Schools of Thought on Spinning

...according to me anyway.

Jen and Phil were unable to make it to spinning tonight so I carried on alone (of course Jen friendly reminded me that spinning isn't a team sport so I would probably be alright...). Our usual instructor was out of town so I spun with a new instructor - and hence the title of this post.

Let me preface by saying that both instructors are great and I've enjoyed my workouts with each. With our usual instructor, spinning class is all about the "ride". The flats, the hills, the music, the team. The entire session is organized in a way that stimulates, even impels, the visualization of riding with your team through the French hillsides. The workout, then, is almost more of a mini-excursion when you close your eyes. A calorie-burning trip to France. Not bad when you compare the cost of our membership fees to airfare. :)

With tonight's instructor, the spinning class is a work out. Period. We spend this song doing this and that song doing that. Here, I didn't get to leave the gym but I did still get an invigorating workout chalked full of awesome tunes and post-ride muscle soreness. The benefit of organizing the session in the shape of a pure workout instead of an actual ride is that I was able to focus on both technique and endurance. Just as an example, tonight I had to stick around in 3rd position with heavy resistance on the flywheel ("climbing a heavy hill") for the entirety of Enter Sandman by Metallica...not a short song.

So, in the end, there are two schools of thought on spinning in my mind. One is a ride through France and the other is a workout at the gym. Both do the job and although a healthy mix of the two will likely be best, I still prefer the "ride".

BTW, If you don't know what 3rd position is...

1st Position: Hands placed in the center of the handles.  You are seated in the saddle.  Good spot when warming up, cooling down, or recovering from a sprint interval.
2nd Position: Hands are just inside the upward curve on the handle bars.  You are standing, not straight up but not bent over either.  Likely spot for sprint intervals and position intervals.
3rd Position: Hands hold on to the top of the handles.  You are standing, leaning into the handles but maintaining your weight above your legs.  Good spot for climbs.

21 weeks

(Less than) 21 weeks till race day. Brian and I went for a couple of 3 mile runs this past week since the weather is warming up quickly. It looks like we're going to have to start rolling out of bed earlier than 9am on the weekends if we want to get our runs in before we're drenched in sweat. To help with the plan I think we're going to join a running group through Fleet Feet. The group has organized runs every Saturday a.m. at 7:30, plus other perks like a training plan to follow and a cool technical shirt. They start June 20th and keep running up until the Columbus marathon/half marathon. Hopefully this will give us a bit more discipline with our training.
Oh, by the way, it's someone's 24th birthday today :) Brian's b-day weekend recap coming soon.

22 weeks

We are officially 22 weeks until our half marathon in Columbus. I wouldn't say we have actually started training yet but this week we did take some steps in the right direction. We booked our hotel room in downtown C-bus for the weekend. Apparently its a good thing we did this so early because we discovered that one of the four recommended hotels for the event is already sold out! We also picked a training plan, it's from Hal Higdon and is recommended by my friend and marathon runnner Karen. It's a 12 week plan so I guess that means we have 10 weeks before we have to start running, right?

Columbus

Last night Brian and I registered for the Nationwide Better Health Columbus 1/2 Marathon :) The race is Sunday, October 18 through the streets of downtown Columbus. And in case you weren't aware, a half marathon is 13.1 miles (yikes!).

So what made us suddenly up and register for a race that is 5 months away and more than twice as long as either of us has ever ran at one time? The rush on registering was because one of my patients told me yesterday that the half fills up really quickly so I should register ASAP. Granted she has never ran the Columbus half, so there may not be any merit to what she said, but she got me to register and commit to the race either way. And the distance is because someday, hopefully before I'm 30, I'd like to run a marathon. Since you have to start somewhere I thought the flat course in Columbus would be great for my first really long race. Brian really wanted to run the Flying Pig half a couple of weeks ago here in Cinci but didn't start training soon enough, so with Columbus being in the fall we'll both have plenty of warm running weather to train in. We may be crazy, but taking a risk is much more fun than not, right?

Post-Pig Week

Look at that. Just a few weeks in and we are already slacking on our posts. Geez. :)

To our defense, both Jen and I have had a busy week. Plus, Pig weekend carried enough excitement to last for a while. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make it to spinning this week because of a leadership meeting for GO Cincinnati, but Jen carried on! Our buddy Phil joined her and it sounded like another great workout. I did manage to go to the gym Thursday night where I ran a warmup and lifted for upper body. During my warmup run I experimented with some different paces (trying to match some of the paces our friends carried THROUGHOUT the Flying Pig Marathon) and all I can say is that 9:00 minute miles is faster than it sounds. I liked jumping around to different paces though and I think I'll bump up my gym pace in place of distance for a while.

Speaking of the gym, Jen and I are both going tonight, followed by a delicious Chipotle meal. Don't worry, we get the vegetarian tacos (as opposed to the meat-filled burritos) so it doesn't cancel out the workout. :)

Crossing the Finish Swine

Flying Pig weekend in Cincinnati is one of my favorites. Without a doubt. The excitement that envelops the Queen City is amazing and that is why the Flying Pig is rated as one of the most fun race events in the world.

So this year marks the 2nd year that Jen and I have run the 10K race of the Flying Pig. And I think it's fair to say that we were both pretty ecstatic! As Jen posted below the weather and course were excellent and the support along the way (Flying Pig weekend is one of the largest volunteer and crowd gatherings in Cincinnati each year) was incredibly motivational.

Jen and I stuck together and ran the first 4 miles (through Downtown, Newport and Covington) at a strong but steady pace. We actually were surprised at each mile marker to see we were still running our best and notching our speed up a few clicks! Around 4.5 (back in Ohio, near the Freedom Center) is where the exhausation started to really creep in. Most of our "training" so far has been running roughly 2-4 miles at a strong pace so we hit the edge here. After circling back near the Ballpark and back into Downtown, we both felt our running grooves kick in and maintained a steady pace through mile 6 (east end of Downtown). As we rounded the corner of Eggleston to Pete Rose Way (the final stretch), Pump It by the Black Eyed Peas queued up on my iPod Shuffle and I took off. Perfect song to push you to the finish swine. :)

Jen followed up close behind - our times were (B) 1:14:50 and (J) 1:16:19 - our personal bests and nearly 10 minutes off our 2008 Flying Pig 10K times! We celebrated with some bananas and water (...and animal cookies) and found our way to a few friends that ran the race to share war stories. That's what is great about Flying Pig weekend - it's fun!

6.2, say what?!

We did it, Brian and I ran our second Flying Pig 10K this morning. We don't have our official times yet, but I know I beat my 10K personal record (PR) by at least 1 minute, Brian however may not have because he was busy being an awesome and supportive husband and running with me. :)
The weather turned out to be great, sunny and high 50s (that's my guess). Derek was calling for some possible rain this morning, so we definitely felt blessed to be running sans dripping wet. Brian sported his Paycor technical top they gave him last year- recession this year = no free cloths for runners- along with his new Pig running cap. I think he secretly really enjoyed planning his outfit. I bought a Sweaty Band at the health expo yesterday and am impressed to say that it did not slip off my head once! Happy customer, right here!
All in all I think we are injury free, despite our lack of training for this event. Brian was complaining of some mild left knee pain towards the end, and my right knee down to my Achille's tendon are pretty freaking sore, but I think we'll both survive to run another day. I might look into getting an orthotic for my right shoe if I'm going to keep having pain.
Time to cuddle with Wally, he appeared to be a little upset that we didn't have our typical Saturday morning ritual of sleeping in and snuggling.