Tennis Ball Massage

While it would be great to have a massage therapist on call so that we could have our bodies treated and tweaked whenever necessary, most of us do not have that luxury. In fact, most people I know rarely provide themselves with any type of massage therapy. For some, this lack of attention can lead to chronic muscle and connective tissue tightness. This persistent tightness can lead to a variety of discomforts including headaches and muscular cramping. The problem with ignoring, and living with, this tightness is that it very rarely just goes away. In fact, the tightness generally creates a condition which prevents the muscles and connective tissue from healing properly. It works like this:

Tight muscles and connective tissue lead to less blood flow to an injured area. Restricted blood flow leads to fewer nutrients being delivered to that injured area. Fewer nutrients perfusing an area means that  recovery times will be slowed.

What is one of the best ways to increase blood flow and therefore speed up recovery? The answer is to decrease the tightness. And this is very easily accomplished with massage. There are many different types of massage techniques that are practiced, and I encourage you to seek out a massage therapist you are comfortable with, but in the meantime, you can take care of many of your tightness issues yourself with a tennis ball and gravity.

This is what I find works best:

• Start with a warm shower to help loosen up your body.

• Next, lay a towel or a blanket on the floor and place the tennis ball or balls on the towel/blanket.

• Position yourself so that you put the tennis ball(s) under the tight/injured area.

• Finally, move your body around on the ball(s) to massage the affected area.

It's as simple as that.

I would recommend starting lightly and working for a short period of time. As your body gets accustomed to the treatment, you can undertake longer sessions. I find that the upper back musculature is one of the most easily worked areas in this manner. Coincidentally, this is also an area that is frequently in need of attention. Good luck with this technique and let me know if you have any questions about its application.

-Jason

Stretch of the Day

Seated Piriformis Stretch

The piriformis is one of those little muscles hidden in your body that if you are lucky you don't even know it's there.  If you are unlucky, or if you do a lot of sitting, or not enough stretching, you will know about this muscle.  You will know about it via its effect on your hips, gluteals, or even your lower back.  This little muscle can affect any one, if not all three, of these muscle groups and leads to tightness or discomfort.

❊ While seated, place one foot on top of the opposite thigh

❊ Try to relax the stretched hip and let your knee sink as low as it can

❊ Keep your back straight and shoulders relaxed

❊ Repeat 2-3 times per leg

❊ Gradually increase the duration of the stretch up to 1:00 per side @ 2-3 times

If it is too discomforting, or you are unable to lift your foot up to your thigh, you can still complete this stretch in a modified way.  Grab your foot, or pant leg, or shoe laces and lift them up as high as you comfortably can.  Hold this position for 15-30 seconds and repeat on the other leg.

Conversely, if the stretch is not challenging enough you can increase the difficulty by doing one, or a combination of several things:

Raise up on the toes of the planted foot

Pull on the knee of the non-planted foot

Lean your body forward

Enjoy this stretch.  It is an uncomfortable stretch for many to perform, however, in time your hips and back will thank you.

-Jason

Exercise of the week 3/28/11

Bench Dip

This exercise focuses on the tricep musculature as well as utilizing some of the shoulder musculature.  It is a wonderful exercise that helps develop or maintain the strength that allows people to push themselves up out of chairs, or up from any seated position.

How to perform:

• Sit on a bench or another stable surface with your back straight and knees bent
• Place your hands at your sides and straighten your arms, but do not lock your elbows

• With tension in your arms, move your body so that you are off of the bench

• Lower yourself in a smooth controlled fashion
• Keep your back straight as you descend
• Go as low as you comfortably can

• Lift yourself back up until your arms are straight, but not locked

Many people will find this exercise very difficult at first.  I would recommend that you begin with a small range of motion - 2 to 4 inches - and work your way to a full range.  Experiment with different hand positions.  Many people find that if they place their hands perpendicular to their thighs (wrists turned out from your body), they are more comfortable than if they place them parallel (wrists bent as shown above).  Also, for safety's sake, I would recommend putting a cushion under you just in case you end up on the floor!

