Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Le Training Buzz...

After a much deserved long weekend, I am back at work. I enjoyed a nice bike ride to work this morning in beautiful weather. Little bit windy... and I couldn't tell which direction the wind was coming from but enjoyable ride all the same. We had a great time in Tucson on Sunday. We parked at the corner of Catalina Hwy and Tanque Verde near the popular bike hangout, Le Buzz. We cycled up the highway with scores of roadies heading into Mt. Lemmon. (That was an interesting revelation: we did not see ANY other triathletes during the entire ride. Every other cyclist we saw was a road cyclist. Aside from the 2 of us, no other aero bars in sight. And the best part was Dan totally killed everyone up that damn mountain! They all stopped and turned around at the 14 mile overlook, while he went the whole 26 miles. And he rode the first 13 miles in the big ring. Who does that? Up a mountain? I have a feeling he is going to kill IM this year.) Dan had made a big deal about "biking Mt. Lemmon together" so I was going to give it my best effort despite my attempts at a proper recovery. Once we reached the base, Dan quickly left me in the dust. For an hour, I rode at a miserably slow pace of roughly 5 mph. When I reached 6 miles into the climb, I just stopped. I unclipped and stood there for a moment contemplating my options. I could continue to climb the mountain and end up with what would have been an 8 hour ride and be sore and broken down for another 3 weeks.... and end up back in rehab. Or I could turn around and finish my 3 1/2 hour scheduled training ride. I decided to stop being so stubborn and take responsibility for my actions. I knew there was a chance that Dan would be upset because I didn't finish the ride. But I also knew there was no way I was going to finish the climb in a reasonable manner. So I turned around and coasted down the mountain and headed toward Saguaro National Park to bike around the Cactus Forest Loop. I made it through one loop before I received the text that Dan made it to the peak and was heading back down the mountain so I left the park and headed back toward the car. A couple of roadies tried to rattle my chain when I pulled up behind them at a stoplight, giving me grief about my aero bars. What are those bars for? Do they make you go faster? Laughing between themselves at my expense. No, not really I replied. I just use them to rest my arms I lied. No way was I going to give them any satisfaction. I rode off in another direction wondering if they could even make it through an Ironman without keeling over. I changed and did a quick 3 mile transition run. Once we were done with the workout, we went into Le Buzz for a quick bite to eat before heading to Trisports. The lattes were soooo yummy and the sandwiches hit the spot. I picked out a new race helmet at Trisports and a few essentials (tubes, tires, co2, etc) and then we hopped back into the car for the ride home. We ended the day with soft pretzels and m&ms at the movie theater where we saw Angels and Demons.

Monday morning I slept in till 6:30. I thought that was pretty decent considering my usual wake up call is between 4:30 - 5 am. So managing to stay in bed till 6:30 was impressive. I went for an easy 5 mile run and then we headed to the pool for a 3600 yd technique swim. Loads of drills. We were so bored of catch-up drill by the end, we switched to one arm drills. We made it out of the water before they turned the slides on for family pool hours which was the goal. The slides give an added challenge of a current that we have to swim against. Yesterday I had an awesome spin class with Brooks. Hills! I totally got in the zone and just hammered the class. Finished with a transition run and hit up starbucks for some java on my way to work. Thank goodness for the workout and caffeine to prep me for my day-- it was crazy!! Day after a 3 day weekend we saw all the emergencies that had been stewing over the weekend.

I'm looking forward to heading to Show Low tomorrow night! I'm not looking forward to trying to pack my car. 2 bikes, 2 tents, 1 box of wood, 2 transition bags, 3 duffel bags, one cooler, 3 sleeping bags, etc etc etc. I have an Xterra... so it will fit, with a little finesse. It's predicted to rain this weekend, so we'll definitely have some nicer weather than in the valley. Summer has been teasing us, but in another 2 weeks it will be in full swing.

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