Bakasana

Crow Pose 

- Strengthen your arms and wrists 

- Firm up your Abdominal muscles 

- Open your groin 

-Stretch your upper back 

- Find balance 

4 Minute Abs

Alternate between 20 seconds of Jackknife Sit-ups : 

Option 1)Rest for 10 seconds 

Option 2) Hover Feet above the floor for 10 seconds

Repeat 20:10 EIGHT times. 

Spinner 60 Minutes

The Oliver 1/2 Ironman is in 18 weeks...and training officially started yesterday!
My newest blog read is from a pro-cyclist Frayed Laces. 

Here is one of her Indoor Spin workouts that I tried last night...

5:00 at an easy pace

6:00 one leg drills done as 3x (1:00 right leg, 1:00 left leg

4:00 of : 30 spin ups (spin up to maximum rpm you can hold without bouncing), : 30 pedal easy

2:00 pedal easy

3:00 seated in big chain ring and 70 rpm, shift 1 gear bigger and stand up for 1:00. Pedal easy 1:00

Repeat above 3 more times (total of 20 minutes of these intervals)

Pedal easy 3:00

3:00 High cadence (100 rpm), Zone 4, then pedal easy 2:00

Repeat above 2 more times (total of 15 minutes of these intervals)

Cooldown: pedal easy for 5:00.

Notes: On the one-legged drills, focus on pedaling smoothly and maintaining your form. Your leg is going to want to “skip” on the hard part of the stroke (the upstroke) but that’s what you want to avoid. Try to pedal at your normal cadence. You will feel it in your core and hip flexors!

When you’re standing up you want hardly any weight/pressure on your hands. Shift your weight back to your legs and keep a strong core (no side to side wobbling!). You should feel like you should still be able to “play the piano” on your handlebars if you’re maintaining proper form.

Motivation Monday!

Speed Work

Last night my race coach took me through a great Interval Run on the seawall…

It went like this:

15 Minute Warm Up 

(Easy-medium pace where you would easily be able to hold a conversation)

200 Steps Medium-Fast Speed 

(No conversation possible here)

100 Steps Recover 

(Slow right down)

(X4)

15 Minute Cool-Down 

(or whatever it takes you to get home)

You can change this any way you like, either by adding in more or less steps or lengthening the warm-up or cool down. You could even just bust out the speed work on the last kilometer of a long run.

Just for kicks.

1/2 Ironman Vancouver 2011 

Coach... Troy xo 

Wild Thing!

Wild Thing, or Camatkarasana, is a favourite of mine as it is a combination of MAJOR heart and hip opening… two areas that tend to hold onto stress and lock in emotions. 

Because you are really expanding through the chest and hip flexors, the therapeutic benefits include relief of fatigue and minor depression. As an added bonus, this pose also builds strength in the shoulders and upper back.

Check out this video to see a one sequence to get you going WILD! 

Cypress Snowshoe #ladiesonly

A few weekends ago me and my girlfriends went for a Saturday Snowshoe up Cypress Mountain.

It was such a gorgeous, sunny day we were shedding layers of clothing like crazy as we trudged our way to the top.

Basically the trail starts out with a couple of small rolling hills and maybe one switchback, and then launches into a full on climb up three peaks… so you climb, rest, climb, rest, climb, and finally REST!

The view was 180’ of pure amazingness.

Gossip and Glutes. Gotta love it.

Post Workout: Green Smoothie

Green Smoothie:

1 Cup ice

1 Cup Rice/Almond/Soy Milk

1 Banana

BIG handful of spinach

½ can chopped Pineapple chunks (you can use the juice too)

½ peeled cucumber

(you might need to add a little more water depending on how thick yours turns out…)

http://eatingappalachia.com/