Solo Saturday Picture Blog

A beautiful day

at some of my favorite trails

~ 26 miles of Muir and Emma.

"Fine dining" at my favorite east side eatery.

How the spicy meat kisses your lips.......

Kickin' it with da pooch.

Nothing like a little box wine in front of the idiot box....I know....I'm a classy chick.

What have I been up to lately?

Building a pimpin' commuter. More to follow later this week.

Solo Saturday

Today was the first official ChainSmoker ride of 2008. I opted out as I'm not yet ready to blow myself up by riding with a bunch of pumped up Comp and Expert guys who are sick of riding on their trainers. 14 ChainSmokers rode the capital city trail which was pretty much covered in ice. Apparently almost everyone crashed at least once during the outing and they stopped at a bar to kick back a few pitches of beer in the middle of the ride. I'm not sure if the crashing was attributed to the ice or beer though.....that's up for debate.


I wisely decided to head out to Gov. Nelson to do a little skiing. This was a solo adventure as Ryan and Wendy were up at Devil's Head/Lake for a little snowboarding and nordic skiing. I spent about two hours skiing around the park, checking out trails and jamming to tunes on my iPod while trying to keep my heart rate at a reasonable level (Zones 1-2). As I found out, keeping the heart rate in check is hard to accomplish when you are a cross country ski hack. After all, today officially kicks off the beginning of my training program. Since I have yet to spring for a power meter, my training program is entirely heart rate based.

It is also hard to stay in your training zones when a 45+ year-old, caravan-driving lady throws down the cross country ski gauntlet. She passed me, offered up a competitive smirk, and subsequently left me in the dust. I wanted so badly to throw down and put her in her place, but the alarm on my HR monitor reminded me that today was not going to be that day. How sad does your life have to be when you want to race a recreational skiing mom-type at a state park to feel good about yourself. I really need the WORS season to start.


I found a few cool trails in Gov. Nelson. This is one of the prettier lookout points; you can see a nice view of the capital.


Another nice view. You can see Westport and Madison's north side.

It looks like skiing might come to an abrupt end tomorrow - 40 degrees and rain in the afternoon. I might try to get one more round of skiing in at Cherokee Marsh in the morning. Then it's two easy hours on the trainer.

Happy base training!

-RB

Dinner for one, as usual.

Another night, another dinner alone. The typical life of a chef's wife. People who watch the Food Network think being a chef is all glamor and excitement. The reality of the situation is it's stressful, it's often working sixty hours each week, it's working nights and weekends, it's not taking vacations because you have to work, it's not interacting with your spouse because you are too tired to deal, it's not celebrating holidays and other important days with family or friends (yes my husband is currently sitting in a bar de-stressing from his crappy day at work on valentines day....not that we celebrate it, but thats pretty typical of what happens in our house), it's giving up the work-life balance that most people strive for, and it's eating fast food because you don't cook at home or because you are sick of fine dining (yes, my husband eats at McDonald's). You get the point.

A little known secret outside of the Bach household is that I do most of the cooking. It is probably for the best because Jeff and I are of very different philosophies when it comes to the preparation of food. He believes that fat is flavor and food should be cooked in fattening ways. I believe that fatty food items should be rubbed directly on the thighs because that is where they end up when I eat them. Give me the low-fat or no-fat version and I'll eat it. Then again, if I were 140lbs and 6 feet tall, I'd be slathering my gravy all over my potatoes too.

Speaking of low-fat, my nutritional plan has been going well. Though as you can see from the picture above, I'm not totally rigid about this diet thing. I refuse to give up my wine entirely, so I try to keep it to one glass per night (I have been known to throw down a half or full bottle on my own every now and again). I'm currently down from 142lbs to 132lbs. Once my training takes off a little more, I'm sure the rest of the weight will drop right off.

Unfortunately my injuries are going to be a major issue for 2008. My doctor is concerned about my wrist/ulnar nerve injury. She said things like, "This isn't typical", "Some people have to get surgery, though we should try to avoid it", "This might be a chronic problem for you"," You might have to change sports". I told her "I figured it wasn't typical problem", "I agree, I won't be having surgery","If this is a chronic problem, I'll just ice and tape it","I won't be changing sports". It's a good thing she is a cyclist so she understands my lack of logic on the matter.

Besides the wrist thing, there is still a very large bump (or the more appropriate description might be - divot) on my quad from my accident at Lake Geneva. It hurts when I pedal my bike and when I pedal faster it hurts even more. It hurts when I get up in the morning and walk around the house. I guess I'll just have to endure all the hurting. Maybe in 2-15 years it might go away. We can't be too certain. It's a shitty hand of cards to be dealt, but I'll be playing them in 2008. I personally think it would "hurt" more to sit on the sideline again.

The final piece of my plan has fallen into place. I pulled the trigger and hired a coach.....Rachel.

I can't wait to get started.

Another Year Older.

