February Totals

February is over. All 28 days of it. It was a productive month, given it's shortness. Karen swam nearly 8 miles - and took all of school vacation week off from the pool because it was a madhouse & she managed to slightly strain a shoulder muscle while battling an errant swim noodle (those damn kids!) - over all, good timing, as if she had to pick a week to take off from swimming, that was a good one. Karen's average swim speed? 2.42 MPH, which is a pace of about 25.5 minutes per mile. All this swimming took a cumulative total of about 3 hours in February. For not being a swimmer (and for being pretty pregnant) she'll take that.

Also in February, Karen rode just over 100 miles on either her bike or the stationary bike at the gym, which took a cumulative total of about 5 hours over the month. Not a WHOLE lot of time, to be sure, but given the whole pregnancy thing, not too bad, either. Especially when you consider that in 2008, Karen didn't reach 100 miles in a single month until April. That brings her 2009 riding total up to 129 miles thus far. Eleanor (Karen's beautiful Orbea) is getting a little uncomfortable. A woman's pelvis changes a bit during pregnancy, apparently, especially the latter part of the process as the body gets ready for birth. As Karen is now 32.5 weeks pregnant, with anything from 4.5 weeks to 8.5 weeks left until the baby is born (full term apparently is considered to begin at week 37, and 1st babies typically are delivered at 41 weeks), she's considering herself "pretty much fully pregnant at this point." Heart rate still seems fine, respiration still seems fine (surprisingly)- but in order for the pelvis to comfortable, she has to roll back on her sit bones quite a bit, which means her reach to the handle bars has been stretched quite a bit. As she spent considerable time last year trying to get that bike fit just right, she's unwilling to screw around with it now. So it looks like next week Eleanor will go into the bike shop for a pre-season tune up, and one of the mountain bikes will get a slick tire put on the back and we'll get that thing up on the trainer. A mountain bike rides a little more upright, and as it hasn't been "fit" to any specific rider, it doesn't really matter how much we mess around with that setup.

Ken got in on the lovely experience that is riding the trainer in the basement as well during February. He hasn't been logging miles or time, but has been trying to get rides in when he can. Karen's been happy for the company when she can get it.

Additionally, last week we purchased an LCD monitor for the basement. We'll mount it to the wall so we can watch downloaded movies, dvds, and stuff off of itunes and netflix while we ride the trainers. We figure we'll be stuck on those for a while this year, due to time constraints. Karen is also hoping that eventually (post-recovery) she might be able to ride the trainer during nap time. Maybe not everyday, but a few times a week, after the baby is a little older and we're getting a little more sleep. An LCD monitor was far cheaper than a 2nd TV. Besides, it's nice and cool down there in the summer, and there's a chance nap time might actually occasionally happen in the pack n' play in the basement during the miserably hot & humid days.

All in all, training seems to be going pretty well, given the circumstances. There were a lot of cyclists out on the roads during the February thaw that we've been having. Karen's been pretty jealous & itchy to join in, but hasn't really considered actually doing it - seems fool hardy right now, what with the belly in the way and all the sand on the roads. No need to tempt fate. We're currently waiting for a nor'easter to hit - we're supposed to get some 15 inches of snow tonight & tomorrow, so maybe tomorrow afternoon will bring a return to snowshoeing. Skiing might be relegated to flat areas only at this point for Karen - the idea of falling is becoming much more scary, and falling only seems to happen on hills. So hills are out for the rest of the season, I think.