I can't believe the incredible weather we're having in San Francisco... 60s and sunny all week, and more of the same in the forecast. It's usually rainy and foggy... I'll take it! So my last bike ride of the week was yesterday's group ride to kick off the season... 60 folks from our tri club headed out for an easy 40-miler over the Golden Gate Bridge, through Sausalito, around Paradise Loop to Tiburon and then back home.
It was a bit of an ego crusher to realize that after 3 weeks of work, I'm still a solid back-of-the-packer when it comes to hills. Especially since I was riding with folks for whom this was their first time on a bike since September. Ouch. As I wrote to coach, "more work needed." I just have to remember that I hardly trained on the bike last year, and it will come. Doing that group ride was even more motivation to build up my strength.
Funny, I've been living in spandex for the past couple weeks... I put on my favorite jeans for the first time in ages to meet some friends last night, and I could barely squeeze into them! No, haven't gained weight... my legs are bigger. I've definitely gained muscle mass. "Yay!!!" says the wanna-be-rock-star tri girl. "Crap, I'll have to replace anything that's not spandex!!" cries the skinny-jean-loving girl. Ha. Same thing's happening with my lats from swimming. Really looking forward to seeing this transformation over the coming months. This is fun.
Lastly, the big story from the week is that I'm running! All of 4 miles today, a slow jog/walk mix, but I'll take it. Hamstring's feeling better (2nd appt with my new magic man shortly) and I'm ready to start making some progress here.
So... final total for week 3 of my HIM training:
- Swim: 4600 yds
- Bike: 79 mi
- Run: 6.2 mi
Next week brings my first TRX class, whoo hoo!
I totally understand you on the bigger muscles - it's both a blessing and a curse. Yes, we are getting all this awesome muscle mass, but it's an ego blow too! After a long ride during IM training, I could barely get my jeans over my thighs. *sob*
Posted by: Molly | 01/23/2011 at 03:50 PM
The best way to get good at climbing hills is climbing more hills. It will come. Noted on the calendar shoot - we'll probably fly the "winner" down to Belize for a photo shoot :)
Made your blog the blog of the day on endurnceathleteproject.com's Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/enduranceathleteprojectcom/159993617378441
Posted by: Patrick | 01/27/2011 at 10:16 AM