rest and moderation is out there. It describes how a lot of recreational athletes think that the way to get a good workout & improve is to continuously push yourself beyond your limits. You see this a lot among triathletes, particularly those who set their sights on the Ironman. It’s a shame, though, because not taking rest days...
"The Ultimate NPR Workout Mix" →
My favorite’s from the mix are
Bey’s “End of Time”
Cake’s “The Distance”
Katy B’s “Katy On A Mission“
MIA’s “Pull Up The People”
Rihanna’s “Rude Boy”
Sleigh Bell’s “Tell ‘Em“
But for tUnE-yArDs - “My Country” is NOT the best choice! “Gansta” all...
Appreciating Sunny and Warm Days
By Eileen
We all knew that winter would eventually catch up to us, and sure enough, it did! So, in order to take advantage of the exceptional weather last week and earlier this week, I tried to run outside as much as possible. (Plus spin classes are currently not in session, so that forces me to run more too, but that’s for another post.)
As evidence of Erica’s picture, I am accepting that we...
Winter Duathlon: Bike (Swap) + Run
By Erica
Today was the annual Bike Swap event in Madison. It’s run by the Brazen Dropouts Cycling Team, and it’s awesome. If you’re in Madison and bike, you better have been there. Various vendors filled a huge exhibition hall to sell new & used bike-related everything.
There are some really great deals. If I were building a bike, this is where I’d get the parts. I...
“According to Black, a number of factors have converged to heighten the risk of...”
– “How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body” - New York Times
There are some really bad yoga teachers out there, and there are some people for whom yoga doesn’t make sense. There are also really GOOD yoga teachers out there, and there are people who can benefit from practicing yoga. The thing...
Running with a Garmin Watch
By Erica
For 5 years of my life, I was a year round rower. I started rowing in high school after a dramatic decision to stop competitive swimming after 8 years (mean coaches and tears were involved). My rowing career left me with a plethora of stories, both humorous—more than once I peed off the side of the boat right before a race—and harrowing. But one unfortunate consequence of...
The Beginning of an Adventure!
By Eileen
Like how many things in the past year began, my Ironman adventure started with Erica, a very persuasive person! Erica and I met in a graduate psychology class and later ran into each other in a spin class that we attended. It was there that I met Camila too! Erica and Camila had signed up for a half Ironman. When the weather started getting warmer and their training regimen increased,...
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Training & (not)traveling
By Erica
I’m heading back to Madison today after two weeks of vacation in Boston. This is probably the last time I’ll be able to leave town for more than a couple days until next September. Although it’s pretty easy to bring along a pair of sneakers and running clothes when I travel, as training gets more intense, running won’t be enough to keep me in shape; and...
New Years Run
By Erica
The great thing about running on holidays is that no one runs on holidays. The course of my 6.5 mile run this morning was empty— Boston was like a post-apocalyptic city (minus the zombies), but given that the sun was shining and that it was in the low 40s, it was beautiful and peaceful. One great thing about coming back to this city for the holidays is that I get to run along the...
December 2011
3 posts
Being a Good Animal: Why I'm Doing The Ironman
By Erica
There are two explanations for why I’m doing the Ironman. The first is simple: when I was deciding where to go for graduate school, I promised a friend over lunch that if I went to UW-Madison, I’d do Ironman Wisconsin before I graduated. We recorded my pledge into his iPhone and decided that I would be rewarded a steak for completing it. Here I am in my third year as a...