Posts tagged chapel hill
Weightlifter, Powerlifter, Strongwoman, Future Bobsledder
This is my 3rd medal for this race :)
Tar Heel 10 Miler and Fleet Feet 4 Miler were a success! Great race! There were over 4,200 runners, making it the biggest race Chapel Hill, NC has ever had.
The race had awesome sponsors like Fleet Feet and CEP. The course was difficult as always because Chapel Hill is pretty hilly and of course there is a monster of a hill called Laurel Hill that’s a soul crusher. They actually have a 2nd timing just for running up Laurel Hill - The Laurel Hill Challenge.
After the race I hung around and mingled a bit then headed home for the Farmer’s market and had a nice lunch. Now I’m going to rest up until my parkour lesson at 3pm with Fifth Ape. Busy day! And I’m supposed to go clubbing tonight lol.
LUNA Chix Cycling Efficiency and Form Clinic With Balanced Physical Therapy and Balanced Movement Studio
Today my LUNA Chix team hosted a clinic to help people become more efficient cyclists and also prevent injuries while cycling. The teacher of the clinic, Brian Beatty really focused on tuning in with your body and knowing your body. He gave us a brief explanation of the anatomy of our body that is used in cycling.
We then did different exercises so we could focus on which muscles were used when and how to focus on using our hips (a very powerful and stable joint) to power our stroke rather than the knees (weaker joint) as many people use.
He also explained that the term ‘core’ as many people like to say is not a concrete definition. Your ‘core’ depends on what you are doing. He defined core as that which needs to have stability for you to have mobility. For example, on the bike, the mobile things are your hips, knees, and ankles. Your hands, wrists, elbows, shoulders, neck, and pelvis should be stable. If all of those things are stable, you will be in the best position to produce efficient movement. Everything from your hands to your pelvis then, is your ‘bike core’.
We then got on our bikes and did some drills on trainers to practice efficient stroke. The main lesson that I got out of this clinic was what Victor from Bicyclelab (the guy I intern for) taught me already: focus less on pushing down and more on pulling your foot backwards on the backstroke, then back and up, then sliding your foot forward along the top of your stroke. The back of the stroke is the weakest part of the stroke but by improving your efficiency there, you can increase your overall power on the bike. Also important is having a high cadence as long as you maintain good form. High cadence will do very little for you if you have bad form.
Afterwards me and a teammate led a few women on a short ride to practice what they learned. It was an easy 14.5 mile ride.
So far great day :)
1 Day till San Fran!!
This week is flying fast due to a couple of reasons: I have 2 exams tomorrow and on Friday morning at 6am I fly out to San Francisco for the LUNA Chix Summit! The LUNA Chix are the local cycling teams all over the U.S. for LUNA of Clif bar. If you don’t know what I’m talking about click here.
I’m super excited!! I feel like this is such a great opportunity for someone as young as I am and I aim to take full advantage of it and try to do my best to help encourage women to be more active. Also, one of the main goals of the LUNA Chix is to raise money for the breast cancer foundation so I’m excited to help contribute to such a great cause!
Anyone watching the UNC/Duke game???
Go UNC!!! All my fellow tarheels are looking awesome tonight!!!!
I made the local LUNA Chix Cycling team!! Ahhhh I am soooo excited right now!!! Today we rode about 15 miles so they could see if we could maintain afast enough speed on the bike and ride smoothly and then we had to come in individually for interviews. I was so nervous for the interview. Thankfully, it was in a local coffee shop which made the atmosphere really chill. Plus, I went over in my head dozens of scenarios for how I would respond to different questions they asked me. They are a really a good group of women and easy to talk to. We have to come up with and lead a workshop once a month and I already have an idea for what I want to do! They also want me to be webmaster, which I think I can handle especially if my sister shows me some things.
Ahhh so excited!! I have been telling everyone I know!!
P.S. I found out that I am only 4 years younger than the youngest LUNA Chick. Ha but still a baby lol
Free Gym Pass
So for the past 2 days I have been trying out a new gym until the rec center at UNC starts a regular class schedule again. I had a coupon for 14 days free at the Ladies Fitness and Wellness Center in Chapel Hill so I decided to go. Am I glad I did! That place is the nicest gym I’ve ever been to. It’s women only which doesn’t really matter to me but it had super nice equipment, nice wooden lockers, a massage room, a sauna, a spin bike room (my favorite part), a nice studio for cardio classes, tons of cardio machines, and a lot of weight machines and free weights. If any women live in the Chapel Hill/Raleigh/Durham area, I highly recommend this gym!!
Today I did a spin class and followed it up with a yoga class. The spin class was probably one of the toughest classes I’ve ever taken and I’ve taken A LOT at various places. The instructor also seemed very well educated in fitness and talked a lot about aerobic and anaerobic thresholds, VO2 max, and Lance Armstrong statistics. I really enjoyed the class I had the day before as well.
I am going to try to add yoga and pilates to my workout schedule a couple days a week for extra stretching, flexibility, and strength as well as injury prevention (hopefully).
In other news: tomorrow is the 1st day of the Spring Semester!!
In other other news: We are expecting several inches of snow tomorrow (10?!)
