The Bayfield Adventure.

So, my apologies for the lack of posting. My school is coming to an end and I’m quite busy dotting the “I”s. the biggest update I have for you is that I did another mock trip this weekend! Unfortunately Zach was working and we couldn’t take the tandem anyway because it was in the shop, so I went with Cody Johnson, a friend from Marshall.

We both decided to do a fun Memorial Weekend ride and Bayfield, 90 miles into Wisconsin, was a good choice. We had a really tough head wind most of the way so our average wasn’t that great and it was fairly cold, but we still made it! Tomorrow we will be heading back to Duluth to get a nice 180 mile round trip. Keep in mind, that 90 miles a day is really really close to what Zach and I will need to average and these longer rides that I’m going on is just making me feel more confident.

Wish us luck with our tail wind on the way home and I will do my best to write about some fun adventures when I get back.

A Harbor City Day

So today Zach and I spent some time at the YMCA welcoming the Harbor City kids to come and check out the YMCA and its many opportunities. We chatted with some great people, and motivates some others. All in all it was great to start to reach out to the community and to see some excited faces. Along with this great time, came our wonderfully designed poster board, made by Mollie, which will be set up in the lobby at the YMCA.

Enjoying Spring, Finally

Spring is finally upon us! Yesterday and today we, Duluth, have been blessed with some warm weather! Yesterday it got up to about 55 degrees and today it is in the middle 60s. In other words, it is perfect biking time! Yesterday Zach and I took “Cilantro” out for a 30 miler where we averaged a little above 18 miles an hour. We started up in Piedmont and made our way down to the Munger Trail which, unfortunately, is still fairly snow covered. So, we continued onto Gary to Zach’s house and then we spun around and went home. It took us about 1:40 and we felt pretty good. Today, Zach is working so I went out at about 2:00 for a wonderful bike ride on my dad’s nice Cannondale. It was a 27 mile ride heading over on Hermantown Road and connecting with Solway Rd. No traffic whatsoever and a beautiful afternoon to enjoy. I took that out to Pike Lake and around and headed back to my house. I averaged about 19 miles an hour and it took me a little under an hour and a half. I encourage all of you to get out for a little while during these nice few days that we have, because you never know how much snow we will be getting next week. Have a great weekend and stay healthy.

P.S. If you ever want to join up and bike a few miles together, do not hesitate to shoot an email our way. We are beyond excited to start meeting and getting to know some of the biking community so let us know! Thanks!

Another Great Day for Biking

We got some more miles in! Leading up to our trip this weekend we wanted to get out onto the bike again. It was a beautiful day to do so too! About 50 degrees according to the temperature gauge in my Prius which might be faulty, but it felt warm! Anyway, we cruised down from 24th to Grand Ave and took that all the way out to 98th ave W. Then we spun around after indulging in a couple Cliff bars and sped home. Instead of going up 24th we decided to go up 59th and get onto Highland and from Highland to Stebner and from Stebner to Hermantown Road. Over all it was 25 miles, and subtracting the time it took us to feast and take off a layer of warm clothing, brought our time to roughly 1:20. If you are reading this and are mathematically impaired, no worries, we crunched the numbers. We averaged about 18.75 miles per hour, but taking into consideration stop lights it was most likely up around 19. If we continued this pace, we would reach our goal of 100 miles in 5 hours and 20 minutes. Of course, this will be lengthened with a loaded bike, but I think it shouldn’t be too bad. We will have to see how our trip turns out this weekend. We will keep you guys updated! Happy peddling.

The First of Many

And we finally hit the roads! A whopping 40 degrees cracked us out of our biking hibernation and onto the pavement. It was a little rickety getting going and trying to cooperate, but once we got going we were like a well oiled engine. We knocked off 14.6 miles but seeing Duluth is a mountain and we went down, back up, down, and back up again, it wasn’t half bad. Not only was this first trip out in the bike a good learning curve for us, but our excitement for this trip just escalated exponentially. We are both exercise fanatics and the work out and the fun of riding this bike is right up our alley. The weather is starting to become a lot nicer and with it, will come more and more miles. Next week will be even nicer because I will start biking down to school and Zach and I will be able to get biking right away with the weight of all our books in our bags. In conclusion, today was awesome and we can’t wait for more. Bring it on.

