Mountain biking was my only activity for the first three days of the year. Actually, I only rode the first two days and took the third off for a grand total of 77 minutes of riding. Both days were difficult. Maybe it is because I’m used to using my cross bike with slicks for road riding, but the pace on the mountain bike felt incredibly slow. There was a total of 125 feet of climbing and a fairly respectable headwind on the way home.

Total Time: 1 hour 17 minutes

This version of my workout log has been modified to fit your screen.

The second week was a little more diverse. Monday, I went mountain biking with another person for 67 minutes. We covered 4.5 miles of trail. It was a pretty tough ride. I should have drunk more water in preparation for the ride because I felt thirsty and I felt a little weak. The reason I didn’t have a water bottle was because I didn’t realize my water bottles weren’t clean when it came time to leave. Lesson learned. That reminds me, I need to soak those water bottles.

After that ride, I did not feel like dressing for subsequent rides. While winter riding has its moments, it is not my top choice for winter exercise. Lacking motivation, I skipped my workout on Tuesday and chose to stay inside for Wednesday. I did a heart-pumping, weight training workout complete with a little aerobic activity. That was a 35-minute workout. It wasn’t anything exciting, but at least I did something.

After two days of no activity, I grew restless and decided to work with the newly-fallen snow to build a skate ski trail (see Skating My Own Creation). That was my Saturday project that involved 115 minutes of snowshoeing, some of which was while pulling a roller. It was pretty tough. I also tested the trail with two laps of skating for eight minutes.

Sunday, I hit the skate skiing trail for 38 minutes and also took a 15-minute walk. My body was pretty sore and I began thinking it was time for a day off from a workout.

Total Time: 4 hours 38 minutes

The last half of the week went really well on the exercise front. I am quite out of shape compared to past years, and I am willing to work hard to get in shape in time for spring racing. This last week of exercise can be used as a baseline to gauge my improvement.

Goal for Next Week: Total of seven hours of exercise