hotel training

Laura’s Training On theGo has strayed from its original theme of travel and workout but this past week I was thinking about this as I spent nights in two different hotels. Here are my reviews, from an athlete (and mom) perspective.

#1.  The Standard in NYC on the High Line

Basically an awesome location in general but for athletes, you can’t do better. Why? A couple blocks away you’ll find the 11 mile Hudson River Greenway path, perfect for running or riding a Citi Bike. If you do choose to rent one of those bikes, you’ll feel like you rode 4 times the mileage you actually did. Bonus!  If you’re there during the cold winter months and don’t feel like freezing outdoors, choose a Peloton Bike and join a live streaming class from the exercise room on the 14th floor. From your perch high above the Hudson, you can laugh at the crazy suckers running in the snow. Aside from the state of the art exercise room, the hotel offers a fantastic service. They’ll wash four items of workout clothing and return them to your room by 6pm. No (extra) charge.

And in no way connected to working out but my favourite feature of this hotel, here’s the video from the elevator, set to Prokofiev’s Cinderella ballet.

#2.  limelight in Apen, CO

I’m not going to lie. I didn’t even set foot into the workout room in this hotel. Though, I did peek through the window and noticed it’s small but equipped with a lifestyle spin bike and a few other machines. The reason I think this is a great hotel for athletes is the breakfast spread. Don’t laugh, I’m serious. It’s included with the room price and it’s enormous. There are the usual cereal, eggs, bagels and pancakes but also a salad bar with several varieties of greens, black beans, seeds and nut butters. Delicious oatmeal, granola and several varieties of yogurt are just begging to be topped with fresh or dried fruits. On Saturday there was smoked salmon.  Every day there were pre-made smoothies. My favourite treat though was doughnuts and coffee by the fire. Speaking of keeping warm, the outdoor pool and hot tubs are open year round. Nothing better after a long day on the slopes than a soak until you can’t stand the heat then a cold plunge. Mine was inspired by several tipsy Europeans who seemed to think it would be great fun.  I jumped in and hopped around like a lunatic while my body acclimated then convinced my boys it wasn’t really that cold. Aviv joined me and swam a few laps. Eitan began shrieking immediately and was passed back into the hot tub. Despite the slushy ski conditions (hard work for the legs) I wasn’t even slightly sore by the end of our trip. I attribute this to my hot-cold therapy.

The final thing worth mentioning about this hotel is the shuttle services from the airport and to Snowmass Mountain, where our kids loved the ski school. Little details make a big difference.

 

 

kids, can we please go to the playground?

Said no mom ever when given the choice between a late afternoon playground adventure which would surely end with a meltdown or a free hour of childcare. Except for me yesterday when the hour of childcare was attached to my attendance of Monday night spin class – a class I dearly love and don’t miss except under extenuating circumstances. Yesterday I was exhausted and positive I’d never survive the class.

My boys won, as usual, so I signed them into Y kids and found the energy to get through class. I left the YMCA feeling better than when I’d walked in, which is true 99.9% of the time. Sometimes I just need a little push from my pint-sized coaches.

Today I returned to the Y of my own free will and pushed myself harder in yet another spin class.  I have a nifty little app that connects to the spin bikes so upon comparison I can see that today I was averaging 20 watts higher than yesterday and also burned 40 more calories during my 40 minutes on the bike. Basically boring information but useful to me as self-motivation. Yay! I’m stronger than I was yesterday! Or maybe it was the good music and the cute instructor who walked around stalking our computers. Either way, I worked harder and feel awesome because of it.

the workouts:

If you want to try working with wattage, I suggest reading this article to begin. In both classes we were working with establishing challenging wattages we could hold 2-4 minutes. In Amy’s class yesterday we were sustaining 3 minutes with a comfortably high wattage then 2 minutes at +5-10 watts. 1:00 rest interval between the two. Then 8 x :20 all out with rest interval :10. Rest and repeat the entire thing. Today Luis was working us for 4 minute intervals, high wattage 85-90 rpm broken up with 1 minute very heavy climbing 65-70 rpm.