"YogaDre" and Stage 2

Check out my wife Andrea's website: http://yogadre.googlepages.com/home ! I am real proud of her. She is very creative and has taken her passion for Yoga to the web. She has been taken Yoga training for about a year and has just started some volunteer teaching in the Houston area. Eight plus months pregnant and still teaching Yoga!!! Today, I had the opportunity to go to her class. We have done Yoga together before, but this was the first time I have seen her teach. She was super. I was able to stretch and relax. It was perfect! She said I had a hard time "relaxing", but I got better by the end of the session. I was about to fall asleep during the last relaxation period.

Andrea and I started our birthing classes tonight. Wowzers, August is gonna be quite a month! I am not even going to pretend to be aware or ready for the wonderful change about to take place in our lives. We are very blessed. 8/14/07.

The training stuff:

Sunday ended up being a Zilch. I am disappointed, but am going 100% and trying to balance it all.

(Today) Monday:
True to my word though, I woke up and road along with the Tour de France today. I rode about 2:20 on the trainer while watching the tour - it was enough to wear out the battery in my heart rate monitor. Fortunately, it wasn't the other way around!!! I won't bore you with the psychology of the ride - I wouldn't mind telling you about it, but I have to get some rest. I did get tired enough that I watched the mileage countdown and mentally figured out how to get through the last 30 minutes. The nice thing about the tour riders is they cover a mile in just over 2 minutes, versus when I am out training, I usually ride a mile in 3 minutes. So 7 miles left was only 14 minutes of riding versus the 21 minutes it would take me training on my own. Those athletes are incredible, but I think cycling is mentally most challenging of the three triathlon sports. It doesn't hurt like running; the suffering tends to be drawn out and yet concentrated. Recovery after cycling seems much faster than recovering after running.

I concede it is absolutely dorky to ride in front of the television, but I still recommend it. The first 1:30 minutes was fairly predictable. There were 3 racers out front and the peloton was slowly catching up. As the peloton closed the gap, I could feel the excitement, and it reflected in my efforts. I wasn't pretending I was there or "racing" the television, but it was motivating to see better cyclists out there working harder for a longer period of time! Watching their heart rate data was enlightening. Try it sometime, ride on a trainer for the last thirty minutes of the tour. Very rarely are the finishes predictable and I guarantee you'll get a kick out of it. Plus you don't have to ride in the rain, or wipe out with 100 of your closest friends. But, you should still wear a helmet . . . .

Since the Yoga class was well north of town and the birthing class was well southwest of town, guess what happened to my swim, lift and run? I'll be dreaming about them in about 10 minutes . . . . .Zilch, Nada, not gonna trade in my sleep!

Tomorrow, the "tour" ride for me will be a little shorter because of a late notice work commitment in the late morning. Hopefully, I will get a run and a swim in after work!

Thanks for getting this far!