Friday, July 20, 2007

My training plans have been screwed and it's pissing me off.

Yes that's right. In the last two days I've been going through motivation withdrawl ( although putting some new Michilens on the bike yesterday has me jones to hit the asphalt. ) The last two days I have hit snooze through the early morning time frame I had alotted for swimming. The rain/tornado yesterday ended my hopes for a short bike ride ( anything under 30 miles for me is short), and today a flat tire on my Subaru quite literally "screwed" me out of an evening pool work out. ( instead I did a 3 mile hill workout , even if I can't do Waramaug I want to be ready for it, or at least kick some ass at Niantic). My day at the bank was long and irksome, everybody and their brother was cashing checks, and I was sitting at the drive through counting down the hours until I would be set free ( until 8:30am tomorrow)to try to enjoy this beautiful day. Unfortunately I would spend the last remaing day light hours running an errand ( picking up bottled water,which I got then noticed my driver side front tire was pancaked) then rushing to the tire shop only to findout they were closed. Rather than risk driving to the Waterbury Y getting in my swim workout then having to change to a spare tire, in the ghetto, in the dark. i decided to do a nice 4 mile run to Wolcott High and back, but on noticing the sun was going down and people drive like idiots when they can see pefectly then get exponetially worse when they can't see. I decided it would be safer to do a mile and half warm up down lyman road and around the neighborhood, before doing 3 loops up a fairly short yet steep hill on Francis dr. All in all the run was about 3.5-4.0 miles and took me about 34 min. It was the first true hill work out I had done since high school track ( my coaches words "hills are your friend" "hill work is cheap speed" were ringing in my ears and with the first 1.5 miles at Waramaug being uphill this would be a definiate advantage on the competition, as well as Niantic in which the last 400 meters is run on beach sand.) All in all I felt pretty good, and hopefully I will have confirmation on if I can do Waramaug soon. My car will be getting service as I work tomorrow, and I have decided to ride the bike into work just to show off how hardcore I am. ( also concidered wearing the bike shoes all day in the lobby but I won't torture my boss as he conteplates the fate of my race in 2 weeks) So all in all there is nothing too interesting going on here. Monday's post should be more interesting as Angry Runner and I take on the "mother of all bricks" Two loops of the Pat Griskus olympic Triathlon bike course ( bike profile here: http://www.patgriskustri.com/images/olybikeprofile.jpg) followed by a loop of the less daunting sprint course and a loop of the 5k run course ( 2 loops if I'm feeling good.) Angry gripes that he's a "sprinter type" and likes to hammer it out on the big ring. Personally I'm a climber and I think that even if angry is "master of the flatlands" the hills can only help his preformance" so needless to say when ever we reach an incline I'm going into attack mode (granted my climbing this year could use a little more work I've been out of the saddle more than I like.) So as I said Sunday's post will be more interesting. As for tomorrow I have work, followed by a quick swim, "short" 20 mile flat time trial ( ie going on rails to trails in Cheshire-Hamden and going as hard as I can in the big ring), followed by 5:30 mass and rest for Sunday afternoon's death match against the steepest hills between Woodbury and Bethelehem.

2 comments:

Angry Runner said...

Hills can only help.

No Wetsuit Girl said...

"Sprinters" are pussies if they can't climb. Ain't nothing glorious about the flatlands (although we all have to practice from time to time). Sorry about your foiled training plans. I'm a firm believer in that when you're the most pumped to beat the shit out of yourself is when you're most in need rest. Something will always get in your way when you need to take it easy, be it a flat (on your bike or car), the weather, personal commitments, or Acts of God. Chill, the rest will probably do you good. Hope you kicked Angry's ass today.