Good luck!  Please feel free to contact me with any questions about this, or any other exercise, and I am always open to suggestions on which exercise to cover next week.

-Jason

A DJ AT A Workout

I mentioned in an earlier post about how music may be one of the stimuli that helps you get focused and drives you through your workout.  This past Wednesday was a day when this point was heavily driven home to me.  There were three separate events that each, in their own way, showed the potential importance of music on training.

The first involves a couple I train, and the above picture is their iPod that is used during each and every workout.  When I make my way down to their basement gym, the first thing I do, even before setting down my backpack or taking off my coat, is to check the workout playlist that has been assembled.   And the next thing I do is cue up the first song.  This couple loves training to music, and they always have a playlist put together and are ready for me to DJ the way through their workout.  Sometimes there are fast songs, and sometimes there are slower songs, but there are always songs that they find motivating in some way.

The second example is from my own workout.  The never-ending winter wreaked havoc on another planned outdoor training ride.  Rain/sleet/snow and 33 degrees was more than I could stomach, or tolerate, for an outdoor ride.  So I was left with having to do a long ride inside after work.  I generally don't mind riding indoors, or even riding indoors for long periods.  What was making this ride potentially tough was a 20 minute full-effort exertion that needed to be completed.  I knew the best way to stay focused was going to be having the iPod ready to rock out some melodic motivation.  And ready it was.  The music that I had lined up for the harsh 20 minutes, predominantly from the band Muse, pushed me to open up my legs and lungs.  And because of its power, I was able to set a new personal record.

The third example comes from my post-ride reading and stretching.  I was reading through a variety of rider blogs and came upon this post by an American amateur who is racing in Europe.  This guy is serious about his music and using it to help himself focus on his training.  He writes that when he uses music during training he just loops the same song over and over.  How many times do you think he repeats it? Once? Twice? Three times? Nope, this guy goes right to his happy place by looping his songs for two hours at a time!  That is serious.  I think I am going to give that a try on my next solo two-hour ride.

Do you have a favorite song or band that gets you motivated?  What about a playlist that you use to get you going?  I'd love to hear about them.  Feel free to post your musical motivators in the comments below.

-Jason

Any Time & Any Place

I had a client come in last night who had a specific request for her training - she wanted to work out her arms and then do some cardiovascular work.  That's an easy enough request to make happen, but I was a little taken back by it.  Why?  Well, I was thrown off because this particular individual is one, like many, who is not a fan of upper-body training.  So for her to come in, and request it right out of the gate, was a little surprising.

I said we could make that happen, then asked, "Why are we skipping the lower body?"  She replied,  "When I was home last night watching some TV, I decided to lay on the floor and do a variety of leg exercises."  She told me she did straight leg raises, inner thigh raises, outer thigh raises and hip extensions.  She said it was easy and only took her 20 minutes to get through it all.  I said, "Excellent work!", gave her a high five, and got her going on training her upper-body.

The point to take from that exchange is that you can fit in some exercise in almost any time and place.  Too often, I have people tell me that they don't have the time to workout.  After years of hearing a variety, and probably every possible excuse, I have lost my ability to be tactful.  The response that I now use when I hear that statement is, "Yes you do.  You just don't want to do it.  We all can make time to do the things we want to do."  I know it might be a little crass, but I know it is the truth.  Even with the most jam-packed schedule, there is time every night for some stretches, or time during the day for a 10 minute walk, or time before work for some resistance training.  The time is there if you want to make the workout happen.  It does not have to be a lot of time, but it does have to be consistently undertaken.  If you consistently make the time, a lot or even a little, you will realize the benefits with your fitness and health.

