Three Things Thursday

Thing One:

Perfect timing for Halloween.
Yesterday I got to welcome the Little Green Monster to my home

Say Hello to my little friend-the Kurt Kinetic Road Machine.

 I know we will be bonding a lot over the long fall, winter and spring days when the Maine weather is not kind enough to let me outside to ride.
I am super excited to welcome the Little Green Monster to the family-this is a nice little upgrade from me (my previous trainer was a magnetic)

The trainer came with a Kendra KK Trainer tire and a Spinervals DVD too so BONUS!!


As much as I am dreading taking my bike inside for the winter, I am actually a little exited to have this new trainer! I am getting the pain cave ready (as mentioned in THIS post) and I know those dreaded hours of intervals will be a lot more "fun" on the Kurt!! I am super excited to try out the Spinervals DVD too. 
Do you Spinerval? Which is your favorite??


I really want to try some from Sufferfest-
you gotta love a tagline like 
I will beat my ass today to kick yours tomorrow


Thing Two:
I finally did my first "official" CrossFit session today. I have had a lot of interest in CF but the closest facility is at least 40 mins away, making it difficult to fit into my day with Lola. Luckily for me, there is now a local option for me.
I have done may WOD's on my own but it was nice to get some specific feedback on form with some of the exercises.
Today's workout was a warm up of basic skill review for today's session 


Curtis P x 5 
clean
left lunge
right lunge
push press

the above complex is performed with out putting the bar down, the lunges are done with the bar in the racked position 

not me source

and then 

air squats x 20

AMRAP for 10 mins

Then we did 75 CrossFit sit ups (a tad different than traditional-feet together and in a "frog" position to keep the hips out of the mix to focus on using core)

I got in 10 full round and had 3 Curtis P's done when time was called. I went light with the weight today (35lbs) to be sure my form was on point. This is a little different than the traditional weight training I do so I really wanted to be sure I was using my hips to clean and keeping the elbows UP while lunging.

I loved it and can't wait for more. I think this is going to be something that is easy to incorporate into my regime.

Thing Three:

I'll leave you with some fun pictures of Lola in action

she's flexing-showing me her muscles

90% of the time this is her expression SMILES

she's a runner!!

the Mommy and her princess

doing Princess Ballet!

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

The Good?

I got a new bike (though if you follow me on Dailymile.com, EnduranceAthleteProject.com or Twitter then this is not NEW news to you)!

I got a new bike (can you tell I'm psyched!).

Being a stay-at-home Mommy with a penchant for gear & gadgetry (HRM's, Garmins, shoes, shoes, shoes, running skirts, headlamps, reflective gear, winter running tights-I could go on and on) I really thought that getting a great bike would be out of my grasp until I returned to work full time. This was sad for me (tissue??) because while I did ok on Bertha, I really wanted to get into something a bit lighter than 150lbs (slight exaggeration)!! Even if I did have something in common with Chrissy Wellington when it came to first season bikes (remember THIS post??)

As things turned out, I had a couple contacts through my tri club and the YMCA to check out a couple bikes, both road and tri specific, but it was a casual running/race schedule related e-mail exchange with an old friend from school that led me to THE bike.

So without further ado, here SHE is...no name yet. And it's not the best pic. I have an appointment to get portraits done, don't worry. I know you like your bike porn classy, right?!

de Luca carbon frame and fork- de Luca is an Australian brand but the frame design is Masi, de Luca just stuck THEIR name on it and sadly, are no longer in business. Do you have any idea how much research it took me to find THAT out??

The components are Shimano-a mix of 105's and Ultegra. The wheels are Mavic Cosmos, Bontrager handlebars and saddle. It also has a Trek Incite 11i computer which is pretty cool now that I a) put a battery in it and b) figured out how to get it off km's.

I think with a sweet pair of Zipps she will be looking pretty on race day. Now to add some clipless pedals and some areobars we will be rockin'!

The Bad

After lots of resting my knee is still bothersome. I ran 2 miles Sunday and 3 miles yesterday and it is a mixed bag of "feels just fine" to "I think I should stop now". With my first (fun) triathlon in 2 months, I need to be running.

So I put a call into the Orthopedic Associates Performance Center and I have an appointment for an evaluation on Thursday morning. Hopefully I will have some good answers very soon as to what is up.

The Ugly

When I got my bike, I also got a trainer in the deal. While I wait for my riser block to arrive, I knew my years working in medicine would pay off eventually.



Lola's checking the tension on the trainer

Say hello to my PDR (Physicians Desk Reference) -- which is holding up the front wheel while I ride the trainer just fine. Ugly but it works!

The 40lb PDR being put to good use--finally!

Speaking of ugly--what do you think of this BIKE THONG I found on TriSports.com?? I love the caption "remote & phone not included" I think I might need this...

I would love to hear from you and your suggestions on what to name the new bike :)