Quad Journeys

An update to the April 12th, May 15th, & June 13th entries:

This week marks my 36th week of nutritional changes, 27th week of fitness training, and 19th week of bike specific training.

As many of you know, Enbridge Ride to Conquor Cancer was postponed until August 10/11th due to heavy flooding in Calgary - water in the streets, mudslides, and washed out roads made a ride on June 22/23rd impossible. That gives us more biking to talk about! :) Lucky you! Stay tuned for pics from the trip in just over 4 weeks.

Now, let's look at the update:

36 weeks into my nutritional journey and I find myself revisiting my caloric intake needs as I'm far more active than I was at the start of this journey. I've also built up a fair amount of lean muscle mass (No, I don't look like Arnold) which requires more energy to maintain. I've gone from struggling to reach a 1200 calorie a day goal (meaning I often fell short of 1200 as I just wasn't hungry enough to keep eating at the end of the day) to having a major mental breakdown and needing to increase up to 1300 and then 1500 to now requiring close to 2000 calories a day to keep my body happy.

At the same time, I started my fitness training (27 weeks ago) with 2 - 60 minute TRX classes per week and found myself needing to add a 60 minute Butt & Gutt class as well as a 60 minute personal weight training session as I gained strength and stamina. Believe me, your body tells you when it needs more. Now starting my third session of fitness training, I have 2 - 60 minute TRX classes, 2 - 60 minute weight training sessions, and 1-2 days of endurance biking on my schedule each week.

You might be wondering how I did with my goals from a month ago. I can tell you that I do a pushup with every Burpie (And I still hate Burpies!), I do all of the suspended exercises in TRX and can even do side planks with a crunch (1 or 2, I didn't say I am a super star yet), I can do more reps and at a harder/steeper angle - pushing myself harder, and I can say that my mindset has changed from "can I do that?" to "I CAN do that!". Frequent reminders still needed (habits take practice) that "YES I CAN!!!" is healthier than "can I?" but I'm learning. :D

And the biking. To be honest, I had hoped to be done by now so that I could move on to to hiking and camping in the Rockies but all is not lost. More biking for me, more biking stories for you. Its a win-win! Stay tuned.