Hi,

My name is Melissa. I am 35 years old and currently a stay at home mom of 3 girls. This summer I am going to start driving a race car, and I am looking for a buddy who is also preparing for an athletic or sporting event.

Absolutely. I'm also 35, and I am a cyclist and would-be jogger . . . spent the last 6 months not riding (except 2 miles to the office) because of a knee injury (due to the would-be running!). The knee is better and I need to prepare for a 3-day bike ride in late May; my goal is to ride up the hills at faster than my current snail's pace!

great!

What type of regimine do you need to follow for that?

The training materials for the ride involve a progressive building of endurance - - the idea is not to train as hard as possible all the time, but rather to build endurance slowly. Ideally, it involves 5 workouts a week (varying from from an hour to 2 1/2 hours).

I know from experience, though, that to lose the weight and climb hills faster, I also need to do a lot of strength training. So basically, I need to MAKE time to work out - - nothing new, right? ; )

I can't imagine what's involved in training to race cars. I'm sure it's pretty serious stuff! (I don't have the guts to do that, though once I did descend a hill on my bike at 49 mph. I didn't know how fast I was going until after I was down the hill - - I checked the max speed on my cycling computer - - if I had known that at the time, I probably would've panicked a little!)

I know I need to train for upper body and core endurance. My hubby races also, but he competes in shorter and more frequent events, so his point of reference is not much help. Right now, I am doing a Firm or Cathe video M-F, so that gives me anywhere from 45-90 minutes of interval training. I think what I need to do right now is just keep working hard at what I am doing, and see what changes I need to make after I do it for the first time!

Sounds like you are on the right track. : )

Right now, I walk 2 miles to work two days per week (on the days that I take care of the dog - - can't ride my bike when I have her); other than that, I've got to establish and stick to a routine that gets me from behind my desk and to the gym. It's way too easy to keep working on projects, and then suddenly it's too late to go work out . . . not good!