The workout is to be completed just like the song, where you start with one, then go to two and back down to one, then 3, 2, 1, then 4, 3 ,2 , 1, and so on.

The workout goes like this:

On the first day of Christmas, my sick and twisted true love gave to me 1 minute in the plank pose.

On the second day of Christmas, my sick and twisted true love gave to me 2 minutes sprinting on the stationary bike, and 1 minute in the plank pose.

On the third day of Christmas, my sick and twisted true love gave to me 3 pull-ups, 2 minutes sprinting on the stationary bike, and 1 minute in the plank pose.

On the fourth day of Christmas, my sick and twisted true love gave to me 4 dips on the dip stand, 3 pull-ups, 2 minutes sprinting on the stationary bike, and 1 minute in the plank pose.

On the fifth day of Christmas, my sick and twisted true love gave to me 5 golden ring rows, 4 dips on the dip stand, 3 pull-ups, 2 minutes sprinting on the stationary bike, and 1 minute in the plank pose.

On the sixth day of Christmas, my sick and twisted true love gave to me 6 barbell thrusters, 5 golden ring rows, 4 dips on the dip stand, 3 pull-ups, 2 minutes sprinting on the stationary bike, and 1 minute in the plank pose.

On the seventh day of Christmas, my sick and twisted true love gave to me 7 push-ups, 6 barbell thrusters, 5 golden ring rows, 4 dips on the dip stand, 3 pull-ups, 2 minutes sprinting on the stationary bike, and 1 minute in the plank pose.

On the eighth day of Christmas, my sick and twisted true love gave to me 8 frog jumps, 7 push-ups, 6 barbell thrusters, 5 golden ring rows, 4 dips on the dip stand, 3 pull-ups, 2 minutes sprinting on the stationary bike, and 1 minute in the plank pose. 

[At Day 8, Chris was heard exclaiming: "Oh my God! Jesus!"]

On the ninth day of Christmas, my sick and twisted true love gave to me 9 Russian kettlebell swings, 8 frog jumps, 7 push-ups, 6 barbell thrusters, 5 golden ring rows, 4 dips on the dip stand, 3 pull-ups, 2 minutes sprinting on the stationary bike, and 1 minute in the plank pose.

On the tenth day of Christmas, my sick and twisted true love gave to me 10 lunges, 9 Russian kettlebell swings, 8 frog jumps, 7 push-ups, 6 barbell thrusters, 5 golden ring rows, 4 dips on the dip stand, 3 pull-ups, 2 minutes sprinting on the stationary bike, and 1 minute in the plank pose.

On the eleventh day of Christmas, my sick and twisted true love gave to me 11 dip stand knee raises, 10 lunges, 9 Russian kettlebell swings, 8 frog jumps, 7 push-ups, 6 barbell thrusters, 5 golden ring rows, 4 dips on the dip stand, 3 pull-ups, 2 minutes sprinting on the stationary bike, and 1 minute in the plank pose.

On the twelfth day of Christmas, my sick and twisted true love gave to me 12 burpees, 11 dip stand knee raises, 10 lunges, 9 Russian kettlebell swings, 8 frog jumps, 7 push-ups, 6 barbell thrusters, 5 golden ring rows, 4 dips on the dip stand, 3 pull-ups, 2 minutes sprinting on the stationary bike, and 1 minute in the plank pose.

When it was all said and done, the totals were:

• 12 burpees
• 22 knee raises
• 30 lunges
• 36 KB swings
• 40 frog hops
• 42 pushups
• 42 thrusters
• 40 ring rows
• 36 dips
• 30 pull-ups
• 22 min on the bike
• 12 min in the plank position

The hardest part for me was holding the plank in the latter part of the workout — I switched between hands and knees. And with the volume, I used only the bar for thrusters (no additional weight), used a 16 kg KB, and did regressions when needed (e.g., negatives instead of strict pull-ups).

Here’s a photo of a sweaty and tired me after the workout was finished!

Today Placid Athletes did a group bike trainer workout followed by strength training!