The Will to Exercise

Personally I think the hardest thing about getting yourself out to exercise is simply getting out the door. The will to get out of that comfortable “lazy boy” and away from your new favorite show on Netflix is tough, I know, but there has to be some ways that you can force yourself to get out and exercise.

1. Start something new! Don’t do the same old boring run that you do every morning, go for an adventure run or hop on a bike. Another idea would be to search for recreational leagues locally of sports you haven’t tried. This builds excitement towards what you are doing just like doing something different at work makes time go by faster. Moral of the story, don’t work out in a cubicle.

2. Phone a friend! Companionship is key when you are terrorizing your muscles. If you have someone with you so you both can endure the pain together, the pain becomes more manageable. *Tip* Always tell your friend the work out you did is one of the hardest ones that you have done. Then they’ll come back.

3. Don’t take all day! We live busy lives. Correction: We live overwhelming lives, and the idea of taking an hour out of your day to just put yourself in cardiovascular pain does not sound that appealing. Good news for you is that there are many work outs that take under 20 minutes to finish and they cram in the same amount of a heart work out! What I’m trying to say is, do not let exercise take up your whole day, just spend a little bit of time on it and see where it gets you. *tip* If you are stressed out with who knows what, exercise can be a great reliever of that stress. The bottom line is once you exercise a little, it is a lot easier to conquer what you need to get done for the day. So maybe taking 20 minutes to an  hour a day to work out will save you time in the long run.

4. Write it down! Everyone who exercises knows that progress can be slow, but it is still progress! Write down certain data that you want to improve upon. Maybe your weight, distance, time, intensity, or even overall health. Write it down and keep track and you will find that once you can look back upon what you have achieved, it will be a lot easier to continue your performance and achieve more.

I hope that these simple suggestions help you roll away from Netflix and burn a few calories, but make sure to always have fun! *If it’s not fun, then change something to make it fun. But, unfortunately, it can always be fun. Stay Healthy.

P.S. Those of you that are frustrated that I just gave you legitimate reasons to get out and be active, keep checking our blog, because coming soon is “how to reward yourself.”

The Perfect Way to Intensify Your Workout

I was doing a wonderful workout down at my local YMCA today when I got to thinking about my exercise routine. For this day especially I was just sitting on the spin bike on an average gear and peddling away. Yeah, my heart rate was at about 170 or so which is pretty good for endurance training, but I wanted to find a simple way to spice up my workout.

At the time I was listening to “Fall Out Boy”, just another rock band that’s a little out of date, but still keeps me from falling asleep on the bike. After a few songs I realized that the perfect way to up your workout is to add difficulty during the chorus of the song. I know, I know it sounds childish, but if you think about it, it makes great sense.

1. The chorus is a climax part of the song and is a more powerful energizer than the verse.

2. On average the chorus is about 20-30 seconds long which is a great time span to do a sprint or a “stand up” on a bike or whatever will push your workout to the next level.

3. You don’t need a watch or a timer or anything! (Except for the music of course) You just need to listen and this allows you to focus more on other factors of your workout like form, heart rate, distance, or even the scenery.

4. To top off each song there is usually a chorus right at the very end, but it will commonly be repeated two or three times to really extend your sprint time.

I know this sounds likes fairly simple idea, but it is an easy, fun, yet fatiguing way to push your workouts. Here is an idea for a bike ride with this song technique.

Bike ride:

Warm up- first two songs

Sprint chorus- one song
Steady- one song
Stand up (tough gear)- one song
Steady- two songs

SET ABOVE IS x2

Cool down- two songs

Total time: give or take 45:00