Wishing happy holiday and sharing thoughts 12/24/12
Happiness is waking up early and communicating with my Mom in Japan real time. She had gone to family temple, participated in annual end-of-year cleaning. Family in US side is expanding and my Compadres took me and Hubby to Christmas illumination tour. Checking out Facebook reveals people from ahead of time zones posting Merry Christmas and reminding me the finish line of Challenge is close now!
Also rewarding was knowing Karen Haldane completing Competition 26.0 - The Hardcore 100 for her first time. Karen has become a loyal friend since fall and two of us have racked up “Like” counts on Spinervals page. Just to give reference to how excited I am, maybe I deserve a little mention of how MY first time went. As you may know from my confession blog, I have only been physically active since mid-age and started cycling in fall 2009. That is mere three years. But because I do everything to the extreme, when I got into cycling, I chose my goal to be doing 100 mile rides. In summer of 2010, I hired a local Coach and in September, I completed first and only public 100 mile ride. But public 100 mile is difficult to squeeze in the schedule and training for it is time-consuming. Training for it in extreme summer heat in Texas could feel like health hazard than fitness endeavor. So I bought Endurance Builder 5-Pack and decided to start training early in spring in 2011. I scheduled Tough Love on Monday and HC 100 on Wednesday in spring break. I had gone through careful distance building process in previous summer with local Coach, so I knew how to evaluate what I need and had some confidence. But after the first disc (as you know, it is 2-hour aero), I decided what I needed was rest. I changed the TV input from DVD to regular TV and decided to watch Japanese TV while I rest. I remember distinctly. The coverage was endless report of horrific 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami that happened that past Friday. I was in desperate need of rest and kept making the rest longer and longer. And the horrific images from Japanese News kept coming as well. I finally got up and completed it, in 6 hours and 40 minutes with estimated distance of about 80 miles. Folks might know the workout is 5 and half hours.
But that was me. I always knew Karen could do it with no problem; like many others, people I get to interact in Spinervals page are in incredible shape. I am in the company who does Ironman races! :-0 Sure enough, I encountered a happy post with detailed report yesterday and another post this morning saying she is in good shape planning to go for a walk with family. I think completing is a question, but more important question is how comfortable. BIG kudos to Karen. WAY TO GO!
As this is the second season of Spinervals Challenge, I started to go back some of my last year’s posts in my blog and can’t help noticing how tired I sound. I was a proud finisher, but that was deeply dependent on understanding and support of husband’s. As I said last Thursday, I am lucky to be still in Challenge. Challenge is not like a one-day event to run so many K’s and call it Commitment day (no offence and no link to Lifetime here). We are in a long haul. In this busy, family oriented month of December, a lot of things could happen and do happen. Be it family demands, injuries, unexpected anything! We juggle everything our best to still to become finisher, but this is not just physical challenge. To quote Coach in original Super 6 blog, “The Challenge is a 'push' phase of training, designed to significantly challenge your energy reserves and mental focus.” Yeah, Coach is pushing us, really, really pushing us. I miss lots of old friends decided not to repeat the Challenge after being finisher last year, and this year I am seeing more public declaration, rather than quiet withdrawal of this year’s Challenge. I am only lucky to be this close to the second finish of Challenge because all elements around me are working out. It almost feels like a coincidence.
I keep coming back to the point that the fact somebody like me can keep up with the demand of Challenge is all thanks to Coach’s programs. As you may notice, my first successful, but painful completion of HC 100 was not even two years ago. Because I kept using Coach’s Troy’s programs (as explained in Thursday blog), I am good enough to be hanging out with super fit people!!!
And here is today’s most important part. While I was walking around in Allen gym during Thanksgiving time, I learned that a personal trainer who I used to ride together in group rides, Donnie, moved up the ladder and now in charge of NewLeaf testing department at the gym. I am a proud member of Lifetime Fitness and that is how exactly I was brought into Spinervals, but I keep finding that even where Coach Troy is the National Triathlon Coach there, talking to somebody who knows endurance sports is not too easy. Donnie is very friendly and remembers me and we had a good time talking about his races and how things have changed at the gym since I jumped ship and took fitness budget out of Lifetime. For a long time, I wanted Donnie to be my personal trainer and creating training programs. He has done multiple IM races and he knows the stuff and he is local. I thought for a minute maybe I will go with him in spring/summer months when I could use physical, local help. Then the next second, I changed my mind. Even as well intended and as nice he is, he is not going to be too different from my previous trainers. They have many clients and they never seem to have time to look at my workout data and comments I send in daily. They often do not remember my long-term goals and I pay for physical meeting time sitting down while they are organizing the program using online resource site. And this case MAY be similar if I hire Coach Troy. After all, he doesn’t show up in Spinervals pages as often as I do. (But who would?) But he does and he does at the crucial point. I think he is very selective and careful about responses he shows. What bothered me most from paying customized program with Lifetime trainers was never receiving any kind of feedback to the workouts I was diligently sending. In Spinervals community, I have WONDERFUL support. People are genuine, kind and helpful and they know the stuff. ALL of us have good days and bad days. On bad days, we seek for words to console and encouragements. On good days, we want to celebrate with high five’s. I get all that in Spinervals community. I get that ALL THE TIME. Thanks to Nancy Hill and Coach Troy providing such a wonderful community, I get not only good training, but moral support that I would not get from being in any other programs. So, thank you to all of my friends in Spinervals community. YOU ALL ROCK! Happy holidays to you all.