Results:  16 out of 90 among the female teams, with a time of 2:35:37.5 (faster than last year’s time of 2:42:41)

As they put it on their website, “The Urban Assault Ride™ is the biggest bicycle scavenger hunt series in the nation! Here’s how it works: You and your teammate will set out on a city-wide quest for ‘checkpoints’ on your favorite two-wheeled steeds.  At each checkpoint, you’ll drop your bikes and complete a funky/adventurous obstacle course, then remount your bikes and hit the streets for more.  The goal is to complete all the checkpoints in the shortest amount of time. You choose your own route and checkpoint order. ”

Start/Finish: Fiesta Gardens Park

Off-Limit Streets: (These streets can be crossed but not ridden. Bike lanes on these streets are permitted.)

• Mopac (Loop 1)
• I-35, 290
• Lamar
• Guadalupe between 24th and 45th

This year’s Obstacle Checkpoints were the following (Checkpoints can be reached in ANY order)

• Ozone – 3202 Guadalupe St # C
• REI downtown -  601 N. Lamar Blvd
• Rowing Dock – 2418 Stratford Drive
• Pease Park – 1100 Kingsbury St.
• Rogue - 500 San Marcos
• Bicycle Sport Shop- 517 South Lamar Boulevard
• Metz Pool – 2407 Canterbury St

Mystery Checkpoints: There were 2 mystery checkpoints which all teams had to locate in addition to the obstacle checkpoints above. The first clue was a photo of a big red boot, and that was the clue that led us to Allen’s Boots on South Congress.  The clue there was something along the lines of “Jim Carrey, minus scary, to east 6th St.”  This second mystery checkpoint was Jim Jim’s water ice at 615 E 6th St in downtown.

Our strategy was to go first to the initial mystery check point so we would have info on the second mystery check point and make a decision about checkpoint order.  We had to think some about the clue for the 2nd checkpoint, so we decided to go on west to some other checkpoints until we had it figured out.  We covered the checkpoints in this order, and they had the following obstacles:

• Allen’s Boots — Get the clue, and a piece of beef jerky that we have to turn in at mystery checkpoint #2
• Bicycle Sport Shop — ride the big wheels!
• The Rowing Dock — “hillbilly raft ride” is what they called it.  We had to jump into the river on some innertubes tied together and paddle around a buoy shaped like Shamu, and then return to the dock.
• REI – 3 legged obstacle course — tie partners’ legs together with a bike tube and go over and under some poles, and through a hula hoop
• Pease Park – use the bike tube sling shot and shoot some Keen shoes into a shopping bag
• Ozone Bikes — put together a puzzle that shows the Clif Bar logo, and then lift that tower of blocks overhead without it falling down (not easy, let me tell you!)
• Jim Jim’s — turn in the beef jerky
• Rogue Equipment — one person rides on the handlebars of a BMX bike while the other one pedals
• Metz Pool – jump in the water and retrieve 3 different varieties of New Belgium beer

Unfortunately, I did not get any good photos due to technical difficulties with my smart phone, but the Statesman has some pretty good pics here.

I won’t say the conditions were pleasant, though, but that’s due to the wind.  The swim was the worst part of the race, due to a lot of chop in the water.  A lot of folks were having poor (panic attack) swims, and mine was definitely worse than what I typically do at this race (this was my 3rd time to do the Pflug tri).   The first half of the swim was noticeably more choppy, but coming back in to shore the water seemed to smooth out a bit. In any case, the chop was coming from behind on the second half, which is always better than having waves in the face.

The bike course starts out for a short distance in the north direction, so there was a good tail wind, but as soon as you make the first right turn, BOOM!  Major wind.  Another right turn a few miles in, and it is full on headwind.  The best part of the bike course is later, on a slightly downhill straightaway along the freeway frontage road with a pure tailwind, and speeds >30 mph.  You have to love that!  Then back a couple of miles toward the lake there are more winds to be fought before a final tailwind into transition.  A lot of people were really surprised by the severity of the winds, and I have to say that although we’ve experienced some windy conditions out there, it was at least as bad as — if not worse — than the worst training days we’ve had on the course.

The run is on a crushed granite trail around the lake, so flat and kind of twisty-turny, with (again) multiple changes with respect to direction from which the wind is coming.  Hats were flying off of runners.