-Jason

Exercise of the week 3/21/11

Standing Hip Extension

This exercise primarily works on the gluteal muscles.  The benefit of performing this exercise standing is that while you are moving and working one side of the musculature, the other side is also "working".  The non-moving side is involved because it has to stay active and contracted to help hold you in place.  Many people will notice that during the 2nd and 3rd sets of this exercise the stationary leg is burning more than the moving leg.  There are many ways to increase the difficulty of this exercise, but I would recommend that you master the basic version before you progress to tougher versions.


How to perform:


✦ Stand with feet shoulder-width apart with a slight forward lean
✦ Place your hands on a stable object
✦ Plant one foot firmly on the ground and shift your body weight to that side
    ◆ This should leave your unweighted leg dangling slightly above the ground

✦ Lead with the heel and move the non-planted foot back away from your body
✦ Keep your moving foot relaxed while performing the exercise
✦ You may get a better muscular contraction if you twist your foot slightly out during the exercise
✦ Move your leg as far back as it can comfortably travel
✦ Hold/squeeze the muscle at the end of the movement
✦ Relax the leg and let it return to the starting position
✦ Repeat for the prescribed number of reps

Experiment with the angle at which you move your leg.  Some people feel that they get the best contraction if they move straight back, and others find that they like to be slightly angled during their movement pattern.  What is a perfect direction for some might not be perfect for you.  When you feel you need more of a challenge, try adding some ankle weights to the lifts.  Refer to the Exercise of the Week 3/7/11 for my recommendation on ankle weights.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions about this exercise, or any other, and I am always open to suggestions on which exercise to cover next week.

-Jason

Indian Springs

After finishing up my training sessions for the day, I packed up the crew and headed out to Indian Springs Metro Park.  This was the destination because it was the midway point between myself and my friend who I was meeting for a ride.  The purpose of the ride was to help my friend get fit for some summer cycling events, and ultimately The Iceman bike race in November.  After the warmth of Thursday, today at 43 degrees felt like November.  We toughed it out though and enjoyed some quality sunshine.

Stretch of the Day

Lying hip stretch

This is a fantastic stretch that may help with a number of hip and lower back issues.  I find that this stretch is particularly relieving to those who are tight from too much sitting.

- Keep the non-stretched leg bent with the foot resting flat on the surface
- Smoothly pull your knee towards your chest
- Keep on pulling until you begin to feel tightness in the hip or back

- Hold your leg in the tight position for 10 seconds
- Slowly lower your leg and complete the stretch with the other leg

- Repeat 2-3 times per leg
- Gradually increase the duration of the stretch up to 1:00 per side @ 2-3 times

Mile per Degree

The plan for the ride today was simple- we were going to ride 1 mile for each degree Fahrenheit of the temperature.  We knew that we were going to need between 60-65 miles to make this happen.  Conveniently, we have a 20 mile loop that we ride at Kensington Metro Park and Island Lake State Recreation Area.  We decided that we would hammer through the 1st three loops and then do a quick temperature check to see how many more miles that we needed.  I had 3.5 hours to make all of this happen and it should have been enough, but we ran into a problem right after finishing the 1st lap.  The problem was a catastrophic cut in a tire which led to a flat.  Which led to a 2nd flat.  Which led to a 3rd flat.  With all of the down time ~25 minutes, I was left a little short of the day's goal.  Overall I ended up with 60 miles on a 66 degree day.

Cross Training

Our new dog Foster has a lot of energy.  When he went to our vet last week, she classified him as an athlete - a statement that I thought was awesome - and she said that we had to make sure to run him.  So when this afternoon rolled around, and I had an opening in my schedule, I had 2 options.  Option 1: Do nothing and let my body recover from all of the riding I did last week.  Or Option 2: Burn some calories and energy with the athlete.  I choose the latter.

