Under House Arrest

I have finally (I think) nailed down my racing schedule for the summer.  At first I only wanted to do one triathlon and that's it.  But in true racing addict fashion, I changed my mind and wanted to do everything.  I think I have settled somewhere in the middle with this schedule:

• 3 triathlons-mini sprint, sprint, and oly (aka, the variety pack)
• 1 10K (Bolder Boulder)
• 1 Century(?)  I am little apprehensive about this one.  I have no idea how to train for it or how hard it will be.  Julie, you better help me out here!!

My pre-training schedule is going to be 3 days running, 2 days swimming, 2 days cycling, 3 days lifting.  So basically, I need to find a calendar that contains 10 day weeks...or double/triple up I guess.  Okay, are you still awake?  That was pretty boring stuff.

With my plan in place I printed out a calendar and filled in the schedule with all my workouts.  It was beautiful and I felt in control and confident that my pre-training was off to a great start!  So every mom knows this, but once you have a schedule in place your kids get sick and throw you completely off.  It is one of  Murphy's Laws of Motherhood (Hmmm, I smell a future post there).

Training plan out the window!  Kids were home from school (no outside workouts), couldn't take them to the gym (infecting others is frowned upon), and husband had to work (someone has to pay for all the races I'm signed up for).  It was time to improv, and I am notoriously bad at this....but I was determined to at least get in some sort of workout.

I scoured the laundry room for my hand weights.  They were found!  I completed an at home weight workout that I am actually still very sore from!  I learned a few things along the way.  One, I really need to vacuum my floor.  Two, even when you say, "don't get on my back," your children will try to ride you when you are doing a plank.  But it got done.  Success!

Cardio was more of a challenge.  I tried running up and down the stairs.  After I tripped a couple times I decided I didn't want my kids to see me snap my neck in half.  I think that would cause some long term trauma.  So I tried running loops around my house.  We have a loop that goes from entryway to living room to kitchen to dining room to formal living room and back to entry way.  Since I live in a house and not a mansion, this loop takes approximately 10 seconds to complete.  You think a treadmill is boring?  That is really boring!  Plus, the angle was messing with my feet and one of my dogs was chasing me around nipping at my heels and one of the other dogs was barking incessantly.  Have I ever mentioned how much I love those dogs?  The old lazy dog slept on the couch completely unaware of the hoopla.  She is perfect, by the way.

So I was striking out and had to resort to my...bike trainer.  Blah.  I don't love the treadmill but really it is not that bad.  Of course I would much rather run outside.  This sentiment goes quadruple for cycling.  I love riding outside and despise riding inside.  That said, I think I could stomach an indoor date with my bike if I had a trainer that was a little more up to date.  But I don't, I have a trainer from (and I'm guessing here) the 70's.

Why on earth would I have a trainer from the 70's?  Ah, here is where you get a little insight into my world.  My husband's official job title is "Antiques Dealer."  Sounds very PBS doesn't it?  But in actuality he rehabs furniture and repurposes stuff, very little of which is actually antique (if you are so inclined to see his work, this is his website).  He kind of does what the guys on American Pickers do, except he deals more with furniture and instead of driving all over the country he just goes to local garage sales.  He also sells stuff on ebay and flips houses for us to rent out.  It is a really hard job to explain to people and it kinda sounds made up.  I'm pretty sure everyone thinks he really sells drugs...he doesn't.

Whenever I need something, I will say, "hey, I need such and such."  The upside- it shows up.  The downside- sometimes it is not of the standard (or era) that I would have chosen for myself.  And this is what happened with the bike trainer.  It is so old, in fact, that my road bike doesn't work on it.  I have to use my mountain bike.  Also, it is so loud that even with the TV on volume 100 (no lie) I still can't really hear it.  But we do what we have to do, right??  Cardio done.  Success!

My antique bike trainer

Check out the logo.  70's?  Early 80's?  60's???

Hopefully my kids will be better soon and I can get back to my regular schedule, but until then I will be making due at home.  I have been promised boot legged copies of P90X from my best friend so as soon as I get those I will be adding that to the at home repertoire as well.

What is your favorite at home work out?

Anyone else have a hard time explaining their significant other's job?

 Is P90X going to kill me??