Today is my birthday and I've been feeling overwhelmingly sad. I'm really not sure why. Maybe it's working at a job that doesn't give me the satisfaction which I crave, maybe it's my semi-permanent injuries that I have to tolerate or maybe it's my current lack of fitness. Can you say Seasonal Affective Disorder? I'll put money on that...

Turning 32 has been quite uneventful. A boring day spent at work followed by a trip to Texas Roadhouse to eat a little prime rib with the hubby (but its back on the diet tomorrow). I thought I'd get outside and exercise the dog a bit. Unfortunately it is so damn cold that the Pepper didn't even want to go on a walk. She convincingly told me so by lifting her front legs off the ground like a prairie dog and shook like a leaf. Scrap that idea. Jeff had his bowling league tonite, so that meant I was spending my birthday alone. After eating a huge prime rib, I thought maybe a Pilates workout was in order. A hour-long Pilates class at Supreme Fitness last Saturday, followed by some cross country skiing with Ryan and Wendy sent my body into serious disarray. Every muscle in my body still hurts.....can you say two day recovery! Scrap the Pilates idea. I guess that leaves a little blogging and some vino! Happy birthday to me...

Chipotle Exile

Picture Left: 2008 and 20lbs heavier.

After months of hibernation from cycling life and exercise in general, I've concluded that I'm at the fattest point of my life. Last month I tipped the scale at a whopping 142 lbs. Considering that my racing weight in 2006 was between 120-125 lbs (which is what it should be) and considering it is now January, I think I have a pretty major problem on my hands (in addition to the not so minor problem of not having any serious training under my belt since May 2007).

I'm not sure why I didn't notice this situation in the months leading up to the present. Too many enjoyable trips to Chipotle and daily imbibing of wine, coupled with zero physical activities are most likely to blame. Not to mention wallowing in my (still present) injuries really made it easy to not care about anything other than consuming tasty chicken burritos with a side of guacamole.

Picture Right: 2006 Phillips (thanks Amelia) was a skinnier time.....

This problem became a reality during Christmas. My mother casually mentioned to me that perhaps my jeans are a little tight. I thought to myself, are you kidding me? My jeans aren't that tight. Shit, are they? The female youth of today are perpetually packing themselves into jeans which are so tight that a shoe horn is necessary for removal. I guess I'm now a member of this not so exclusive club. Crap. I'm officially swearing off Chipotle.

Once a person has fallen so far down into the well, its hard to climb out of it. Last year I started this blog as a way to chronicle my first year of racing mountain bikes as an expert. I guess this blog has tuned into a diary about a fat girl who had to claw her way out of a 50 foot well. The question is: Will she drown or will she make it?

Picture Left: My best friend and worst enemy.

Knowing that my situation is very dire, I formulated a very exacting plan that would make my return to racing somewhat less embarrassing.

Step 1 - revamp the nutrition. I ponied up a small sum of money and purchased a sports nutrition plan. Along with this plan, I acquired calorie counting software that would track my progress out of the world of the fat into the world of the thin. Bottom line - I don't get to eat anything that I want and I will be measuring/weighing out all my food. I hope this doesn't turn me into a bitch.

Step 2 - Spend a few weeks getting back into the swing of things. This means riding on the trainer, pilates and spin classes at Supreme Fitness and Zoned 4 Fitness, and some weight training at MATC Fitness Center (saying "fitness" three times in once sentence makes me feel stronger already). I have to work all the aches and pains out of my system and remind my body how to work.

Step 3 - Hire a cycling coach by mid-february and do what they say. Coach TBD.

This week's status: 4.5 hours of exercise including a trip to Zoned, no fatty foods and 136 lbs on the scale.

To be continued....

Wors 2007....

Didn't happen for me.

2007 was a shit year. I was seriously injured in both Wors Races #2 and #3. I had a compressed ulnar nerve in my left hand and some pretty serious soft tissue damage in my left leg. It is now 2008 and I'm still nursing these injuries. The doctor said it might take a long time to get over the leg injury (as in years). I'm really worried about the compressed ulnar nerve. It was doing well in October, but one cold night ride in November has set me back months. I'm 20lbs overweight (I don't recall ever being this fat in my entire life), I'm loosing muscle mass by the week and the only cardiovascular exercise I get is when I use the stairs at work. In addition I started a new job this year that causes me more stress that I would like, my husband lost his job, we had thousands of dollars worth of vet bills and car bills, and my dog was seriously attacked at the dog park. I recently admitted to myself that I've been depressed due to my lack of exercise and/or lack of motivation. 2008 can only be better.




My husband did get a great new job. Unfortunately it takes up all his time and I only see him a few hours every week. This should make it easy for me to start my base training, if I could only snap out of my funk. I have yet to renew my cycling license. Maybe if I spend the $90 on it, that will light the fire that I need in order to get prepared for Iola.

Maybe I'll do that tonite...