Even though I was disappointed in my swim, the bike/run were good, and I felt solid.  Some days the legs just feel good, and this was one of those days!  I don’t have my official time, but it looks like it will come in slower than previous years based on my watch splits.  But that’s okay, it was a solid effort in difficult conditions.

Next on the agenda: post-race massage and ice bath!

This morning I got an evaluation from a chiropractor who also does A.R.T. therapy, and he identified weakness in my right gluteus medius as the cause of my recent hip trouble.  He worked on the tissue a bit to get me moving better and then gave me some hip strengthening exercises to work on to rebalance my hips.  The left one is fine, but the right glute is not firing properly.

This is all good news from my perspective.  First, it confirmed what I already believed to be the problem, and second, I have a defined path for correcting the problem.  I’m going to stick with swimming for few more days, and then see how things are feeling.

I have a race on Halloween, so I’m hoping to be good to go by then.

As the conversation went on, I suggested: “Maybe there is a triathlon in your future?”  She said, “Oh, I don’t know.  You see I really don’t like to run. “  Now this was surprising to me, because this woman was a breast cancer survivor, and years ago when she had healed from the cancer she lost weight, got fit, and developed a reputation as a runner.  So with a confused look on my face I said, “but I thought you were a runner?” and she explained that she had “only done one marathon.”

We talked a bit about bikes, and fixing flat tires, and she told a story about getting a flat on the way home from a ride, and not getting home until after dark.  Notwithstanding the flat tires, she said, “Riding my bike makes me happy, like when I was a kid.  I’ve just never felt that way about any other exercise, but cycling really brings me joy.”

This is key to finding a way to be be consistently active.  You have to do what’s fun! A friend of mine told me she wanted to train for a 10k running race, but when we discussed it more and I questioned her about why she wanted to train for the race, she admitted that she didn’t even like running.  So why the heck would she want to go about and run 3-4 times a week to train for a running race, anyway?  Well, that’s what other people are doing so she felt she should, too.  But if you just do not like the activity, you aren’t likely to do it, and you are setting yourself up for failure. Find what is fun for you, and do that.  This also means trying new activities — maybe rowing, or rock-climbing, or a team sport such as soccer — because it may be that you discover new things you really love more than any of your current activities.

Of course, at the end of the conversation with my colleague who has rediscovered the joys of cycling, she did finally say:  “Well, maybe I’ll do a triathlon!”

On the Ride

Cows

Today’s ride was the Liberty Hill Rip Roarin’ Ride, starting and ending in Liberty Hill, TX, a little bit north of Austin.  We did the 50-mile route.

I hadn’t done this ride before, but it would be worth doing again.  The course was composed of country roads, generally in pretty good condition, although there was one patch that was in significant disrepair.   The course seemed not as hilly as I was expecting, although the second half was hillier than the first, with a couple of short, challenging hills, but overall just some rollers.

We also passed through Oatmeal, TX.  Apparently they have an oatmeal festival there each Labor Day.

Luckily we had good weather:  not too hot, not too cold, but just right.  More importantly, we were not rained out.  We’ve had some serious thunderstorm action in Austin this past week, so I was concerned about the possibility of more heavy rain.  One day last week on my bike commute, I had 30 minutes solid in a downpour, which is never fun.

The meadows were quite green for this time of year, given all the rain we have had the past few months — usually everything is parched and brown in September in central Texas.  We saw goats, cows, and horses grazing.  And there was also a vulture “grazing” on a dead armadillo right in the middle of the road.  Ewww.

I also had the pleasure of visiting for a few minutes with a long-time colleague who was also out on the ride!  Trish is an exemplary Placid Athlete — always tranquil, yet taking care of business.     Good to see you on the course, Trish!

As we rolled into the finish, there were a couple of cyclists (triathletes!) going for a post-ride run.  Awesome. Getting in a good brick workout.  They may very well be training for the upcoming Austin 70.3 race in October.

Oatmeal, Texas

Zebras!

This ride is called “the Pflugerville Zebra ride” because it passes by this place with the zebras, but in the 20 or so times I have done it, I’ve never actually seen them.  I have no clue why there are any zebras here in central Texas, but there you have it.

I’m still hoping to go on “the duck-billed platypus ride,” but maybe I’ll just have to take a trip across the pond for that one…