If you look at the above picture you may notice 2 things.  The first is the snow.  The photo is from about 2 weeks ago on our first running experiment.  The second is my footwear choice.  While Foster may need to run, I don't.  I actually don't care for it at all.  But I do like to rollerblade.  So that's what we did.  Me on skates and him on trotting paws.  We got about 10 minutes of easy running in for him, and 10 minutes of inner and outer thigh work for me.  I plan to pick it up slowly and gradually, just like you would for a human, and I think in the not too distant future I can have him running 20 minutes at a time several days a week.

-Jason

Exercise of the Week 3/14/11

The Push-Up

Of all the upper body exercises that can be performed, the push-up is one of the most beneficial.  It is a great exercise because it works several of the major upper body muscle groups - the chest, shoulder and tricep muscles - as well as the core musculature.  What also makes this a fantastic exercise is that it can be performed almost anywhere and by almost anyone.

There are a variety of different starting positions that can be used when performing a proper push-up.  It is important that if you are unsure of you abilities you start with the easiest position - the doorway or wall push-up - and work through the exercises toward the most difficult one - the full push-up.  While there are distinct differences in the appearance of all of the push-ups below, they all are exactly the same in the guidelines that need to be followed when performing the exercise.


How to perform:

✦ Place your hands at a comfortable width apart
✦ Keep your neck relaxed and your head in line with your spine
✦ While inhaling, begin lowering yourself
✦ Maintain a slow and controlled pace throughout the descent
✦ Keep your body rigid from the beginning to the end of the movement - do not bow your back
✦ Lower yourself to a comfortable ending position
✦ While exhaling, push-up to return to the starting point

Doorway or wall push-up

Counter top push-up

Kneeling push-up

Full push-up

This is by no means a complete list of the variety of push-ups that can be performed.  To increase the difficulty, or to just add variety, you can add training devices such as stability balls or push-up bars to your program.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions about this exercise, or any other, and I am always open to suggestions on which exercise to cover next week.

-Jason

To Eat Before or After Training?

The questions involving nutrition and training are some of the most common questions I am asked.  Here are the big three that I encounter most often:

● Should I eat before or after I train?
● How much should I eat when I am going to train?
● What should I eat before I am going to train?

While I make no claims to be a dietician or nutritionist, I do understand the energy needs of the body, and I am comfortable making general recommendations to help you with fueling your workouts.  For the sake of this discussion, and this advice, I am going to work with the following assumptions about the "average" person:

☑ You are a non-competitive athlete or weekend warrior
☑ Your workout will be shorter than 1 hour in duration
☑ You are fitting your training in around a real-life schedule (work, school, kids, etc.)

If those assumptions do not pertain to you because you are more advanced or structured with your training, then the following information may be helpful, but too general.  If this is the case, feel free to contact me and we can speak more in-depth about your needs and how to meet them.  However, if the above scenario describes who you are, and what you do, then the information should be perfect for you.

Should I eat before or after I train?
There is an abundance of literature available which breaks down the timing of when you should eat in relation to what you are doing.  While I find the research to be fascinating and beneficial, I also find its application to be potentially too confusing to the "average" person.  Yes, there is a correct time to eat in relation to your workout; however, that correct time may have no opportunity to mesh with your lifestyle.
My advice:  If you are hungry before your workout then eat something to get you through the workout.  If you are not hungry before your workout then skip the snack or meal.

How much should I eat when I am going to train?
This question works with the assumption that you do need some energy to get you through your workout.  The answer is one that is best figured out with your own trial and error.  I know some people who can eat a full lunch and then go right to a long training session.  There are others who get a little queasy if they have too large of a meal and then try to workout.  Try different combinations of calories and workout types to see what works best for you.
My advice:  Don't eat so much that you bloat yourself and feel discomforted, but eat enough so that you have the proper energy to get through a solid workout.

