April showers are famous. Everybody has heard of April showers. In fact, for a large percentage of people April showers are good things that are usually welcomed. After all, who has a problem with flowers (all you allergy sufferers, put your hands down - I know, I know).
Nobody talks about April wind. One can ride in the rain, although one may choose generally not to, especially in April. The wind is killer, especially when you have to lean sideways into it, so as not to be blown off the road. That was today's wind. My plan going out was for a solid three-hour ride. After fighting the bike for an hour, I realized this was not going to be possible.
The plan for today was to put together a monga training day - not quite the Alton Half, but pretty close - swim, bike and run. Here's the play-by-play on why it didn't quite turn out that way.
Step 1: the swim. One of the benefits of "underemployment" is being able to swim in the middle of the day. Lane traffic is not necessarily lighter (in fact it's often busier around lunch), but speaking of lunch, later in the day, I've at least managed to get some fuel in. That's not always possible for a 5:30 a.m. swim. I didn't fuel today, and paid for it. I completely struggled and battled to get to a measly 2500m before packing it in.
Step 2&3: long bike, long run. The plan was to catch up with my buddy Chad in Carlisle today after getting my car back from a trip to the mechanic, to put in a long ride (at least three hours) followed by a long run (90-120 minutes). Now, he's an Olympic-distance specialist (which means he has no staying power, but I digress). What he does have is speed to spare. I can't keep up with him, but generally manage to keep him below the horizon and in sight.
So, upon dropping my car off this morning at 9 a.m. I was told it would be at least three hours before I could get it back. Curses, foiled again. That killed the original plan right then and there. Right then and there I decided to do the solo jaunt. I went out for the ride, and after fighting the wind as described above, packed it in, completely fried after 2.5 hours. The run was cancelled.
At the end of it all, it was still 3.5 hours to go in the log today, but with a little better planning it could have been 3.5 hours of better quality work. Season is still young, but need to focus a little better going on from here.
Peace.
1 comment:
Aaron,
Yesterday's wind was a killer. That's for sure. One of the great plus of underemployment is there is all of a sudden a lot of time to train :)
This Sat, I will be riding in the milton region. Like the group ride we did last year before we pack our bikes. If you are gonna be there, hopefully i will see you on the road.
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