100 Candles

Today in France marks the 100th anniversary of the first climb up Galibier.  The thoughtful race directors decided to celebrate this anniversary by making the cyclists climb the peak not once, but twice!  Today in Stage 18, Luxembourgan Andy Schleck reached the top first to claim the stage win.  If you want to see how steep this MOUNTAIN (seriously – they’re in the Alps!) is – click here.  The riders get to climb it again tomorrow but today’s climb is the highest in the history of the tour.

My workout today involves simulating this gigantic climb for the riders of Tour de Midtown at Inside Out.  Here’s the profile:

Not 1 or 2 HC climbs, but 3!

I spent much of the afternoon crafting the following playlist to get my Spinners through the challenge ahead –

100 Candles Playlist

1. The Underdog     Spoon.     Warm-up.  Fast feet.

2. You’ve Got the Love     Florence and the Machine.     Fast feet, HP2 jogs.

3. Bright Lights Bigger City     CeeLo Green.  Adding resistance, end in HP3 easy climb.

4. Shark in the Water     V.V. Brown.     Sprint, especially choruses.

5. Swimming     Florence and the Machine.   HP3 Heavy Climb.

6. Until the End     Breaking Benjamin.   Continue Heavy Climb.

7. Club Love Re-Mix     Taylor Swift     Heavy Climb and sprint to Summit.

8. Parallel Universe     Red Hot Chili Peppers     Sprint down that mountain!

9. Unknown Title Techno (ha.)    Long steady climb up the second hill.

10. More     Usher    Sprint down that hill, keep some resistance on, add on choruses.

11. Set Fire to the Rain     Adele     Start of last hill – steady in the saddle.

12. Heart of a Champion     Nelly     Attack the last of the hill – HP3.

 

Hope they survive!  Oh, and it’s thankful Thursday! – what are you thankful for today?

I am thankful that I had the opportunity to sleep in until 7 am today!  That’s heaven to me 🙂

 

 

 

Into the Mountains!

The Tour de France is headed into the Pyrenees Mountains this week!  If I was a badass athlete and riding in the tour (or a rich fan who could afford a flight over) I would be facing these beasts.

NO BIG DEAL

Since I’m neither of the aforementioned types of people (although I know I appear to be super-fit, my relationship with YoLo prevented participation in the Tour this year – look for me next year, I’ll be the only female), I participate in the Tour de Midtown instead at Inside Out Gym where I work and train.  We (the instructors) try to design class to mimic the profiles of the riders in France.  They get to climb this:

The Real Deal

At least it’s pretty!  We get to ride inside, not moving (there’s no risk of crashing!) and there’s music.  I’d much rather be a poor non-athlete.  I taught this morning and to simulate the switchbacks, we just kept adding and adding and adding resistance.  The class worked hard and stayed strong throughout ALL THREE climbs!  See the red bubbles above the peaks?  “HC” stands for something in French (I call it Hell’s Climb) that means it’s so steep it’s uncategorized.  Needless to say, the legs were plenty slow on the bike this morning.  Here’s where I rode:

We're in France, can't you tell?!

Tour Climb Playlist:

1. Listzomania by Phoenix.  Flat road, quick feet.

2. Down by the Water by the Decemberists.  8 count jumps to HP3

3. Boxer by The Gaslight Anthem.  Add resistance, quick feet.  GOOD TIME FOR BREAKAWAYS!

4.  Ain’t No Mountain High Enough by Marvin Gaye.  Add resistance only on chorus and stand up in HP3.

5. Be Somebody by Kings of Leon.  Sprint song.  Medium resistance and fast entire time.

6. Talk by Vitamin String Quartet.  First big climb.  Add half a turn every 30 seconds.

7.  Good Life by One Republic.  Heavy resistance, almost to the top.  Slow out of saddle climb, breakaways encouraged on choruses.

8. Bad Reputation by Joan Jett.  Downhill – but not a time to coast.  Medium resistance and fast legs.  No bouncin’!

9. Liberation Begins by A.R. Rahman.  One full turn from medium.  Add a quarter turn every 30 seconds.  The start of the biggest climb.

10. Liberation in a Dream by A.R. Rahman.  Still adding a quarter turn every 30 seconds.  Stand when you need to.

11. Liberation by A.R. Rahman.  Maximum resistance, S L O W turnover.  Breakaways encouraged with music pickups.

12. How Far We’ve Come by Matchbox 20.  Resistance back to medium, push through the downhill to take the lead as you approach final effort.

13. The Climb by The Glee Cast.  Tackily symbolic 🙂 but I figure Glee is better than Miley right?  Last effort of class, heavy resistance.  Push to the finish.

I finished with some core and lots of stretching love for my legs.  They’ve been worked hard this week!  And I get to do it all again this afternoon :)!

I’m off to plan my strength training for the afternoon, take a nap and fuel up for classes at the gym!  BUT FIRST:

Thankful Thursday.

Even though I don’t have any outside exercise planned today, I am so thankful it’s afternoon and we’ve yet to hit the 90s here!  My AC finally caught up to the temperature it’s set on – relief.  Here’s to hoping it stays like this!

What are you thankful for today?

Right Now	Next 36 Hours

	Today	Tonight	Tomorrow
Partly Cloudy	Scattered T-Storms	T-Storms Early	Partly Cloudy
90°F	92°	75°	94°
Feels Like: 99° Get FREE weather on your desktop	High	Low	High

July Races!

Howdy y’all!  I’m practicing my Texan because I’m off to Austin tomorrow morning!  I’ve been promising my friend Lyndsay since we were about oh, 20 years-old that I would visit her and so almost four years later here I go.  And now two other college friends live there too!  I’m looking forward to a relaxing (hopefully – wait ’til you see this itinerary!) weekend with old friends.

But first!  I want to share the July race calendar with ya – to maybe inspire some participation, and to put off packing and tackling my room just a little bit longer.

Memphis-Area Races in July

• Saturday, July 9 – Hope 5k.  8:00 am.  $18 pre, $25 day of.
• Sunday, July 10 – RRS 1st 5k.  7:00 am.  Overton Park.
• Saturday, July 16 – Design-a-Wish.  8:00 am. $18. Pink Palace.
• Sunday, July 24 – RRS 2nd 5k.  7:00 am.  Overton Park.
• Saturday, July 30 – 5 mile Classic. 8:00 am.  $18. Overton Park.

Plenty to keep you busy on the weekends – hope you’re ready to sweat….it’s gonna be hot!  I’m doing the RRS 2nd 5k for sure, and will have to contemplate the Design-a-Wish and 5 miler….racing is so much better than running.  What races will you run/walk?

Anyone been following the Tour de France?  The riders have made it through Stage 5, but not without plenty of wipe-outs.

Ouch! This is why I stick to stationary bikes....

 

 

 

 

You could just join Tour de Midtown at Inside Out Gym and not have to worry about mega wipeouts like that!  It’s not too late to win a NEW ROAD BIKE!

If you haven’t been following, check out a few videos from this website – it’s a pretty fascinating thing to witness – they are so fast!