Hitting the Road

Well hello there.  Time for the past weekend rundown...

Michelle and I took our bikes out on the road for the very first time (as in cars, streetlights, the whole enchilada). Wooooo!  We have gone out on the bikes a handful of times now, but we rode around our lake that has a nice asphalt trail around it.  Originally I wanted to ride both Sunday and Monday, but Saturday whooped our butts.  We had no energy left for Sunday, after a 5k, a 7 hour deep sea fishing expedition, and a BBQ at Chel's house.  I must have had my eyes glazed over while trying to eat a brownie after dinner because Chel's kept saying I should go to sleep.

Here's Michelle crossing the finish line.

So Sunday was shot and we didn't do a damn thing.  It felt nice but we promised ourselves to go out on Monday morning.  We woke up at about 6:30 am and started getting ready for the road ride.  There's a hospital down the block from us and they have bike designated lanes and that's where we were planning our first ride.  We had to ride the block to the hospital on a regular car lane and that definitely freaked us out a bit.  Once we turned onto the street where we had our lane, we were 100 times more comfortable and started to find our pace.  We looped the hospital area twice and rode a little over 5 miles.  Our pace was about 12 mph and so far that's as fast as we've been able to ride.  I know that's not much distance to someone who is a seasoned rider but for our first time out on the road (again, with cars) I was very happy to tackle this one itty-bitty goal.

I've taken this week off from exercising as my hip feels aggravated again.  I'm doing some research on foam rollers and stretching to use for recovery and see if that helps me.  We'll start up again on Saturday and get a run and bike ride in this weekend.   I'll be posting again tomorrow on the triathlon training that we decided to use and when we'll be starting it.  Whoopee! Good day!

Pre-Weekend Cheat Meal

Alright guys, I'm definitely psyched to have a long weekend.  So much so, that Michelle and I started our weekend last night over pizza, wings and beer.  YIKES.  It was so good, but definitely over our calorie content for the day.  We headed over to Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza and this place never fails.  They have a saying that they cook their pizza 'well done' and it does come to your table a bit charred but I like it.  There are plenty of people who don't like it overcooked like this but I think it's delicious and doesn't take away anything from the other flavors of the pizza.  So you guys can stick to Papa John's, and leave Anthony all for me, thanks.  See all the delicious-ness below and drool...

Rosemary & Onion meet Wing, Wing meet Rosemary & Onion

"A lovely cheese pizza, just for me"

As you can see, I will spend this weekend burning off these calories.  Tomorrow morning, we have a 5k race called Tour of the Gables.  We're going to try to push ourselves real hard and hopefully take some time off our current 5k pace.  We also have a couple of swim and bike workouts scheduled for the remainder of the weekend.  This is all part of the new me, Regina Rewired.  The old me would have been preoccupied with food, drinks, outings and such.  Those are no longer my first thoughts or priorities....they're my second, gosh.  JK, sorta.  Oh I will BBQ this weekend, but we will not be gluttonous!  At least, we'll try not to be.

I've finalized my training calendar so I hope to share that with you next week (really, I just copied and pasted but my effort counts dammit).  I hope everyone has a great and safe Memorial Day weekend.  May the BBQ be with you.

First (and 2nd) Bike Ride

Hello friends (all 5 of you reading this blog....maybe).  I hope you're all having a great Wednesday and getting ready to enjoy a 3 day weekend up ahead.  Now that I've tackled my first two rides, I'm really looking forward to riding this weekend.  But let me tell you about the not so great first ride and confident building second ride.

On Cinco de Mayo, there was a triathlon on Key Biscayne and the 3 of us (Chels, Michelle and myself) woke up extremely early to see our first triathlon in action.  First of all, I know that I'm late on reporting here.  I'm still trying to get a blogging schedule and routine down...please bear with me.  Back to the triathlon...it was definitely motivational and answered a lot of questions for us.  I was particularly interested in how the transition area was set up and the manner in which the triathletes tackled T1 and T2.  

The swim portion...dun, dun, dun.

Besides being totally pumped up, I can admit that I was slightly intimidated but it was all so positive.  I'm very much a visual person so thankfully we were able to go and experience it together.  I had so much adrenaline inside but that was subsided with hunger.  I needed coffee and eggs, stat! And a margarita later. Okay maybe more than one. 

No lime mix here...we make 'em fresh.

The following weekend, Michelle and I finally went out on the bikes and I did not like it so much.  Let me just put it out there, that Michelle totally left me behind.  I was thinking that we'd take them out and get to know them slowly and feel them out a bit, but she just took off.  We decided to bike around our lake because I was too chicken to ride on the road.  I was trying to find the right way to sit because I was not comfortable at all and making sure I wasn't going to hit walkers, runners, dogs, kids, and other cyclists, while trying to keep pace with Michelle.  We finally stop at 2.5 miles and I'm explaining to her that someone has literally punched my groin area and that my saddle sucks! She asked if I was standing when we saw bumps in the pavement, but no, I was too busy being scared.  She quickly recaps the whole gear thing for me and we're off for the 2.5 mile ride back.  It was definitely better for me, but I had already done the damage.  My bum was bothered and I was leaning too far forward that my hands were carrying my weight on the handles, thus my palms were killing me as well.  I was cycling as fast as I could just so I could be done with it.  I walked the bike into the apartment and pouted, because that's my specialty. Pouting.

