Monday: Scheduled day off. I am an expert at these days.
Tuesday: Scheduled weight training and 10K test. Spent an hour of my life lifting heavy things with my upper body. I always wonder why I do this as a triathlete. Do we really need upper body strength so much? Ok fine, it's convenient to have lats and shoulders when you're swimming, but swimming is dumb enough that I still consider it an optional warm up to the race. Oh well, shoulders and pecs make me sexy.
After that I sauntered on up to Central Park for my first 10K test of the new season. Testing instructions: run like a banshee for 6.2 miles and record how banshee-like you were. Later we will do the same damn thing to see what level of banshee-ness I have grown in to. Brilliant! It's early in the season but I managed to average a pace of 7:21 min/mile in the hilly Central Park loop. Not too shabby if I do say so myself.
Wednesday: Scheduled weight training and spin class. Ah, leg day. I don't know what happened to me genetically during my development, but something went wrong. Perhaps too many beatings as a child? One too many lumps of Play Dough were eaten? The possibilities go on longer than Angelina Jolie's femurs. Whatever the cause, I love leg day. Give me a lunge or a split squat and I'm just about as happy as a kid at Christmas. I like to think it is because I correlate how functional leg strength is to my sport. It might also be that I secretly wish to have more junk in the trunk. Because really, I don't think NYC is ready for this jelly.
I digress...
After that, I sat myself on a spin bike for an hour and half and really taught myself a lesson. You know what I realized during that spin class? I usually am a damned cheater during spin classes! The instructor tells me to turn up the resistance, and I swear I do. Clearly, not enough though. Today I decided to work on power. I wanted to smell smoke coming off of that bike. That was partly due to the ripe spinner next to me who clearly enjoys falafel for breakfast, but not only because of him. Needless to say, I worked it something fierce. Got off of the bike feeling a bit jelly-legged, which if you consider my early comment regarding jelly, I felt I had succeeded. Go me.
Thursday: Scheduled long run of 1 hour 40 min. Not gonna lie people, I wanted to skip this. I was sore from my leg and spin day the day before and most of me was just saying, "shouldn't you just do some steam room? That is good training too, you know. You're body needs to become accustomed to the heat. It's like altitude training, only hot, wet, and with hints of sweaty armpit smell." Fear not dear reader, I overcame the temptation and set out for my run. It was glorious. Why I ever have trouble motivating myself for a run is always a mystery to me after I have done said run. I love it. Ended up logging a little under 12 miles at an 8:22 average pace.
Friday: Scheduled ride to Alpine (a horrifically hilly ride about 40 miles round trip). Yeah... this didn't happen so much. Problem was, I was scheduled for a flight leaving at noon. The brain started working which is never a good scenario. "What if I have a mechanical problem out there and get stuck. Would I make it to the airport on time? How much will a cab be to LaGuardia if I'm late? How will my hair look after having a helmet on?" Things like that. I decided to sleep in and do a double workout on Saturday when I got back.
If you're reading carefully, there are two big problems with the above statement. Did you catch them? Problem 1: I was leaving on a flight on Friday at noon and was planning to do a workout when I got back home the next day. The biggest part of that problem is that I was taking a nice relaxing flight to ALASKA. More on that later. Problem 2: I don't care what happens in my life or who I become as a triathlete, I am just not the guy who will double up his workouts when one is missed. I don't know how many times I have to relearn that lesson, but apparently a few more it would seem.
Saturday: Scheduled 45 minute run plus what I slacked doing on Friday. Before we can talk about this, let me tell you about my flight. I left NYC at noon on Friday and found myself in thick-as-pea-soup Dallas 3.5 hours later. Quick layover and I was Alaska bound. 6 hours here. Long flight, but it should be worth it, right? Nope, I didn't even leave the airport. I'm clever enough to have only had a one hour layover and then get back on the same stupid plane I was just on to return to Dallas and eventually back to NYC. What is wrong with me that I would do something like that? How much time have you got?
This flight to Alaska was what we in the business call a mileage run. What business am I referring to you ask? I haven't the foggiest. What a mileage run does is rack up a bunch of airline miles from a cheaply priced ticket so that schmucks like me get to keep our airline priority status. That's right people. During a time period of 23 hours, I spend 20 of it in an airplane so I can cut in front of you when boarding the plane. You also get free upgrades to first class and I am sucker for cheap champagne and microwaved food.
NOW we can talk about my workouts on Saturday. They didn't happen. I hate to be this guy, but I just can't sleep on a plane. If humans were designed to sleep upright we would look more like pink flamingos. Or even cows. They sleep standing up right? Well I may not be at my race weight, but I am no cow, and while I do have particularly rosy cheeks, I also am no flamingo. I'd wager I got about 2 hours of violent head nodding before giving up the fight and passing the time by throwing wads of paper into the mouth of the old lady across the aisle while she was snoozing away. I got to New York and had just barely enough motor function and brain power to stumble onto the train home. Once home, what was intended to be a quick 30 minute disco nap became a 3 hours love-fest with my reasonably oriented horizontal couch.
Here I would like to claim my innocence and blame these two devious beacons of temptation and sloth. Who could resist a cuddle with pups like this?
Sunday: Scheduled 65 mile bike ride. While I did miss 2 days of workouts this week, I didn't feel terrible about them. But today I pretty much dropped the ball. Instead of waking up like I was supposed to, I slept in. And while that was delicious, it slapped my schedule around like a 3 Stooges routine. When you have to contend with grocery shopping, dissertation writing, laundry, cooking, and blog writing (that's right, I blame you for this), I just didn't have time. Fail.
Overall the week wasn't terrible, but it also wasn't Kona-prep level either. On the negative side I missed 3 quality workouts. On the plus side I nailed 3 fantastic workouts. I'm sure next week will be mind blowing and my Sunday weekly report will have you inspired and ready to take on the world. For this week however, you'll just have to settle for this picture of one of the more stunning terrains I have ever seen. It may be the home of half-witted politicians, but you can't argue with the spectacle nature has created that is Alaska.
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