What should I eat before I am going to train?
The answer is pretty straightforward and tasty.  The answer is consume a food source that is high in carbohydrates, both the simple and the complex type.  Twenty five years ago, to get these we had to rely heavily upon fruits of some sort.  When I started training seriously, we ate bananas, apples and sometimes Fig Newtons to prepare us for our activity.  Since then there has been an explosion in the number of sports nutrition products that are available.  From drinks to bars to gels and all of the way back to good old fruit, there is something out there that will work for you.  I would recommend that you experiment a little.  Most supermarkets now have a nutritional bar section.  Select a few that look intriguing to you and try them out.  I recommend avoiding the ones that have a protein content of greater than 15 grams per serving.
My advice:  Eat what you like and are comfortable with.  Find a food source that is high in carbohydrate - complex and simple - and not too high in protein.


If you follow all of the above guidelines, I am confident you will be able to navigate yourself through all of your workout nutritional needs.  If you have any questions please feel free to contact me.  Good luck!

-Jason

Wii Focus

I work with several people who enjoy integrating the Nintendo Wii gaming console into their fitness routines.  I find that several of the games do a really nice job of improving some of the components of overall fitness, and I plan on doing a more in-depth review of the system in the future.  For now though, I will focus on one of the games, or more specifically, one of the challenges.   The challenge is the "Deep Breathing" exercise that is part of the Wii Fit Plus package with the balance board.  Basically, the movement has you stand as still as possible on the Wii balance board and do several rounds of deep inhalations followed by exhalations.  The sensors in the balance board allow it to perceive any swaying movements you may make while completing the breaths, and there is a dot on the screen that gives you feedback as to if, and how much, you are moving.  After the time has expired, the system calculates a score that is based on your swaying, or lack thereof, and displays the score on the TV screen.  

I picked this particular challenge to write about because of a series of events that occurred the other day.  I was finishing up a training session at a clients home, and I set up the Wii and cued up this challenge for her to complete.  I like starting the Wii session with this game because it helps you relax and focus on yourself and how you are feeling.  While I was packing up my gear, the client was able to complete several rounds of the challenge, and in doing so she was getting more and more frustrated - which is the opposite of what is supposed to happen.  She told me she was getting upset because she was unable to post a score that was close to her high score.  While I was explaining to her that it is a high score for a reason, she started another round on the balance board, and the phone rang.  I picked up the phone and handed it to her and then sat back and watched the magic!  You see, this particular person loves her phones. She loves talking, texting, emailing and scheduling on them.  She is comfortable and focused with her phone in her hand.  So as she was completing the challenge, while talking on the phone, she was more focused than she had been since starting with the Wii.  And with the increased focus she was more in control of her breathing, and this led to her posting her highest score of the day!  

Now, this is not a post about how it helps to be on the phone when you workout.  The point that should be taken from this is just a bit deeper.  The point is that you will get the most out of your exercise session if you are focused.  Try to eliminate the distractions that may be in your head, or in your world, and introduce stimuli that help keep you on target.  For many people, myself included, music is the perfect choice to facilitate this plan.  Others may find total quiet is what works best for them.  And for the unique few, sometimes the phone - and the contact with your friends that it provides - will help your mind focus on the exercise session at hand.  

San Francisco Trip Itinerary

The late winter leading into the early Spring is historically a time when I notice the motivation of my clients, my friends, and sometimes myself, starting to dip.  I think it is the combination of the cold weather, short days and the lack of sunshine that starts weighing on everyone and bringing them down.  Regardless of how I may feel, I try to always keep a positive attitude flowing to help keep everyone on the right path.  As everyone around here knows, this has been a tough job this winter.  I have had to punch through the cold, cloudy rides and bitter morning drives all while keeping a smile on my face and a positive outlook.  How have I been able to do it?  Well, in addition to being rather optimistic by nature, I have been using a trip I have planned to help keep the enthusiasm topped off.  I planned a trip this Spring to go see my friend Rich in San Francisco.  To quote him,"It is going to be a bike training camp!" and based on the ride itinerary in the email he sent me the other day, it looks to be just that:

Day 1: Paradise loop and maybe a Headlands -  ~ 50 miles

Day 2: Alpine -  55 miles

Day 3: Nicasio -  70+ miles

Day 4: Marshall -  ~ 100 miles

TOTAL:  ~ 280 miles

Now that is a trip!  I know that is not exactly the same plan most people would have if they were going to San Francisco, but it works for me.  And it gets me psyched and it clicks on the inner enthusiasm that gets me through the day!  I would recommend that everyone find that trip, fitness goal, or even bathing suit that puts your mind in the right place and use that enthusiasm to help keep you going.