Also rewarding was knowing Karen Haldane completing Competition 26.0 - The Hardcore 100 for her first time. Karen has become a loyal friend since fall and two of us have racked up “Like” counts on Spinervals page. Just to give reference to how excited I am, maybe I deserve a little mention of how MY first time went. As you may know from my confession blog, I have only been physically active since mid-age and started cycling in fall 2009. That is mere three years. But because I do everything to the extreme, when I got into cycling, I chose my goal to be doing 100 mile rides. In summer of 2010, I hired a local Coach and in September, I completed first and only public 100 mile ride. But public 100 mile is difficult to squeeze in the schedule and training for it is time-consuming. Training for it in extreme summer heat in Texas could feel like health hazard than fitness endeavor. So I bought Endurance Builder 5-Pack and decided to start training early in spring in 2011. I scheduled Tough Love on Monday and HC 100 on Wednesday in spring break. I had gone through careful distance building process in previous summer with local Coach, so I knew how to evaluate what I need and had some confidence. But after the first disc (as you know, it is 2-hour aero), I decided what I needed was rest. I changed the TV input from DVD to regular TV and decided to watch Japanese TV while I rest. I remember distinctly. The coverage was endless report of horrific 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami that happened that past Friday. I was in desperate need of rest and kept making the rest longer and longer. And the horrific images from Japanese News kept coming as well. I finally got up and completed it, in 6 hours and 40 minutes with estimated distance of about 80 miles. Folks might know the workout is 5 and half hours.
But that was me. I always knew Karen could do it with no problem; like many others, people I get to interact in Spinervals page are in incredible shape. I am in the company who does Ironman races! :-0 Sure enough, I encountered a happy post with detailed report yesterday and another post this morning saying she is in good shape planning to go for a walk with family. I think completing is a question, but more important question is how comfortable. BIG kudos to Karen. WAY TO GO!
As this is the second season of Spinervals Challenge, I started to go back some of my last year’s posts in my blog and can’t help noticing how tired I sound. I was a proud finisher, but that was deeply dependent on understanding and support of husband’s. As I said last Thursday, I am lucky to be still in Challenge. Challenge is not like a one-day event to run so many K’s and call it Commitment day (no offence and no link to Lifetime here). We are in a long haul. In this busy, family oriented month of December, a lot of things could happen and do happen. Be it family demands, injuries, unexpected anything! We juggle everything our best to still to become finisher, but this is not just physical challenge. To quote Coach in original Super 6 blog, “The Challenge is a 'push' phase of training, designed to significantly challenge your energy reserves and mental focus.” Yeah, Coach is pushing us, really, really pushing us. I miss lots of old friends decided not to repeat the Challenge after being finisher last year, and this year I am seeing more public declaration, rather than quiet withdrawal of this year’s Challenge. I am only lucky to be this close to the second finish of Challenge because all elements around me are working out. It almost feels like a coincidence.
I keep coming back to the point that the fact somebody like me can keep up with the demand of Challenge is all thanks to Coach’s programs. As you may notice, my first successful, but painful completion of HC 100 was not even two years ago. Because I kept using Coach’s Troy’s programs (as explained in Thursday blog), I am good enough to be hanging out with super fit people!!!
And here is today’s most important part. While I was walking around in Allen gym during Thanksgiving time, I learned that a personal trainer who I used to ride together in group rides, Donnie, moved up the ladder and now in charge of NewLeaf testing department at the gym. I am a proud member of Lifetime Fitness and that is how exactly I was brought into Spinervals, but I keep finding that even where Coach Troy is the National Triathlon Coach there, talking to somebody who knows endurance sports is not too easy. Donnie is very friendly and remembers me and we had a good time talking about his races and how things have changed at the gym since I jumped ship and took fitness budget out of Lifetime. For a long time, I wanted Donnie to be my personal trainer and creating training programs. He has done multiple IM races and he knows the stuff and he is local. I thought for a minute maybe I will go with him in spring/summer months when I could use physical, local help. Then the next second, I changed my mind. Even as well intended and as nice he is, he is not going to be too different from my previous trainers. They have many clients and they never seem to have time to look at my workout data and comments I send in daily. They often do not remember my long-term goals and I pay for physical meeting time sitting down while they are organizing the program using online resource site. And this case MAY be similar if I hire Coach Troy. After all, he doesn’t show up in Spinervals pages as often as I do. (But who would?) But he does and he does at the crucial point. I think he is very selective and careful about responses he shows. What bothered me most from paying customized program with Lifetime trainers was never receiving any kind of feedback to the workouts I was diligently sending. In Spinervals community, I have WONDERFUL support. People are genuine, kind and helpful and they know the stuff. ALL of us have good days and bad days. On bad days, we seek for words to console and encouragements. On good days, we want to celebrate with high five’s. I get all that in Spinervals community. I get that ALL THE TIME. Thanks to Nancy Hill and Coach Troy providing such a wonderful community, I get not only good training, but moral support that I would not get from being in any other programs. So, thank you to all of my friends in Spinervals community. YOU ALL ROCK! Happy holidays to you all.
1 Comments:
As always, Keiko, you echo many of the thoughts and feelings that I have. I agree, collectively, we have a lot of knowledge and experience. We can help each other as much or more than a personal coach can. I have completed several centuries, but this will be my first time doing HC100. I confess, I'm not looking forward to 5 1/2 hours on an indoor trainer, but I know I'll do it because I'll be doing it with m Spinervals friends.
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