A New Bike & Summer Fitness Goals

I finally got a bike!  And just in time to bike to work for the very first time on National Bike to Work Day!

Her name is Celeste – ain’t she purdy? Really though, I’m so. dang. excited!  I’ve been wanting a bike for about two years now, but I’m so freakin’ picky{criteria: Bianchi, modern components, vintage style, celeste green, short person size} that I kept giving up the search not wanting to settle for anything less than… well, this bike right here !  And I even found her used.

Her purpose is really two-fold: avoiding the impending chaos of commuting during the upcoming long-term Metro track work and accomplishing my long time bucket list goal of completing a triathlon.

Speaking of goals, my office’s annual RBG (Ruth Bader Ginsburg) Fitness Challenge kicked off this week.  As a part of the challenge, participants have to set 2-3 personally challenging goals and a ‘first’ to accomplish over the next eight week period.  I actually found this in and of itself fairly challenging, as Courtney and I are already pretty ridiculously physically active.  After much thought, I settled on the following:

• First: Swim 750 meters, bike 12 miles and run 5k in one day (a sprint triathlon equivalent); I really wanted to actually complete a triathlon, but couldn’t find any in the area during the time period of our challenge that I’m able to make it to.  This will hopefully be training for the Nation’s Tri in September!  I’m definitely going to sign up, but am still debating between the sprint and olympic distances.
• Goal 1: bike 100 miles, not including spin class; while this may not sound like much over eight weeks, I’ve really never biked for fitness before, and am a total newby on a road bike.
• Goal 2: take at least 40 fitness classes; this averages five classes per week, which sounds reasonable but will be challenging with our travel schedule + trying to bike, run and swim regularly.
• Goal 3: run a 7 minute mile (or faster); I’m actually not really sure if I’ve ever done this before during a race, but not that I can recall.  I don’t do  a lot  any speed training, but I’ve gotten a lot faster over the past several years.

I’m excited that this challenge is setting me up for a fit start to summer, and that my new bike is opening all sorts of possibilities for exercise, transportation and adventures!  I’ll keep you updated on Celeste and my progress.  And yes, I have a helmet.

Happy Bike to Work Day, everybody!  Bike safely!

Johanna