Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Motorcycling Fitness

I've been participating in a fitness boot camp since April. We workout 3 days a week and I've been doing it now for 23 weeks. That's about 69 days, give or take some days I've missed for travel. I tried this program last year for a couple of weeks and it worked wonders. But, I didn't keep it up. In fact, I stopped working out pretty much the day I got this new motorcycle. What a weird coincidence. ;-) Folks will often tell you to reward yourself for sticking to a workout program. When I first started, I told myself the new GS would be my reward. I was thinking big. But, that sort of had the opposite effect in the end. This summer, I told myself I really needed to stick with it and have been quite happy with myself. I've even registered for a half marathon, which was a sort of new year's resolution. I almost ran out of time to complete it this year. I'm doing the Las Vegas Half Marathon on December 5th. I'll reach that goal just in time for a new resolution.

I didn't sign up for this fitness boot camp for any specific motorcycling health related issue. But I can certainly tell the difference when I ride. Mostly, I can tell because certain muscles are sore and I can feel it when I ride. But, I can also tell the difference in my core (abs and back) strength. I don't get fatigued as quickly. I sit up straighter. I feel more aware and alert on the bike. When we did our Devils Tower trip, all those days in a row of riding was a lot of fun and not very tiring at all.

I'm hoping I can keep it up for as long as I can afford the classes. Maybe I'll add that cost to my motorcycling expense fund. :-)

Yesterday, one of the exercises we did was holding a 6lb medicine ball over head while jumping on our toes in the sand. Holy smokes! I had no idea I used those calf muscles so much on the motorcycle. Riding to work this morning I was much more aware of the effort to downshift, which happens a lot more often during the ride than I ever really thought about before. Yikes!

Here's to being 40-something and in shape for the ride!

2 comments:

  1. I admire anyone that can run. I walk thousands of miles per year but have difficulty running any distance at all. Completed a couple of marathons but only walking. I'm still struggling to make the transition to running as you can burn more Cal/hour than by walking. Congratulations on keeping up with a program!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Well, "only walking" a couple of marathons is nothing to sneeze at! Running is hard. All of my training has been a the run/walk type of training. So, even though I'll be "running" the half marathon, in reality I'll be run/walking the half marathon. I just hope my friends who are walking the half don't catch up to me in the process. LOL!

    ReplyDelete