The Soloists...

So what happens when you put two triathletes, who normally train solo, into a room together?

Well, you get a lot of burping and farting, some heavy breathing, but not a whole heck of a lot of talking.

At least when you put Julie and I in a room that is the outcome! As part of my triathlon rehab weekend I joined in on Julie's bike workout. I knew it would be a good challenge because the most I'd done in the last three months is about 45 minutes. Just one steady pace for 45 minutes. Wait, I might have done an hour two months ago! You get the picture though.

This workout; however, was 1:35 hours and had hard bits to it! Gulp.

After some major trainer issues - I somehow managed to strip a screw on my trainer, so couldn't put in the lift so that I could adjust the trainer for use with my aero bike, which has 650 tires rather than 700 tires - major urgh...I finally borrowed Julie's old trainer. Thankfully she had one!

Julie was on her computrainer and positioned towards the computer screen. Initially I set my bike up so it was beside her, but I don't like distractions like music or tv/video so I decided after 10 minutes of spinning to turn my bike so I was looking out the french doors. Ahhh. Good ol' Mother Nature. That was to be my view.

You can imagine what it looked like now. Two of us in one small room. One facing the computer and with headphones on and tunes cranked, the other facing away and perpindicular to her counterpart, staring out a window. Yup, we are definitely used to training on our own! Needless to say we were as happy as little kids having cake and ice cream for dinner!

The workout itself was awesome! Some warm up, then intervals at a steady pace, in overgear, fast spinning, then easy spin for 5 minutes. We had three sets of these.

The first set was pretty good. I had to keep reminding myself that it had been a while since I worked this hard on the bike so as not to get discouraged.

As we went along our merry way, the only thing I heard out of Julie was the odd fart here and there. Oh, and burps. It was hilarious because at first she was apologizing for farting and I'm like, what for? Heck, we are triathletes, other than training what else do we do but fart and burp?! For those non tri geeks out there, it really isn't a very glamourous sport...but at least we aren't embarassed about bodily functions!

Julie lucked out today. Considering my arse was facing her, had it been a fart day for me she would have been in serious trouble! We kept joking 'BUT IT DOESN'T SMELL!!!' Instead I was practicing my 'Booger from Revenge of the Nerds' burps. Ah yes, a classy lass I am!

Aside from our bodily noises there was not much conversation going on. We were both really focussed on the task at hand. I was trying to tap into the signals my legs and arse were giving me. Signals such as 'no more...please'. I wasn't about to quit though. I was going to see this through the end. I needed to see this through the end.

The second set was reasonable, but the third one was killer. I kept pushing through the discomfort. It was great having intervals to follow because it gave my brain a bit of a break. I did my best to stay focussed, but the odd time my mind would wander. Likely some sort of pain defense mechanism...

When we were done I gave a hollar and we high fived. I felt GREAT! It was an awesome workout and I'm glad Julie was there. Even though we didn't chat, just having her presence in the room was encouragment and motivation!

Oh, and Julie, I apologize for the small lake that I left under the bike....did I mention I sweat a lot?!

Peace out my farty friends!!