The Bike Goal ALMOST Met and Insanity Max 30 - Max Out Sweat - Review

It was a bit nipply out on Sunday - biking gear included long bike pants, long sleeved bike shirt, windbreaker, and wishing we'd brought ear warmers.

It wasn't quite as windy as Saturday, but it took a good 15-20 minutes for my ears to freeze off a bit.

It was also my first day biking with my clip on pedals and shoes.  I haven't used these in about a decade, so it was a bit of a learning curve.  After about 5 minutes, I finally had my first foot clipped in.  Then my second foot followed suit.

Then we decided to ride on the Parkway as it closes Sunday mornings to cars and is open for fitness gurus.  I realized I would have to unclip to go over the high curb (and didn't have the time or experience) and ended up calling for Husband to help before I fell, and ended up falling sideways with him barely catching me before I ended up on the ground.

Fall number two in the last few weeks - a few weeks ago I fell mountain biking passing Husband - it was awesome - my whole left thigh was black and purple all week long and is barely noticeable now.

War wounds and experience.

Our goal - to make it to the Aylmer Marina.  We almost made it too.  20 kms after our ride started, I heard a clang, and my bike's resistance starting becoming rather difficult.  We stopped a minute later, and it appeared that one of my spokes broke.  My wheel also wouldn't turn.

Crap.  We were stuck in Quebec 20 kms from our truck.  Less than 1km from the Marina.

Husband swiftly broke the spoke off and realized the rear brake was causing the now warped rim to rub against it.  Off came the brakes, and I rode the slightly wonky Speed bike back to the Truck.

We still made decent time - 21 kmh - we averaged 23 over the last week, so considering the rear wheel was not perfectly straight, I'd say that's a victory.

Wheel is now fixed, and we'll be ready to roll again tomorrow!  Nothing can stop me!

Because biking 40km is never enough, I needed to get in my Max 30 fix as well.

Insanity Max 30 - Max Out Sweat Review

This workout consists of 3 sets of 3 different exercises and 30 second water breaks after these sets have been completed.

- Power Move 1 - Speed In & Out Abs - Mountain climbers for modifier me!

- Plyo Hook Lunge - Backwards Lunge with alternating arm hook

- Wide In & Out Knee Tap -  A plank with knee and arm meeting in the middle on the same side

- Switch Kick Punch - a Switch kick with alternating arm punches

- Power Move 2 - Hit the Floor Tuck Jump - Alternating side lunges while touching the floor

- Ab Attack - Squat with standing oblique crunches at the side

- Burpee Punch - A burpee with a punch out at the bottom - alternating sides

- Knee Switch Kick - Lift knee up to belly like a switch kick, and alternate kicking at the top

- Power Move 3 - 4 Jab 4 Knee Punch - 4 punches followed by 2 alternating punches with high knees

- Wide Fly In & Out Abs - On hands and feet, bent over (this sounds kinky) with your butt in the air - alternate same hand and foot in the air

- Free Runner - Alternating Leg lunges up and down quickly

-- Moving Push Ups - My favourite type of push up!

- Power Move 4 - 360 Hop Squats - 1 minute of frog squats (pulsing squat with hands hitting the ground on the bottom)

- Slalom - It's like skiing in the living room!

- Plank Jack Tap - Plank alternating arms to shoulders

- Scissor "X" - Alternating forward-backward and up-side scissor moves with arms and legs

- Power Jump Dive - Legs wide and fall forward, moving hands two steps back, then stand up for a side oblique crunch - repeat

- Floor Sprints - Slow sprint low to the ground.

I was kind of disappointed at the end - Shaun T kept his shirt on the entire workout!

C'est la vie - can't see Shaun T all the time!

An alternate to Shaun T - he understands me...

Until next time :)  Live for today as we can't change the past.

My Longest Bike Ride - Ever!

So, the furthest I can remember biking is no more than 20 km in a round trip.  Really, it's all my awesome mountain bike and I could do on road or paved path trails.

When I lived in Port Credit (Mississauga), I would rollerblade once a summer with my friend Shea, from home to Union Station and beyond - about 25km.  But We would Go Train back home.  And there were lots of food carts around so we could fuel up along the way.  Why once a summer?  We forgot each year how achy our bodies felt the next few days thereafter.

Annual rollerblade trip to Union

I think I'm currently stronger than I have ever been thanks to discovering Tony and Shaun T (yes, preaching the Beachbody workouts AGAIN). But as I've mentioned before, my Mountain Bike...made me feel weak peddling away.  The first two weeks of biking, I could NOT catch up to Husband.  I felt so slow and unfit.

Now 4 weeks later, after struggling to barely make it 18 km, we did it.  We made it to the edge of Downtown Ottawa!

We used to see Moodie and Highway 417 as the end of the ride before turning around.  Like the pathway on the other side of Moodie was the Dead Zone full of Zombies and monsters that would slow us down and eat us for dinner.

One of our first goals with new speedy bikes was to make it past Britannia Beach on a weekend.  Now we can do that on a weeknight!

A few weeks ago, we struggled to make it to the Ottawa River Parkway Beach.

So our goal yesterday was unspoken, but one we had spoken about over the last 4 weeks since Speedy Road Bikes came home with us.

We kept riding past our normal turn around points...and it just happened.

We sat down on a bench outside the War Museum, fist pumped our success, had our granola bars and snuggled for a bit before deciding we had to venture back home.

We made it!!

We slowed down when we needed to catch our breath, sped back up when we'd recovered, and just zoned out.

It took us 1 hour and 4 minutes to get there, and only 1 hour and 11 minutes to return home.  Average speed was 22.2 km per hour.

Pretty good considering neither of us has ever biked that far.

The day after...my neck is slightly sore, my trigger thumb for the gears is a bit sore, but the rest of my body does not feel like it biked so far.  Boo-yah!  I must be doing something right.

And I slept the whole night through and even remember dreaming.  Most nights I wake up constantly, don't remember dreaming, and just give up sleeping part way through.

Maybe I'm finally on the road to recovery and finally defeating the CFS beast!

And now having a new goal - beyond 50 km!