Wednesday, February 15, 2012

New bike is ready to ride... and so am I

I have been a horrible blogger so far this year. I have lots of great ideas for posts, but there are only so many hours in a day and I can't seem to find the time to write. Between training, work and my family, I have about zero seconds of free time each day. Even as I sit here and write, I have a million other things I really should be doing, but I need to write a bit now.

We are exactly 4 months until my race. 4 MONTHS! When I started training in December, June 10 seemed a million years away. In the last two weeks, Coach Joanna has upped the intensity of my workouts. I believe we are still in the base building stage of our training, so my weekly mileage is still relatively low, but with higher intensity workouts, my body is tired like it's much higher. Add the fact that every single person in my house is sick and I can actually feel my body fighting to stay healthy, I'm whooped.

Here's a little update. A few months ago, I mentioned that my husband was building me a new bike. As of this past Sunday, it's ready to ride and it's gorgeous. I absolutely love it and I cannot wait to ride it.







Unfortunately, it's sitting in the basement mocking me each and every day that I sit on my old bike attached to the trainer. I'm waiting to take the new bike outside to ride it for the first time. So help me out and do a little praying for some warmer, weather in the very near future so I can get riding! 



Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Racing for a cup of coffee: Using caffeine to improve athletic performance

Today I am sitting at my desk enjoying a fresh cup of Dunkin Donuts coffee. A treat I have enjoyed countless days before today. Today is different. This marks my first cup of coffee since my detox.


I've had this coffee now for about 2 hours as of the writing of this post and as you can see, I'm a little less than a quarter of my way through this delicious brew. Here's the thing, I'm pretty sure I will not be able to finish it.

Before weening myself off coffee, I could easily drink this cup - in a lot less time than it's taken me to get through this small amount. In fact, I'd say I had a full blown coffee addiction. Sure, there were people out there who drank more than me, but I was pretty comfortable with a cup of coffee.

But now... now! Wow, I'm sitting here at my desk and my mind is racing... my heart is pounding... my hands are a little shaky... and, oh my goodness, I hope no one calls me because I'm talking so fast. Or at least I feel like I'm talking fast.The worst part of all of this is that even though I feel like I'm going a mile a minute, I'm tired. It feels almost like my body is exhausted from the effort of racing, which in turn makes me pick up the cup and take another very small sip.

I've read some articles online about the benefits of caffeine while training. So, I am curious about your coffee/caffeine experience. How do you use caffeine to improve your training ... or do you avoid it?