Welp. I started the P90X program yesterday (FINALLY!!) and managed to get through about 45 min of the Shoulders CD. I decided to leave out the “bonus” stuff for now. I’m going to go for a ride later today (I tend to ride better in warmer weather and don’t have arm/leg warmers for early morning rides). Unfortunately, as luck would have it, just as I get started into this stuff, I have to travel. My visa paperwork is finally arriving and I’ll likely have to trudge up to Canada to get my visa done as well as fly back to the US to go through Customs to get it the final stamp of approval. This will likely mean nearly a week on the road, no cycling. I can do the P90X, at least, in my hotel room so that’s one comfort. Once I’ve done that, then I’ll head to Seattle for a week (I also have a trip to Reston, VA scheduled for the first week of Dec). So, lots of travel.
I’ve been doing some reading for some cycling specific training and am looking at Chris Carmichael’s Time-Crunched Training Plan (using 6-8 hours a week to train for centuries and the like but not a professional athlete’s level). I want to get back into long distance cycling. I’m thinking of doing L.A. to San Diego and back either later this year or early next. I figure that would be roughly about 100 miles (give or take) each way and would be a good weekend project trip. I don’t know if I will do the San Fran to L.A. AIDS ride. My biggest concern is that you need to raise $3000 to participate. I know that’s for all the support options along with funds raised for both San Fran and L.A. but it may not necessarily be doable. My company offers a matching program as part of their charity efforts but that would still be a challenge. I’m not used to raising those kinds of funds. I haven’t completely discounted the ride but am still pondering it.
That said, for the 4 rides I did last week it equaled 4500 calories, 85 miles and nearly 9 hours of riding. Not bad for a start. If I can maintain that or improve upon that (I’m still using my single speed bike for now and would expect my mileage to increase with my geared touring bike), then I think I should be ok for returning back to the road again. I’ll probably go riding today but I’ll have to wait until my visa paperwork arrives (should be here before 3pm). It’s going to be warm today and I have to admit that I bike better in warmth than I do when it’s chilly.