It’s funny. Big efforts are cool. Epic days give you something to mull over a beer as you look back on em’ with accomplishment and fatigue. Hard intensive efforts that surprise you on the watch splits or on the wattage meter get you so jazzed… and you surely feel those efforts then and there. But, those days are far and few… and it’s those weeks where you eek in little nooks of training here and there, even where there really shouldn’t/couldn’t be… that gain this nearly unnoticeable or at least unremarkable days or weeks. You’re tired but not really sure why as each effort isn’t really of notice, yeah ya did it… but it wasn’t really stellar.
But this is where I love to train. More often then not, you’re training days aren’t breakthrough nor epic, nor well… anything but training. This daily grind of getting out and doing it, and doing it a few times a day is more of a win for me than most of the races I’ve been in. I would even argue that I’m not really racing others and only racing myself even during those bigger events. But getting back to these nondescript weeks of training… I love them. I find them invaluable and the reason why I like this sport (or buncha sports rolled into one ;). It’s also the reason I still want to go long. When you meet up with people you generally ask each other, “so what have you been up to?”. I personally never really have anything good or interesting to say as it’s usually these training weeks or the daily grind of the day job. But, you can look back over what you have executed on, be it blog, pen & paper, online/offline training software, whatever you log against… and there it is. You’ve taken your time and made it a little bit richer. This is why you are tired.
All of those 30min based 5k’s with the pooch in the AM and PM add up come weeks end. Conference calls while sitting on the bike? Sure why not… maybe I’ll extend it into the next checkpoint call that’s in 2 hrs… and then, it’s training in the bank.
The consistency reward is really only in the tally as far a semi-immediate gratification goes… but i think it pays dividends for going long. This is why I love winter and the base training it brings. The slow burn here and the seeds of consistency seemed to have made it easier as things get busier and the big pushes come around in summer. The goal is to keep moving, and hopefully it’s in the forward direction towards the line or sometimes just getting back home. 😉
Time for another cup o’ java and then it’s out and to it for me… another one for the bank.
Been up in Mass for the Turkey day and Mr. Wizard (@seanjlangford) lives up in these here parts. Sean in the other half of the SLB tour guide and the tech man behind J’s site. Every time I’m up here I give him a ping and see if he wants to link up for a ride, food, drink or what have ya. I also need to mention that every time we try and link up… some sort of nasty weather kicks up to test if we really want to go out and ride. Yesterday was no different.
So I’m sitting in my car tweeting as I’m there a bit early for a CCB team base ride post-turkey-day and thinking to myself… “this is gonna be cold… this is gonna be really wet and cold” 😦
When guess who shows up already wet and cold…
Yep… no backing out now… 😉 we rode for about 3 hours and about 40miles covering some great scenic parts of Mass (altho Sean did keep saying that , “it’s a lot nicer without the driving rain”). I get so excited to see the guys that I know, but rarely get to train with, that I probably jabbered on for the first hour straight. There’s nothing like base and miserable New England weather to make for a good story telling morning.
This was the loop we covered and with huge thanks to his CCB brethren for plotting out a really nice route:
(I’ve even left in guru’s plum island with the shutters 😉
On a side note, it’s actually been a good couple of days of training… been getting in rides and runs and such all slow and mellow. I ended up doing a 2hr ride to 5++k brick on Thanksgiving and even won the local run (which was not as mellow as I wanted it to be, because I got roped into the actual race portion of the run). oh yeah, and resting… a lot of resting… it’s been good to catch up on that as I’ve been just exhausted going into this holiday even needing a day off of work after sleeping all last weekend.
It has been a great and rewarding offseason. I’ve completed and learned a huge amount of technical schtuff at home and at work with all of the added time gained back on a daily basis. Tomorrow we plan and tomorrow will start the new season. The march back to 140.6 miles takes thousands of miles and hours to get there, and it all starts with a plan.
Much as the quote mentions about legal self-representation, I feel applies to serious training… "a fool for a client" is not what I’m willing to gamble at that level of exertion. So I’ll be again placing my SBR counsel in John and dietary counsel in Christine.
So yeah. Ok, we got the pooch, and she’s doing great… we’re thinking she’s adopted us as much as we have her. She’s so full of energy that I’m almost required to take her out for a run everyday to tire her out for mommy. It’s been great having the company, but I’m just going to have to slow her down (she’s too damn fast and strong) for the adaptation and base phases of the season or she’ll burn me out before I get to Sandusky.
J, Guru & Coraline were up yesterday for some tricks and treats and doggie luvin’ before heading to the queen’s apartment for the @teamcontinuum shindig pre NYC mary. We ran a 10k with the pooches to get them all best-friendsy with each other and let them play in the small stream, grab a drink, and headed home. Then the humans were downing some Halloween candy and some sammies for lunch (not Guru, of course ;). John and I headed out on a ride as he was wrapping up a push into a recovery week and he’s still getting ready for 70.3 worlds. We rolled down to Rte. 100 for some TT intervals and were about 50 mins or so into it when his gears seized. uh oh!
