Mantra.  We’ve heard the word.  We’ve all heard of the mantra “Om”. Ommmmmmmm.  A spoken mantra, or a silent mantra, is frequently used as an aid to meditation, focusing your attention.

Mantras are also useful when you’re out on the road or up on one of the Keiser M3s.

One phrase I hear every now and then at Global Ride is “Always Finish Strong“.  Dig deep, and Finish Strong.  For whatever reason, that phrase resonates with me.

You’re in minute 18 of a 20 minute power threshold test.  Your heart rate is edging close to Zone 5.  Only 2 minutes left.  Dig deep, and Finish Strong.

You’re wrapping up an outdoor workshop.  You’re almost to the top of Edgecliff (what a name for a road.  what a hill!), with your chest about to explode, but Gino is riding next to you saying “There’s always a little left in the tank.  Finish Strong.”

You’re doing Yoga and Kelly decides we’re going to do a sequence of Sun Salutations.  The arms are screaming, but we’re almost done.  Finish Strong.

You’re at King’s, and there’s an Angry Mob dessert in front of you. Finish… er, you probably don’t want to finish that one.

I’ve talked about a lot of stuff that I’ve learned during my first five months at Global Ride:

* Show up, and then keep coming back
* Be in touch with your heart
* Pay attention to your power
* Combine the indoor and the outdoor.  Combine the heart and the watt.

But all that work and application of technology has to be for some reason.  It can’t exist in a vacuum, otherwise you get bored and move on to the next shiny thing.  These are tools that exist for a reason.  It’s like collecting hammers, but never nailing anything.

Having a goal, a goal that is out of your immediate reach, is a great motivator.  It gives a direction to your activity.  I want to ride a MS 150.  I want to lose 40 pounds.  I want to climb Edgecliff.  Using these tools will get you to the goal.  It won’t happen immediately, it’ll take work, but you will get there.  The last bit is always hard.  So you have to dig deep, and Finish Strong.

And then when you Finish, it’s time to smile and take pride in your work.  Then pick the next Goal.  We wouldn’t want life to get boring.

Wow, where have I been? December 23rd was my last post? Really? A lot has gone down since then. Actually, a “lot” might be a stretch, but at least a few things have…

On the evening of December 23rd I got engaged, so yay for me. Though that’s totally irrelevant to this blog as a health/fitness thingamajig, on with it!

I have graduated from the world of Acclimation classes to the not-so-different world of Base Building. An extra 10 minutes of the grind, but otherwise the same. I’ve been fairing well, doing more and requiring more from my body to reach the same heart rates that previously came quick. I seem to be recovering a bit swifter as well, which is a real highlight of the training. I used to walk up a flight of stairs and be winded for 24 hours. Now I catch my breath in 18-20. My next metabolic/heart rate test is scheduled for a week or two from now, so once that goes down we’ll really be able to see if I’m progressing or whether I just feel like I am. Or maybe I’ve been lying about the whole thing…

On the work front, we’ve officially received our shipment of Global Ride Virtual Cycling DVDs and launched that new site to tell the world all about their majesty. They really do look good and are a nice product, so we’re pretty excited about everything that is going on. Pick one up. I’ll come give you a hug. (1 mile traveling limit applies)

Please check out Global Ride’s online store here. Our virtual cycling training DVDs kick the pants off the competitors. Literally. Try one, see what happens to the pants of the other DVDs you have. Try one in a class setting and pants will be flying every which way. Virtual cycling DVDs will never be the same, oh no – not after the quality we offer.

So anyway, I missed a day of Spinning thanks to the fantastic stomach flu that paraded around in my body for a while. It caused me quite a lot of grief, caused me to vomit at the table of one of the nicest restaurants in Pittsburgh and caused my girlfriend to catch it from me. That’s a lot of cause. The effect is when I did return to the old stiff saddle yesterday, I wasn’t quite as rigorous as the few days before it. Unfortunately for you, that means this post is over.

The only thing more difficult than an out of shape person Spinning is an out of shape, inhumanly inflexible person following Spinning with a heaping dose of ball class. Attempting to keep balance and stretch out on stability balls is something I originally didn’t want to try, but the persistent ladies of the MWF Spin class forced me into it. Thanks to their nagging, I can say I don’t regret it, and will be back next week.

Some things were harder than others, obviously. I should include a picture of this, because it’s hard to explain, as my previous adjective “inhuman” is fairly accurate. When I sit, or position myself on my back, I can hardly stick my leg out straight because of my super tight hamstrings. Attempting to lift my leg in the air to any degree results in a bend at the knee. The further I attempt to raise, the further it bends, until it’s past a 90 degree angle. I’ll have to get some pictures up here for sure, because I need you to really see what I’m talking about. All this inflexibility made the ball class surprisingly challenging, but I can see how it will provide future rewards if I stick with it as an after-Spin routine.

Today was the day of reckoning. Actually, that’s ridiculously overdramatic. It was just a day where I decided to push the limits of what I normally do during class. To date I have been maintaining a heart rate of a modest 125ish during my training. My response to this is that things have been a bit boring. It’s exceptionally easy for a deconditioned person to achieve a heart rate of 125, and I haven’t been able to participate with the rest of the group during the standing climbs, runs, and all that other good stuff that keeps your mental and physical momentum going. With Gene out of town for the past week and a half, I haven’t remembered to ask if it was suitable for me to up my heart rate a bit more and actually do some exercise.

So, I just took the liberty of doing so. Hopefully that’s cool, Gene. If not… tough, I guess. I can’t un-exercise. Well, I suppose I could go get a Double Whopper or something. That’d do it.

Therefore I rode with the team. I stood on the climbs. I kept my cadence where I was told to. I certainly assume my resistance isn’t as high as the other people, but my little rickets are far from handling high levels of resistance. But I did feel better after today’s session than I had after any other. I sweat profusely during class, and while I once said I’d rather be covered in a gallon of warm tobacco chewer’s spit than covered in sweat, it was indicative of my effort. I’m ready to keep going.

I suppose that’s all she wrote at the moment, so stay tuned for tomorrow.

I’ve been slacking this week as far as updates go. I should be dragged out back and beaten with a reed. The reason is valid enough, however, as I’ve been very focused and rooted in getting Cycling Fusion up and running. We launched more of the site yesterday, and things are continuing to progress. There is still a very long road ahead in getting everything together, but at least now we’re seeing the route more clearly. A few great people have already been commenting and expressing their interest in helping with our mission, and that is splendiffertastic.

So back on track – two classes have come and gone so far this week. The first one was monday morning, and as far as my personal workout and progress go, there wasn’t really anything of note to mention. I performed and felt about the same as my first class. We rode to the bellowing sounds of musicals (each day has a theme around here), so that was enjoyable – even though in a 30-minute class there were two songs from Grease.

I’m a great lover of musicals, but let it be noted: I hate Grease.

Today’s class was the rip roaring sounds of Barry Manilow. How is that cycling music, you may ask? So may I. But it did the trick, as I amped up the effort a bit and still managed to keep my heart rate around the target range from the first two easier classes. A few drops of perspiration even formed on my neck for a second. I still haven’t gotten used to the tight diaper shorts, but hey… one bridge at a time.