Second go round was this past weekend and it was soooooo much better.  On Saturday we went to Bike Tech (www.biketechmiami.com) because I had received an email that they were having a sale.  The item in mind to buy was padded shorts.  I had no idea how much they would help alleviate the saddle woes, but my tush needed any and all help.  I found Pear Izumi shorts with maximum padding that were half off.  Hello! Michelle got a pair too.  We headed home and decided to go for an afternoon ride and I did so much better.  The shorts felt ridiculous, sorta like a diaper.  During the week I had read up and saw videos on bike riding posture, so as not to repeat my mistakes from the last ride.  The shorts helped and my new info helped and I was so happy.  I kept pace and wasn't as nervous that I even finished the ride as the pace setter.  We rode approximately 6.5 miles and I topped it off with a Samuel Adams Summer Ale.  Cheers to that!

This weekend we plan on tackling the road.  In the area we live, there is an area with a bike designated lane and our favorite person (James) at Bike Tech gave us a pep talk.  He said go early (when the sun breaks) and find a comfortable pace for both of us.  So that is what we're going to do Sunday.  Ride and BBQ.  Carpe diem!

Rough Week

Hey there (Eeyore tone).  This past week was tough!  I hate that I wasn't able to post anything, not even a lame excuse as to why I wouldn't post.  It was so bad, that I only fit in one workout....ONE!  What had happened was...

First of all, my schedule has been thrown in a tizzy because the owner of our little photo shop is on vacation.  Instead of my usual swaggering check in time at 11 am, I have to battle the traffic and open at 9 am.  On Tuesday I think I ate bad yogurt because later that night I felt a huge stomach ache and so bloated.  I woke up worse on Wednesday morning but I hustled over to work and spent about half of the morning in the bathroom.  SO. MUCH. FUN.  I hate the office bathroom, so to spend any more than 5 minutes out of my day in there is torture.  On Thursday I felt so much better, so we had the grand idea of having pizza. Yummy, cheesy, gooey pizza.  Sooooo, on Friday I felt ill again, and was forced to spend some time in the office bathroom AGAIN.  At this point,  I was beyond frustrated because I didn't know what was the issue and I wasn't making time to workout.  Saturday rolls around and I ate well but then I messed it up on Sunday.  I decided to make a cake out of the Epicurious app on my iPhone.  It's so yummy and has fresh whipped cream as the frosting.

Persian Love Cake. I didn't make this name up.

In all my face stuffing glory. Why are my eyes closed?

That's me, stuffing my face with the whipped cream knowing very well that I've been yo-yoing with my stomach problems...but it gets better.  We took this cake to Michelle's mom's house but afterwards we took my mom out for a chocolate soufflé and champagne.  And I overeat.  I decide to have spinach and artichoke dip and a hummus platter and the soufflé with whipped cream and champagne.  YEAH, overeat is an understatement.  By the time we drop my mom off, I'm dying and my stomach is as hard as a rock.  Lo and behold, I think it's safe to say that I may be having some lactose intolerance thing going on.  WHICH SUCKS!  I love cheese and ice cream too much.  Why me....

So that was my week (and change).  However, I finally took out my bike and I'll save my report on that for the next post.  Let's just say I wasn't all gung-ho after the ride.  G'day!

And the Winner is...

Wait! Before I announce the member of my tri family, I want to say that I didn't have a cheat meal this weekend. Someone give me a high five! Anyone? Alright fine, onto the good stuff...

The reason I started this blog is so that I could document the journey of becoming a triathlete.  In other words, I don't have everything that I need (YET) to be considered a triathlete.  I have a training plan ready but I didn't have a bike.  That changed this past weekend, because we finally bit the bullet and plunked down the dolla dolla bills ya'll.

We were on a pretty small budget, when you think that some of these bikes are 1750.00 each.  My total budget was 1500.00 for two bikes, because I needed to get one for Michelle as well.  Needless to say that we did go over our budget slightly but not by a whole lot and we're very happy with our decision.  Before we made the final decision we researched the following bikes:

2012 Fuji Roubaix 3.0

2013 Specialized Dolce Sport

2013 Felt ZW100

Drumroll please........and the winner is the Specialized Dolce Sport.  Isn't she gorgeous?!  I think we spent about 2 months reading up on them and trying to go to different bike stores so we can get our hands on them.  We didn't actually see the 2013 model of the Felt, but the bike store did have a 2012.  Ultimately, the Felt and Fuji were a year older and Felt has the Shimano 2300 versus Sora components.  The Specialized Dolce was the first bike we tried out and fell in love with but I've come such a long way from being an impulsive shopper, and this was such a big purchase, that I really wanted to see other models from other bike companies before making a decision. 

It just so happened that we stopped by Bike Tech (on Bird Road in Miami) on Saturday, and they have a sale on their current stock to make room for the 2014 bikes.  They had the Dolce there in that awesome red and it was 20% off.  Holla.  I was so excited and said yes, as if the salesperson had proposed or something, that I had forgotten that I didn't have my wallet nor did I have a bike rack to transport this baby home.  So I deflated like a old balloon but luckily he placed it on hold for me and I picked it up on Monday night.  They helped me fit the bike, showed me how to use the gears and helped me set the bike up on the rack.  I drove like a grandma all the way home and here she is just showing off, and waiting to be taken out:

So, just like people politely wait to eat when someone hasn't received their dinner at the table but you might have....I'm waiting for Michelle to get her bike.  Because she's little (5'1), they didn't have her size stocked and the bike store has it ordered and we're due to receive it on Friday.  Anyway, I should probably also get a helmet, so I wouldn't ride anyway until I got that, because you cannot trust Miami drivers.  In the meantime, I just stare at it and drool.

I can't wait to take her out this weekend and I'll tell you guys all about it.  Stay tuned!