Neither of us had a phone on us, which is odd… we both thought the other one had it on them ;). We flagged down a fellow cyclist who was all too kind and let us use his to bring in our badass support crew. Well, J jury-rigged the rear cluster so we could start moving towards home (after all, he did have a date with the queen) and we kept missing the support staff… but all worked out… a good day with some good friends that we haven’t seen in what feels like ages. It was great to see the pooches get along just fine too.
Today was another 10k with the pooch and ran it pretty similarly to yesterday. I love that she can rehydrate and take a bit of a break in the stream along the trail. It was then back to the house to watch the finishers of the NYC marathon which was exciting to be seeing those familiar faces on TV and all of our friends clock in online with their splits.
I gotta say tho… I’m glad I’m not doing it. This was a long year… J & I were chatting about it on the ride yesterday. We’re tired. My season was a good 11 months, his is 13! I’m glad I shut down… I mean really shut down. He’ll be doing the same. It’s so important.
My 140.6 next year will be a late season gig, so it will be a real easy and slow ramp up. We chatted a bit about ideas for 2010 and it’s a rough outline, but I think it’s going to be a LOT of fun. We’ve yet to solidify the details but there’s time for that. The 6 of us (couples + doggies) will probably get together for a good meal and lock down the bits after his debut down in Clearwater.
I’m excited for the CREW this 2010 season… there are some real powerhouses on that roster. (you guys know who you are 😉 and even beyond their ability… just great people.
Well, we start this week. But it’ll be a slow and just-for-fun-re-acquaintance.
Enjoy your off-season’s and take them as seriously as you do your training and fitness, it’s a long year. Rest well.
So here’s the new pooch on the drive home…
And here she is the first morning in the house looking for what is happening out in the world…
I then took her for her first run run to get her out in this fantastic fall weather to show her around the ‘hood and she was showing off to all the neighbors and their dogs how super awesome she is… she was holding an 8min/mi pace around on these hills for this 2mi jaunt. uhhh… ok you spazzy little girl… by the climb back up the hill to the house she was starting to drag a bit but picked it back up when she saw Kate. Afterwards she passed out cold on the floor nearly dead to the world in a nap. Yep, we’re gonna have to work on her base this season. 😉
The week carried on as weeks do when you are back from vacation… and really, the only thing to pencil in here is that I’ve been consistent in both the 1) light weights with core training as well as the 2) semi-strict attention to what has been going down the pie hole. Some cocktails made it back onto the plan, but only late in the week and nowhere near as many as the two man stimulus package that Brian and I were down on Siesta Key.
It’s actually been a nice change and still being active is definitely helping me stay balanced between work and play. Time has once again slowed down a bit and I think we’ll have some fun things coming up on the life side in the next posting.
Wow. It’s been ages since I’ve been back on the bench. 2 years ago & not too long after the words, “Hi, is this John?”, I was told to stop hitting the weights. The man was right, they sure weren’t going to help me SBR better… SBR will.
Anyway, I followed the plan… but i do enjoy a good strength workout, so in the off season i do try and get back together with all the training tidbits I’ve accumulated pre-tri. Today I headed down into the training lab and cleared all the stuff that has been using the bench as a storage table and blew off a good coating of dust. It was fun doing it again and I’m again taking the advice of those who know better by taking off from SBR and doing things that are active, but different and enjoyable. So just a wee bit of chest and tri’s to humble myself and remember what past years with the weight rack were like.
It’s a bit of a side note, but I’ve also been paying a bit more attention to my diet after the unrestrained vacation that just occurred. This in turn has also made it feel more like a body building session as I am trying to tear down a few lbs just to stay in striking range of goal weight.
So @Ironmanbobby had the camera all set up in the house and pointed his interviewing skills at the post beer / post Toughman crowd that was staying there. This was his release to the twitterverse:
A new Episode is up at www.ironmanbobby.com i sit down with @holisticguru and talk about her first official Half Ironman!!
We had to shame him into getting them out there for a bit, but as usual… the man produces. 😉
There’s a short loop around the North end of the key that i’ve been circling everyday since we got here. Everyday has been starting with a good routine of up, java, jog, breakfast and then beach. If the lottery is to be hit, this might just be the way to spend it. It’s been really pretty hot here so it’s nice to get it out of the way while it’s still cool-ish out. The weather here lately has been pretty unseasonable continuing the summer’s heat and humidity that is common. As I sit in the new kitchen and catch up on tweets, emails and blogs this is the view as the sun climbs up…
Not too shabby. It’s actually been pretty hard to sit still. So used to moving. Let’s see… I’ve redesigned the blog with a new template and layout. Started posting again. Been catching up on books. Trying to learn new languages. Redesigning and improving the network at home (well, when we were there before we left) and playing some computer games from big fish (it was a year ago since we discovered it right here and i last played). So a whole lot of nothing while trying to adjust back into normal life and taking on projects to keep busy and feeling like we’re moving forward towards some undefined goal. I keep telling myself to enjoy it as it all blows by so fast. Just a few months of this. So yeah, constantly moving became the norm and I’m itching (like @david_pike) to get moving again. If it’s true to the past two years it’ll pass win another few weeks and once we startup again the soul should be even more excited about it. This is like the detox period. 😉
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