Priorities

I used to watch a lot of TV. In fact I would go so far as to say I watched too much TV. There wasn't a night that went by that didn't contain a show I "had" to see. Before reality TV took over television there was usually a cops, lawyers or doctors drama on every night that I couldn't miss. ER, NYPD Blue, Law & Order - you get the idea. Undoubtedly this explains why I used to weigh 220 pounds. (Editor's note: now at 183 and this is preseason form. Would like to get to 175, "intervention weight").


Nowadays, I don't watch much at all. Sure, I'll watch some hockey or baseball, and I will confess to spending some time watching football in the fall, but the time spent on the couch is way, waaayyy down. It just boils down to life choice. In other words I've set different priorities and chosen to follow them. When I hear people (or hear of people) saying they'd love to exercise the way I do, or my friends do, but don't have the time, I just shake my head. The next time one of your non-triathlon, non-marathoning friends says that, ask him/her "who got kicked off American Idol last night?" Priorities, people.



The point of all this? Oh yeah, I'm getting to it. Last night I watched the only real non-sporting-event show that I make any effort to try and follow: House. Yet another "doctor" show, in keeping with the trend, but I don't know if it's going to last. Having been off the air, along with almost everything else due to the writer's strike for so long, life has just moved on. Turns out I didn't really miss it, and don't know if I'll tune back in next week.



In following the reprioritized life and the HTFU training schedule, went out for a pedal-mashing ride today: 7 X 3min in the biggest gear I have - 52/12 with 3 minute rest intervals in between. And not just pushing the big gears, but hammering the big gears - mashing as hard as I could for as long as I could. Not exactly like the hillwork of the weekend past, but effective for building strength nonetheless.



Again, it's all back to priorities. In order to ride faster, one must be able to spin at a higher cadence than normal, or push a bigger gear at the same cadence. Today's workout was designed to get to a bigger gear. By the end of the set of repeats I was fried, but it's money in the bank. Money in the "strength" bank. It's easy math. To ride better, ride more. To run better, ride more.


Bike update: called the LBS for an update on delivery date. The original date was specifically, and I quote, "May". This has been updated (not quite upgraded) to "maybe this week, maybe next week". Sigh.

Peace.