Ali's Friend

I had been having trouble with that whole motivation thing lately, as I think I've mentioned. So I thought to myself, "Ali's fast. She's in good shape. You should copy her!"

This is Ali's friend. We'll call her Jillian. And all those big plans for the upcoming season—she's going to help me with them.

Last winter, I rode miles and miles on the trainer. It helped a lot. I went into the season in pretty good shape. But the truth is, I was bored, and I don't think the long-suffering martyr act is going to cut it for me through another long winter. So I've decided to mix things up a little this time around and hopefully get into better shape, drop some weight and go for a well-rounded (not literally) approach. I'm also hoping that this will help me get more out of the time I do spend on the trainer and allow me to push myself more.

So, here's what I came up with for a loose schedule:

Monday Spinervals on trainer

Tuesday Jillian

Wednesday Spinervals on trainer

Thursday Jillian

Friday Spinervals on trainer

Saturday and Sunday outdoor ride or other activity (skiing, showshoeing, etc.) and one day of rest

Last winter, a bit of the time I spent on the trainer was done using Spinervals DVD, but I mostly did intervals from the Friel book, which I mapped out ahead of time and did while watching t.v. This year, I've decided that using the DVDs is better for me. The structure of someone telling me what to do the entire time will hopefully keep me from getting too lazy and loose with my trainer time.

I'm going to start doing three different DVDs a week and do that same rotation of DVDs for a few weeks straight. I'm starting with Sweating Buckets (45 min) on Monday, Recovery & Technique (45 min) on Wednesday and Aero Base Builder (80 min) on Friday. After a couple weeks I'll switch it up a bit and do some harder DVDs. That should help keep it interesting.

The last part of my training plan is that I've decided to switch to morning training. As much as I hate having to get up extra early, if I wait until after work, there are just too many excuses (I'm tired, I had to work late, etc.). I started this plan on Monday. I set the alarm for 5:45, it went off and I promptly set it for an hour later and went back to sleep. However, I did complete my training when I got home from work, and I had much better luck getting up early Tuesday and today.

Speaking of which, I'd better get to bed so I can get up early tomorrow. In my next post, I'll talk about the eating part of the equation.