Exercise Roundup, Week of 27 June 2011

Ahh, summertime is such a nice time to exercise outdoors! I didn't hit my goal of five exercise days this week, but I did make some progress on the bike. For one thing, I started riding with a woman I met at church, who wants to train for a cycling event in the late summer/early fall. We're going to try for a metric century (about 65 miles). I also beat my previous time on the Mt. Vernon trail by 10 minutes--no small feat! It's nice to finally see some improvement in the fitness department.

Monday: Worked very late to finish a project; no exercise.

Tuesday: 35 minutes of brisk uphill walking on the treadmill.

Wednesday: Traveling for work; no exercise.

Thursday: 90ish-minute bike ride in the morning with my new friend & training buddy. We could have gone faster and ridden harder, I think, but since it was our first time riding together, neither of us knew the other's limitations or comfort level so we didn't go all out. Still, we did get some good exercise. I rode up Evil Hill 2 on my way home--and didn't feel like I was going to pass out at the top!

Friday: Did some laps at my friend's pool in the afternoon--because my boss gave us all the day off in advance of the 4th of July holiday!

Saturday: As documented in my previous entry, I took a round-trip ride on the Mt. Vernon trail on Saturday, a distance of 35 miles, and did it in 2 hours, 40 minutes, which is ~10 minutes faster than my time for that same route the week before. Waahooo! I want to get it down to 2 hours, 30 minutes (or faster) next time. I think I can do it!

Sunday: Day of rest.