Awkward Yoga

After I recovered from my morning ride, I hopped on over to Bally for a newly established Yoga class.

Worst Yoga class I've ever been to. Worst.

Transitions from one pose to another were awkward and choppy. He wanted us to jump from pose to pose at one point. I was a rebel and just walked my feet around. RaWr. There was no flow from one muscle group to another. He would often add random things like..."oh right here loosen your hips by thrusting, and then circle" right in the middle of warrior pose. Are you for realz? Last I checked, hip thrusting is something Michael Jackson does. Not a yogi. He had us do that even though we spent the first 20 mins of class stretching the legs and hip flexors.

He didn't know names of poses. "I think this is called cow pose"

I think he made up a pose that he called "Oriental Squat". In which we were squatting they way the Chinese do it to avoid sitting on the ground or to go to the bathroom.


HAY. It looks weird and awkward, but it's SANITARY. Anyway I didn't know whether to be offended or honored that he made up this pose and named it after orientals. I think I'm more offended.

I was pretty annoyed by the end of it. My energy was not flowing anywhere but to my head, and he never gave us breathing instructions. Which is usually half the reason I like to go to Yoga. It helps me regain even breathing.

Grr. Oh well. Never going back.

Bike Barn Ride

I have mixed feelings about the Bike Barn chain, but they put on free weekend rides so I went to check it out this morning. The ride was pretty cool. It was a 24 mile ride starting in Rice Village, going through the Heights, Downtown, Med Center and back up to Rice Village. There are a few over passes, so you get a little bit of elevation change and some great views of downtown.


What was great is that everyone there was a seasoned rider. About 25-30 people this morning, so you could easily find someone to talk to and ride with. I am not so fast, so I stuck to the back as to not get crowded and then ended up catching some red lights. I spent most of the ride with 3 others. Luckily two of them do this ride every week and knew the way well. I had trouble sticking to them sometimes. It was good for me to work hard and keep up. I was dependent on them for directions. So pretty good workout.

It really showed me how my skill had decreased and how out of practice I was. I was slow to clip in, forgot to bring electrolytes(oops), and was tired by the end of the ride. I forgot to turn on the computer, thus I have no idea what my avg speed was or how fast I was going at any time. I think that was good actually. I didn't think about speed and just focused on my form and keeping up with the group. I do know we finished in under just under 2hrs. Next time I'll try to stick with the pack and not lag behind.

Met some nice people. One was a Hanszen '79 graduate now Psychiatrist. Meeting people is half the fun sometimes.

Being Pro Means...

Peeing off the bike.

Yea you heard me. If you're a pro or even up there in cat 2 or 1, then you've peed off your bike. When you watch a tour on TV the stages are condensed into 2 hours so I would forget that actually these guys are on their bikes for 5 hrs. Well when it hit me, the first thing I wonder was...when do these guys pee? I mean you can't get off to stop and pee. Waste of time right?

So of course, little naive me asked my friends that might know anything -
"How do the pros stay on the bike for so long without a pee break?"

Answers I got were:
"Catheters?"
"Careful monitoring of water intake." (which is reasonable, but easily botched)
"They stop...how do they not stop?" (I was hoping you'd know...)

For a while I stuck with the idea: drink as much as you sweat. But recently through magazine perusing and reading Living the Dream. I was kicked out of my little bubble. This is what's in the 3 hrs they cut out when they broadcast the tours! Oh well, I guess it's not the end of the world that cyclists are a little less classy.

Seriously though I can't imagine that it'd be that easy to race AND pee off the side of your bike. I bet opportunities arise when you and a teammate can stop and take a whiz break then get back into the pack, but what about those guys in the break away? Do some riders fall off the break cause they need to pee really bad?

And then you wonder what the female pros do...


hahaha.

Which Magazine?

So when I joined Performance Bike, it came with a free subscription to Bicycling Magazine which I loved to read. But after about a year my experience grew and so did my taste for all aspects of the sport. I needed a different kind of magazine. I did a little shopping around and found that the two more prevalent American cycling magazines were Road Bike Action and Cycle Sport America.

Subscribe. Subscribe.

Ultimately I'll pick one to stick with for a few years because 3 cycling magazines a month is too many. Here are my opinions after reading at least 3 magazines of each company.

Bicycling Magazine
Great magazine for the beginner cyclist. It gives tips on eating right, workouts to improve performance, bike fit, basic bike maintenance, and landmarks to visit for the traveling cyclist. One of my favorite articles was the 109 Cycling Rites of Passage in the November 2009 issue. Bicycling magazine also provided lots of bike reviews for the average cyclist and personal stories on how cycling had changed people's lives. It is a fun and inspiring magazine. Only this past year did I notice that it had taken on articles regarding races and how the professionals ride. Maybe the writers had done so before, but generally the articles were geared towards riders who put on average 40 miles on their bikes at a time. You can subscribe for as little as $1 a copy or go online and get about 25% of their articles for free. After a year, I grew out of it, had started watching the pros, and needed to garner experience from the more serious cyclist.

Road Bike Action (RBA)
The feel of RBA is really down to earth and practical. It is the magazine that you pick up if you want to read articles about the history of SRAM and Mavic, learn what it's like to race on the same team as your brother, and understand the pressures of being the son of a former race champ. They review only the top of the line bikes from manufactures you've heard of once upon a moon and seek out professionals you never would known about otherwise. They also do a few articles for the female cyclist which I appreciate. They don't touch on bike maintenance or work out techniques, if you read this magazine those facts should already be ingrained in your head. At $15.99 for 9 issues a year, RBA is a good deal but don't expect much on aesthetics.

Cycle Sport America
When you open one of these babies, every page catches your eye and you can't wait to read this magazine from cover to cover. The visual hooks and captions are enough to reel you in. This magazine takes it all the way to the top. They interview the best of the best - Cancellara, Armstrong, Contador, Schelck - and their staff of columnists are professional, witty, clever, and my favorite - sarcastic. You definitely feel the wisdom of the writers and know that the magazine values their opinion. Is this magazine: Funny? Yes. Artistic? Yes. Serious? For sure. At $44.99 for 12 issues a year, Cycle Sport is not cheap but totally worth it. I thoroughly enjoy reading this magazine. This is one for the serious cyclist.

So what's my pick? Probably Cycle Sport America. I think the only thing I'd miss from RBA are the articles highlighting the history of cycling companies and cyclists. Knowledge from a decade where I had yet to exist. Maybe I'll switch out between the two from time to time or maybe I'll seek out some other cycling magazines when I get bored of these.

Out of Shape

Yesterday I realized the full meaning of being "Out of Shape". Of course I'd been pretty flabby for most of my life. A 12 minute mile had always been a struggle for me, but now I know what it feels like to be "out of shape" after having been "in shape". And it feels bad. I once peeled through 6 miles in 20 mins but now it takes me 25. I don't even want to know what my 5k time has increased to.

It's time to pick an event, sign up, and start training again. Luckily it's August and awesome Fall weather will start up soon. Yay.