Training Plateau, New gear, and Florida

It happens to everyone - after you've gotten into the swing of things, you just hit a bad week where your fitness doesn't seem to improve. That's been me this past week! I remember this all too well from high school cross country and as always it's very frustrating.

Since I got back from spring break my training has been at a plateau. My workouts feel way more difficult than they did just the week before and it's more of a struggle to get out and do them. Also, cycling class was practically empty the first day back from break and there wasn't the "strength in numbers" vibe that the class usually has. The next day Body Pump was full by the time I got there, so no Body Pump for me for the week :( As a substitute I decided to hit up the weight room at the gym!! GASP!! I had never been in there before. I'm intimidated by all the crazy weightlifting guys and I don't want to be embarrassed by not knowing how to use the machines. Soooo what better to do than bring my trusty boyfriend with me to show me the ropes. With his help I managed not to look like a complete idiot and got in a pretty good workout. Anyway, I don't know why this is happening now, because I had a nice change of pace over spring break when I could only go running in Chicago. But whatever the reason, it's frustrating and I hope it ends soon!

Some positive training news: The training game that Team Portland was playing for the month of March ended Sunday, and the team that Chelsea and I were on won! This means that the other half of our team will serve us dinner on Day 1. The score was pretty close, though, and everyone did a good job. The average amount of points earned per team member was 463. As an example, biking outside was 3 pt/mile and biking inside was 2 pt/mile -- but all sorts of other exercises had designated point values as well. Chelsea and I also got "awards" (chosen by our 2 ride directors and posted on our team's group on Facebook):

Screenshot of our "Award" :)

In other news, for Easter I got to go to Florida! My parents wanted to take a mini family vaca since we won't all be home at the same time this summer (thanks to the 4K). We all flew down to Ft. Lauderdale on Thursday night and then Michael and I flew back Sunday night. My parents and James (littler brother) are still down there soaking up the sun until tomorrow. It was really great -- if you know me you know I LOVE the sun and the beach so I was super happy :) It was great weather and we pretty much just chilled on the beach the whole time. I managed to burn myself to a crisp.. I underestimated the Florida sun and attempted to use SPF 8 on the first day... which ended up not really cutting it. Oh well, it's pretty much all better now! 

Florida!!!

We also spent Easter with my dad's aunt and uncle who live an hour from Ft. Lauderdale. The uncle is the brother of my grandfather who I am doing the ride for. They look and act a lot alike. It was great to see him and his wife and we got to chill at their awesome house.

Me driving my uncle's sweet Mercedes!!

Training while in Florida- I went for a lovely warm run on the beach with my brother. We went around 4pm when the boardwalk was ridiculously crowded and we were constantly dodging people. There were also a lot of drunk people (still spring break season). I also got to use an awesome exercise bike at the hotel called the Expresso. It has a screen and it's kind of like a video game in that you get to choose your course and level and then you race people! You actually steer the bike too so it's really cool. I felt like it made me work out harder because I was trying to beat my "competitors" in the game.

Fundraising - My fundraising total is now $6,493!! So close to $6500, and within range of $7000 which is my goal. I actually JUST noticed, as I was looking at my donors' cities in order to update my Donors Map (see older post for that) that I got a few donations this past week via checks. For checks sent in to the 4K office, I don't get an email informing me of the donation as I do for online donations, so I have to check back on my donor page to see if anyone donated. I also don't know how fast they are at putting the donations through on the 4K end once they receive the check, so I apologize if it has been a while! Thank you so much Mr. Dan and Mrs. Lois (Mr. Dan I have your email so you'll get a real thank-you), Anthony Bambace, and Cory Muscara!!

For future fundraising - Chelsea and I are going to have a "drunk bake sale" (us sitting on Rt. 1 outside of the bars and selling a bunch of goodies late at night, aka profiting off of the bad financial decisions of drunk college students). This will probably take place next weekend. Don't worry - we want to get a campus police officer to sit with us or sit close by to keep an eye on the safety of things. I also want to do a car wash in Bel Air at some point.

Gear -- I kind of went on a cycling buying spree and got a cool poster, shirt, and bumper sticker! I'll post a pic of the bumper sticker once I get it on my car.

Poster - now hanging next to our bikes :)

Awesome shirt to make a statement about cycling! I got it on Ebay for $9

When I got back from Chicago, Andrew's parents were nice enough to surprise me with the cycling glasses I wanted! Again it was Andrew that did all the research on the glasses for me. He narrowed it down to the top 3 and then asked me which I liked from there. I got the brand recommendation, Tifosi, from our new cycling friend Nick (thanks Nick!!). They are really cool and come with 3 different lenses which you can switch out depending on the weather: yellow for foggy weather (they increase resolution and visibility), red for overcast/cloudy weather (will increase contrast and brighten the surroundings), and black for regular sunny days (these are polarized to minimize glare from the road). I've tried all of the lenses and love them all!! I feel a little dorky with them on but also super sporty. They also have little vents at the top to keep them from getting hot on the inside, and they're also adjustable on the sides so I can fit them to my rather small head and then adjust them during the day if they ever feel too tight. Finally they also are supposedly quite indestructible. A video review on the website we got them from shows a guy hitting them with a hammer and they don't break. As you can imagine this is very important as I'm sure that these glasses will suffer a few falls and bumps between Baltimore and Portland!

Awesome new cycling glasses, with the yellow lenses.

Anyway, back in good old CP, I'm currently neglecting a ton of studying I have to do and the remainder of this week will be very busy for me. Early next week it will be clearing up, and that's when I hope to get in most of my calls to secure hosts for the ride. I want to get everything done before May. I think Chelsea and I will do a long ride this Saturday, so more on that this weekend :). I will continue getting myself get out there to train every day, and I hope that the sort of training plateau I've been in ends soon. Thanks as always for the support!!!

XOXO,
Mary