-Jason

Office Workout

I spent an hour or so in an office building today.  Mercifully, it was not sitting behind a desk.  That carer path would not have went well for me.  I think I would have lasted about a day before the sitting and relative inactivity got to me.  So I give a solid thumbs up to anyone who has the mental ability to endure the office "lifestyle". I give a further high five to those who make time in their office infused days to participate in some type of physical activity.  It doesn't have to be the combination cardiovascular/resistance training hour that I was instructing earlier today to earn you full credit.  It can be anything active.  Take the stairs instead of the elevator.  Get a group to walk at lunch.  Undertake some stretches while at your desk.  If you insist that you are too busy and can't manage to get any time for activity then make sure you plan something for after work.  I will extend the full credit to you if you planned the after work activity while at work.  To me that means at least you were thinking in the right direction!

-Jason

Exercise of the Week 3/7/11

Straight Leg Raise

This is a very basic, but fantastic exercise that is used to strengthen the quadriceps and hip flexor muscles.  This is an exercise that is often used in physical therapy during the initial stages of knee rehabilitation, but I find it is an important exercise that should be incorporated into everyone's training program.  In addition to strengthening the specified muscles, this exercise also acts as a great warm-up for the legs and has the added benefit of possibly increasing the flexibility of the hamstrings.

How to perform:


■ Lay flat back on a comfortable surface
■ Bend the knee of the leg you are not going to lift.  This helps protect the back and makes the exercise more comfortable.
■ Relax the foot of the leg you are lifting
■ Begin lifting your straight leg

■ Move the leg at a slow controlled pace
■ Keep your hips flat and avoid arching your back

■ Continue lifting the leg upward until you feel a tightness in your hamstrings - the muscles in the back of the leg - or until you get to 90 degrees.
■ Slowly lower your leg back to the starting position
■ Repeat for your specified number of repetitions

■ Avoid bouncing your foot off of the ground between repetitions
■ Make sure you breathe while performing this or any exercise


When the exercise becomes too easy, you can increase the difficulty of it by adding ankle weights to your legs.  I recommend starting out with 1.0 lb per leg and increasing the weight by an additional 0.5 lbs whenever necessary.  There are many varieties of ankle weights available, but I have found that All-Pro makes the best set by far.  No one is even close in terms of ease of adjustment and durability.  They are very hard to find in stores, but this is what they look like:

And this is where you can buy them:

http://www.performbetter.com/detail.aspx_Q_ID_E_3918



Please feel free to contact me with any questions about this exercise, or any other, and I am always open to suggestions on which exercise to cover next week.

-Jason

Sunday Workout

I am pretty sure that the happiness that overcame many of us, as the rain was melting away the snow on Saturday, was quickly replaced with disbelief as yet another 4 inches of snow fell throughout the day into the night. The snow, and shock of it, was most debilitating to a client of mine who was scheduled to come in Sunday morning.  She texted me that she couldn't make it to train because she couldn't bear to go out into the snow- she had returned the night before from a week in the Caribbean.  It took several exchanges and a variety of tactics, but I finally "won" the battle and she decided to show up.

