Mountain biking = almost love at first try

WOW!
This will probably be my cheesiest entry. I am a new person. The mountain biking session on Thursday was AMAZING! Hands down. I felt like I was on a constant rollercoaster. You know that feeling when you are scared but confident and nervous but excited? Yeah, that one. That's how I felt the entire night. I learnt so much about mountain biking and myself that night. For a chick with little confidence to feel that good about herself is awesome. I don't think I'm in love with mountain biking just yet - I'm still scared. I'm just really into that feeling of adrenalin! I was describing how I felt to Neil and he politely says: "Uhhh, yeah. That's adrenalin."

We finally get to this calm and beautiful river and here I think... the men are going to give us a motivating talk on how awesome we are. Then I remember that we are training with guys tonight. Shane holds up a heart rate monitor and points to the river. "First three people to cross the river with their bike and back gets a HRM from Suunto." More adrenalin. Why do I always get this feeling of panic when someone puts competition into anything?! It can be the first person to eat their cereal. I have to win. It turned out we all got our brand new heart rate monitors from SUUNTO. What a relief. Mine is bright orange and I love it!



My highlight. Just when I think the night couldn't get any better... FREE SAUCONY SHOES! It was like Christmas morning. It started out as the first person to make it all the way up the hill (and by hill I mean death trap) in their saddle without stopping gets free Saucony gear. Piece of cake. They had me at free. I did it and then Matt Merko says "Anyone willing (crazy enough) to do it again for a pair of Saucony shoes?" "I'll do it." So I did. This hill was steep and my thighs burnt so bad I felt like I was climbing Mt. Everest but at the same time I love that feeling of a grusome workout (I think that's why I'm a runner). So true to his word, Matt Merko, our wicked awesome Saucony rep is sending me my new kicks!

Awesome, Awesome night. I can't wait to get back out there and scare myself a little more.

Three Cheers for Hills!

I thought I would blog even though I missed the trail running session today because I was still out there running. Just running the roads instead! I finished the Mississauga Marathon today in 1 hour 43 minutes and I felt amazing (that's a PB for me)! I was shooting for a strong 1:50! Awesome. Normally I'm a lot more stiff and sore but today I felt great. I have to say, my time is all thanks to the horrid hill training with Phat Chicks and Race Day Rush. Definately worth the buring sensation. I was able to tear up the last two hills. I mean I gav'er (talk about outer body experience....haha) I didn't even know where the energy was coming from. It could have been the wicked weather or the fact that Mississauga is very downhill for a marathon :) Either way it was an amazing day and a great way to start out the summer season!

I also ran into Shane's friend Eman - running the half with the helmet camera. I gave a shout out to the Phat Chicks and of course RDR. It was exciting to see the reactions of people... "Does that guy have a helmet on his head?!" or "What is he doing?" Once I told Eman my finishing goal I felt the pressure to do it because it was on tape. Thanks!

In the end, it was a great day, ran over half the race with my brother, got a massage and the sun was shining all day. I do however, miss all the Race Day Rushers! I'm looking forward to this Thursday!

Shannon

Still going strongish

Hi,
I'm feeling a bit down because I missed the workout today. An important one too. Also missing the group! I am still keeping up with the homework and gearing up for the Mississauga Marathon. I'm only doing the half but I'm hoping (I'm putting it out there because I need the pressure) for a 1:45 half. I think I can. This will be included as my RDR training runs ;)
Today I did the core homework and I felt great, I'm still steady at 15 (male) push ups in a minute which is frustrating and burpees still hate me.

Burpees!

Burpee (exercise)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The burpee is a full body exercise used in strength training and as aerobic exercise. It is performed in four steps:
Begin in a standing position.
Drop into a squat position with your hands on the floor in front of you.
Kick your feet back, while simultaneously lowering yourself into a pushup
Immediately return your feet to the squat position, while simultaneously pushing up with your arms.
Leap up as high as possible from the squat position with your arms overhead (you may also clap your hands above your head at the peak of your jump

Definition from: Wikipedia 2010 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burpee_(exercise)

I have actually never really hated anything more in my life then a Burpee. In fact, about two months ago I thought I was really fit - UNTIL I was asked to do 10 Burpees. I thought I was going to die. During the drill (which included 10 burpees) my thighs felt like they had led in them and my arms had a burning sensation in them that I never experienced. Currently in grade 2 we are writing poetry, the following is my owe to Burpees and my awesome grade two‘s!

Burning sensation that usually makes me want to go into fetal position.
Usually I don’t feel such hate towards exercise.
Really, I’d like to meet the TOOL that created Burpees.
Probably won’t be able to sit down tomorrow.
Expected to do how many?!?!
Eventually I will be able to walk again (that’s what they tell me).
Suddenly I feel the need to cry.

Workout #1

Saturday morning brought some interesting weather - a bit cold and snowy for my liking. We all met at LaSalle Park in Burlington to enjoy the awesome scene. We started out with a warm up and then...sprints.

That was so sweet of Meridith and Suzie to let us do sprints, I mean who doesn't love the burning sensation in your glutes, quads, hamstings and every other single part of the body?!? I know I will thank the ladies in a few months, but in the meantime I may have to use some foul language during workouts.

The stairworkout was amazing - fun and different. It's surprisingly harder then you think to run downstairs. The best part was just when you think you're done the stairs...you have to sprint back up a monster...I mean hill.

Despite the weather, we had a wicked workout with a solid group of ladies. I'm looking forward to my homework workouts and next Sunday's group workout!

Until then,

Shannon

Meet and Greet

Today was the big day - the meet and greet. I think we have a pretty wicked group together. So many different backgrounds and stories. To date the scariest thing was being video taped - at least I thought. Now I am thinking the mountain biking is really going to get me. The mountain biking is going to be FAST....and scary.


The race itself seems amazing. I love the RockStar theme. Check it outhttp://www.racetherockstar.com/RockstAR_Adventure_Race.html

A poor little hammy

Sometimes I think I'm a superstar and that I can do things like upside down push ups (I wonder what my face looked like when I was doing them?) and ten thousand lounges. I paid the price and pulled a my hamstring. It hurt to do everything especially once I bent down - but I'm ready to go again.