November was all about celebrating relationships, giving thanks, and more soldicoremsp!
November started on a high note as I celebrated my fourth wedding anniversary with a fabulous dinner at Martina in my favorite Minneapolis neighborhood, Linden Hills! The middle part of the month was spent celebrating nearly 30 years of friendship with two high school girlfriends in Brooklyn, New York! We brought the snow from Minnesota with us to New York and arrived on their first snow fall. Luckily, the Subway runs underground so our travel was not impacted! We had a lovely time chatting and catching up mixed with lots of walking and taking in some of the sights of the city! November concluded by celebrating thanksgiving at my aunt’s house with all 12 members of my immediate family plus several aunts, uncles, and cousins.
I went to class at soldicoremsp 4 times a week throughout the month of November – Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday (minus the 4 days I was in NYC). I felt like I made progress on several of the core exercises and I am able to stay on my toes (versus knees) in the plank position for the entirety of most sets (think of a set of the length of a song). The only exception still being my obliques. I’ve improved but still is my biggest weakness and I have to move from my toes to the knees quite frequently. My body has not transformed like I hoped it would by now but all the celebrating could be hindering the visual transformation. I know I mentioned it last month, but will again – I think the biggest and most significant gain is the strong mental gains I’m making each session. Several coaches will say that the hardest part is walking through the doors but it isn’t for me; the hardest part is pushing past the fatigue and telling myself “I can hold this position for another 10 seconds”, “I can stay on my toes”, “shaking is good”, etc.
I continued to swim with my Masters swim program 1 or 2 times per week and I am slowly making progress. I’m happy with the slow progress given only swimming 1 or 2 times per week and it gives me hope for 2019! My plan to is to continue with 2 times per week for December and then bump it up to 3 times per week when the new year starts.
I tried to get in 30-45 minutes of walking 3-4 times per week to move my body and get in some quality podcast time! Some of that turned to running…but most did not other than a couple of longer Saturday morning runs. I got into a bad habit of turning my incline to 0.0 but have made a new goal of always running at 1.0 and walking at a much high incline. I’ve found this helps neutralize the change to outdoor running.
My big black friday purchase was a new trainer (yes, I finally purchased one!) – I went with a Wahoo Kickr Snap Trainer! Small vent! Nothing comes easy on the bike for me – even getting a trainer to work properly. The trainer itself was fine. But first it was putting on the trainer tire – why are they so difficult in those last few inches?! I got a late start on this project so I asked my husband to help in the middle of him getting ready to go to the Vikings-Packers game. Sorry, honey! He got it on and next I put my tire back on my bike. Easy, right? I put it on the trainer, hopped on, and noticed my electronic shifters would only move up one gear. Thinking my battery was low (a red light was on) I charged my battery. One hour later I had a fully charged battery but my gears still won’t shift up more than one gear. Ugh! I had to wait for my husband to get home! And he figured it out, a tiny black cord had fallen out and after I put it in place I could shift again. Now I am start using my trainer…more to come in December!
And, finally, I’m excited to share that Alex and I will be riding in Etape du Tour this July! You (or your husband in this case) only turn 40 once! So we went big and booked a tour package through Trek Travel!
More to come on the training in 2019!
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