I understood what she was feeling. I was sick of this garbage weather and I wasn't looking forward to doing another ride in the sludge.  Nor were any of the guy's I was going to meet for the ride.  When we all assembled no one had a clear cut plan as to where we should ride.  For that matter, it didn't make much of a difference.  Every direction was going to lead to a wet and cold ride.  And that is exactly what happened.  Two hours of wet clothes and mud covered faces.  All things considered, It wasn't horrible though.  I noticed something that made it bearable.  I noticed people.  In the past few months the parks we ride have been empty.  Barren of anything but the wind, and the cold and us.  Not today though.  We started the ride by seeing another 6 cyclists that we know.  They were bundled up properly and were cruising through the slop.  Then I saw some runners.  Then a couple more bikes.  And then about 20 people walking on the path at Kensington.  It was good to see.  It was a sign to me that people can't take it anymore.  Despite the best efforts of the Winter to beat everyone down, people have reached their limits and they are getting out to be active.

-Jason

The Legend Of The Shiny Bar

The shiny bar is a 35-pound straight bar I have in the gym.  Sometime last year, a client of mine decided that she wanted to be able to lift "shiny bar" - while on the incline bench press - for a specific number of reps.  That was the plan and the goal was set.  While training to reach this goal, the client discovered that some days "shiny bar" felt lighter than usual, and on some days "shiny bar" felt like a bag of bricks.  It was from this difference that The Legend Of The Shiny Bar grew.

We soon started comparing real world events to the different levels of Shiny Bar.  On a particularly strong day, when the mission was to fill and empty the car after a Costco run, the client commented that she felt great and it was a "light" shiny bar day.  During another training session, I commented about how a bike race went for me.  She asked, "Was it a light or heavy shiny bar day."  My reply, "I'm not sure if shiny bar was light or heavy because I felt like I was dragging the bar behind me the entire race!"

The lesson to be learned from this?  There will be strong days and not as strong days.  If you are having a strength filled day then take advantage of it and enjoy it.  If you are having a not as strong day then roll with it and know that a strong one will be coming soon.

-Jason

Afternoon Ride

One of the benefits of working for yourself is having the opportunity to carve out holes in your schedule for your own exercise.  I have always taken advantage of this and I feel it is one of the things I do that helps keep me balanced.  Today was a day I was happy I had the opportunity to get in a ride, but not so happy with the weather that was awaiting us-

For those out there not in the know, the 23 degree temperature is not the big problem with that picture.  The biggest issue is the 11 degree windchill!  That's 11 degrees if you are just standing there. If you factor in the speed we are riding at into the wind, it leads to some real cold body parts.  And to make things worse, I had a 3 hour ride on the schedule for today.  I was really going to be pushing into some discomfort.  Fortunately, I had a couple of friends with me to help pass the time.  We headed out ~12:00 and immediately felt the presence of the wind.  It seemed to be everywhere and more often than not, right in our faces.  I quickly realized that 3 hours might be a bit ambitious in that kind of environment, and I was making mental plans to finish off the ride on the indoor trainer later in the night.  Despite the wind and cold the minutes continued to pass and we eventually found ourselves in a position to either stop riding at ~1:45 or push on.  If we continued it was going to mean another full 1:00 out there in the cold, but we decided to do it to finish the ride off properly.  The funny thing about the last 1:00 was that we essentially rode a big loop and it felt like we were riding into a headwind the entire time!  We did manage to limp our frozen selves back to our cars and ended up with a ride total of 2:45 and ~43 miles.

Please feel free to send me any questions you may have about proper gear selection for cycling in conditions like today or contact me with any question you may have about anything fitness related.

-Jason

Kinetic Participant

Kinetic Participant: An individual who experiences life by moving and helping others move.

I can confidently state that everyone who knows me completely understands that I love to train- myself and my clients.  I will tell you that I love everything about it.


I love planning the workouts - I think about what type of efforts are needed and what areas need to be taxed.


I love preparing for the workouts - I collect all of the gear and supplies that I will need and check and recheck them.


And most of all, I love the execution of the workouts,the movement- I push my own and guide others bodies through activities that build and benefit them.


I am a Kinetic Participant.