Kristin Rides

I’ve been making progress on all fronts the past month, with a few missteps, a lot of success and a plan to move November into overdrive.

Cyclocross & Interval Training
This season has been great for me, something my placement doesn’t necessarily reflect. I’ve had a few really solid races, where I pushed myself to the max and left the field feeling solid and good about myself. Downgrading was the best choice in racing I’ve made in a long time. It allows me to be competitive and race with people of similar ability–and not feel like my training is always behind and not nearly enough.

My interval sessions have again proved to be the maker of the season. When I started ramping them back up 2 months ago, my lungs could not keep up with my legs, and my sprinting ability was…well, not. Now? I can do a long session, my lungs feel great, I’m never gasping for air, never feel sick, even though I’m somehow at 170-176bmp for every interval. Is crazy. I can spin like a crazy person now and even sprint. Yes, me, sprint. I’m really focusing on RPMs and turning my legs over, since my tendency is to push a heavy gear. I’ve really noticed a difference while racing, I can really spin up to speed quickly; on a course like Hillsboro with so many corners, I was easily able to stand and sprint out of every single one, for the entire race.

Strength Training
While I wouldn’t say I’m strength training, as far as doing heavy dead lifts and so forth, I’ve been taking Jeff’s core classes for a few months now, and WOW do I feel a difference. My back is pretty much rock solid at this point; my lower back used to be on fire after about 20 minutes of racing, making the last 25 nearly unbearable. Now? Nary a hint of pain. I’m guessing it had something to do with the fact that I got a different seat post and moved my saddle up closer to the bars, but having a crazy strong core certainly helps a ton. Plus I can get over barriers, through peanut buttery mud, and race my ass off without feeling that whole body exhaustion. My racing improvement over the last month has just been insane.

I’m also really looking forward to winter training and ramping up the weights. One thing I’ve noticed during the classes is just how weak my upper body is. I will be doing a lot of upper body work, and of course busting out those heavy dead lifts. It’s time to get strong!

Diet and Body Weight
I officially started dieting a few weeks ago, and by dieting I mean not eating out much, not drinking, and eating healthfully. I met goal number one of a 3lb weight loss, I’m essentially shooting for 1-1.5lbs of fat loss/week. Last weekend I had quite the slip up, I basically went out or had something to drink Thursday, Friday, Saturday AND Sunday, and I’m trying to limit it to once or twice/week, IF that. November will be a serious lock down on going out; I’ll be writing my novel for NaNoWriMo, working my ass off, cross racing, strength training, it will be busy busy. So it’s ok if I don’t go out for a month. I will be totally dry except for my party and Thanksgiving, which should be an interesting challenge. Not only will this be good for my health, my budget is in dire need of some savings.

Basically, I’m trying to focus on my diet and losing some weight, because I realized I can’t fit my bulging self into about 1/3 of my clothing. Not good. I also grimaced in looking at pics of me from Hillsboro, and I don’t like to do that. I want to see myself and feel great, not examine the size of my ass.

So I decided to try something new, and I order the Precision Nutrition system. I generally don’t like following “systems” or diet plans or what have you, but I’ve heard a lot of good things about it, and it focuses on athletes and eating for performance, as opposed to simply trying to eat less. They also have an entire guide for vegetarians, which is HUGE. That’s actually probably the number one reason I don’t do diets; I can’t eat 90% of the menus, so I just end up doing my own thing anyway. I want to mix things up and try something new, and I think this could be a good change.

So I will be reporting back on how PN is working for me, as well as any other products or programs. There are certainly a few I’d like to try, but again that whole budget thing. Since I’m throwing all my money at snowboarding this winter, I won’t have the cash to purchase much else.

Time to dream of snow….