Finding my Footing

It's been quite a couple of months. I thought I'd be posting to my blog and sharing more with you guys, but honestly, I lost a lot of motivation during this time, especially with classes and creating content. I've found myself back at the piano and on the bike, the two things that provide clarity for me right now.

Piano is great for the soul, but the bike...what am I training for? Why am I putting all of these hours on the bike? Why did I stop running?

Exercise has always provided a way out for me. A way to disconnect from everything else. I would ride outside more, but with the bike trails clogging up and the recent and interesting increase of absent-minded/giving-no-regards-to-cyclists driving on the roads here, I figured it would be safer to stick to the trainer. Plus, since my trainer is the only piece of equipment giving me power data, it helps me focus on my training and keep track of my progress.

Again, what for? There are no races right now, and it's hard to tell when the next race is going to happen.

Before doing my first triathlon, I spent over a year, if not more, just training, building my up my general fitness and confidence to race. Since then, I've always been training for something, with a fixed date in mind. While having no races on the schedule did throw me off a bit (sending me down the rabbit hole of racing 5 stages of Zwift's Tour of Wattopia in about 3 weeks), it did give me some guidance that I didn't expect.

I've always went back and forth between triathlon and cycling, and in 2019 I focused purely on training for the 70.3 distance. Since there are no triathlons this year and a chunk of triathlons are determined by the bike (and then the run), I figured why not focus on my bike right now. My swim fitness is essentially in the trash, as there's no swim access for me and bands only work on shoulder mobility and muscle memory. And my run fitness comes and goes, which helps me sustain my ability to run in the long-term (given my history of hip surgery and calf issues).

It also helps that there are virtual races that I can focus on, such USA Cycling's Virtual Race League. IRONMAN also has their virtual races every weekend at the moment, but since I haven't been running much, I decided not to participate in IM VR.

Racing virtually also provides me the chance to spice things up in my base training phase. While sweet spot intervals are challenging and are different from workout to workout physically and sometimes mentally, it's good to have something that challenges me even more mentally. Zwift racing is not the same as real-life racing, but practicing strategies and planning for races can transfer over once racing in real-life gets going again.

Even though it's great that I have this training and virtual racing to focus on, but what about...you know homework and other slightly more prevalent issues?

I'd be lying if I said I was doing just fine. This has been my major pitfall this quarantine. I was alright with it at the start, but at some point I just lost my self-discipline and slid right down the black hole of avoiding and procrastinating on lectures, homework sets, and projects. I have one class that was consistently a live-lecture, which forced me to stay on top of work, and one class that I already had my "final" for and have a project that's due in about 10 days. But there's one class where I fell super behind in, and 1 day behind became 8 days behind (now down to 6).

Right now, I'm starting to put things into perspective for myself, just like I did for my training: 2 more weeks (plus one final) of classes for this semester, and then I'll have a summer off of classes (most likely). And after this semester finishes, I have one more year of coursework before completing my degree. Plus, doing the best that I can right now will put me in a better starting position mentally in the fall than this past spring. Don't get me wrong, it is super hard as it is to stay disciplined and on top of my work, but I know that it's nearly over and everything will be okay.

What about this blog and 1RPM in general?

It's still going! Maybe I'm not putting out as much content as I hoped (and I'm still working on the nutrition series), but the purpose of 1RPM is put out quality content and good information for all of you guys to read, which takes time. Apart from this quick update, and the work-in-progress nutrition series, I didn't feel like I had much to share with everyone.

However, if you itching for content and some motivation (or an opportunity to heckle me in a race setting 😎) there's a new thing coming on the horizon: watching me race in the USA Cycling virtual race league! I'm testing my streaming platforms this next couple of days, and getting my equipment (hopefully before Wednesday), so that you guys get to watch me suffer and get dropped off the front group before the halfway point of the race.

Throwback to last week's race pain face

The link to this week's live stream is: https://youtu.be/tseBDSoqHNo

(This link will be up on the Instagram bio link also!)

If there's anything you guys want me to share about myself or dig into for the next post, I'm always open to ideas. I'm here for everyone here and support everyone's journies in fitness and training.

That's all for today! Stay sane, stay safe, stay healthy, everyone, and don't forget to dance to the music 😉

--Anna

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Learn more about:

USA Cycling Virtual Race League

IRONMAN Virtual Club