Sunday, November 30, 2008

Multi-Momma


I haven’t done a triathlon since 1995 (yikes: how old does that make me?!), yet lately I’ve been digging multisport workouts. I don’t have any reason for doing them except that I love diversity—it keeps my mind and muscles fresh. November and December are my do-whatever-I-enjoy months before I jump into marathon training with both feet. I am doing a half-marathon mid-January, so I can’t slack off running entirely, but I’m having fun mixing things up.

I adore riding my mountain bike to my health club—it takes about 20 minutes—then swimming for 45 minutes, then biking home. I started riding my bike to the club when gas prices were sky high, but now I do it to shrink my carbon footprint—and to see the sun. We’ve had a relatively sunny fall here in Portland, and I find it tough to justify going indoors to swim when the sun is shining. This way I get the best of both worlds—a direct jolt of make-me-happy sunshine plus time in the water.

Toward the end of the rowing season, about once a week, I did a workout I called the Three R’s: Ride my bike to boathouse; Row with the team; Run a 3-mile riverfront loop; then ride home. (Okay, so that’s 4 R’s, but one is repeated…) I adored the feeling of driving Phoebe to school and having all that under my belt already.

I’m feeling like the afternoons this weekend with the kids were multisport in their own way: Yesterday it was the park, then a dash to the library, while today it was a different playground, followed up by cookie-baking. (First time with all three kidlets!) I’d say those “workouts” are as legit as any swim-bike-run brick, don’t you?

-SBS

3 comments:

Carolina John said...

I do the same thing when it's warm enough here. Ride the bike to the gym, hit the eliptical for 45 mins, then bike it back home. takes about an hour ten total, and leaves no emissions out there. i wish my gym had a pool, that is even better.

Good brick!

i also started when gas was so expensive, and kept it up because i just feel guilty about driving now when it's a short enough trip to ride the bike. In my marathon training plan, now the long runs are getting so long (15 to 19 miles) that i have to drive. no energy left in the tank to bike it home after running that long.

brooks beast said...

Nice post! A multi-tasking mom! Great! Keepit up!

spyder ski said...

You are an amazing mom! Very inspiring!