Today is a beautiful day. And no, not because it is Valentine's Day. Because it feels like spring time outside. It is 65 and sunny and all I want to do is go for a five hour bike ride. Having an incomplete road bike kind of puts a kink in that plan though....along with school and work and what not.
But this is the first real sign of spring. Even though we had a big snow storm last week, the weather is finally looking favorable. The warm sunshine on my back and the amber tint on the world from my sunglasses really makes me want to get back in shape and start training again. I missed my morning swim and weight training this morning due to heavy traffic and a bit of a late start. I thought I'd compensate with a longer spin on the bike by starting 25 minutes before class. Wrong. We only did some stupid heart rate testing and junk so even with my ambitious goal I still didn't even break an hour on the bike. Not being satisfied with that, I stayed after classes and went back to the gym for a great swim; it's starting to come back. It was nice being able to swim without having an imminent class I had to get to in a different change of clothes. I've already started seeing positive gains in the water and some fitness gains on the bike. I won't be able to really tell on the bike until I get out on the road and do some distance on my road bike. But like I said, that will have to wait until I get all my parts that are on back order. That is going to get harder and harder to do if this weather keeps going in this direction. I might break down and borrow a set of brakes from a loving co-worker and ask my boss if I can take a cassette from the store and replace it with my identical one I ordered once it gets here just so I can start riding. Then again I'm still waiting on pedals, but hopefully they will be in later this week.
At this point in the season I feel like I'm at a really good place. Even outside of this one season I feel like I'm at a great foundation for a fantastic season. Coming off the Ironman last year and a half the year before that, I have some long, built up fitness and training hours that should help me bounce back quickly physiologically. Even if it doesn't happen as quickly as I would like, one thing I know I will have is a greater mental strength. I no longer NEED to do six hour bike rides or 5000 meter swim sets. I don't have to go down to a nasty community lake and do 2 mile open water swims. I don't have to wake up at 4:30 am to start a four hour run in hopes of completing most of it before the heat and humidity picked up too much (Didn't work by the way). I have endurance and experience now that makes these shorter races seem like "sprints" for once, which they are supposed to be. I feel like I keep learning every day about training either from media sources or from those around me training for similar goals. This upcoming season is a great chance for me to really excel and maybe have my first overall win. Knowing that going into grad school this fall will probably be extra motivation. Being completely consumed with physical therapy school for the next three years and starting my career after that, I don't know when the next time will be that I will really get to focus on races and put some real valuable time into. This might be my last chance for a while. It might be my last time to suffer, to grow, and to endure for a few years. I'm going to have to make it count and make it last. I'm not fantastic at any one sport. I would get demolished at a swim meet. I would hang for a bit but probably end up watching heals at a cross country meet. And I might be able to hold my own on the bike. But when you put all three together, I have a chance. I have the ability and the power to succeed. I am a competitor. I could look at it as weaknesses in those areas because I couldn't race and win at these events individually, or I could and I do look at it as a positive that I can be decently good at three different things. "Decently good" enough to beat most of the people I have raced.
But this is the first real sign of spring. Even though we had a big snow storm last week, the weather is finally looking favorable. The warm sunshine on my back and the amber tint on the world from my sunglasses really makes me want to get back in shape and start training again. I missed my morning swim and weight training this morning due to heavy traffic and a bit of a late start. I thought I'd compensate with a longer spin on the bike by starting 25 minutes before class. Wrong. We only did some stupid heart rate testing and junk so even with my ambitious goal I still didn't even break an hour on the bike. Not being satisfied with that, I stayed after classes and went back to the gym for a great swim; it's starting to come back. It was nice being able to swim without having an imminent class I had to get to in a different change of clothes. I've already started seeing positive gains in the water and some fitness gains on the bike. I won't be able to really tell on the bike until I get out on the road and do some distance on my road bike. But like I said, that will have to wait until I get all my parts that are on back order. That is going to get harder and harder to do if this weather keeps going in this direction. I might break down and borrow a set of brakes from a loving co-worker and ask my boss if I can take a cassette from the store and replace it with my identical one I ordered once it gets here just so I can start riding. Then again I'm still waiting on pedals, but hopefully they will be in later this week.
At this point in the season I feel like I'm at a really good place. Even outside of this one season I feel like I'm at a great foundation for a fantastic season. Coming off the Ironman last year and a half the year before that, I have some long, built up fitness and training hours that should help me bounce back quickly physiologically. Even if it doesn't happen as quickly as I would like, one thing I know I will have is a greater mental strength. I no longer NEED to do six hour bike rides or 5000 meter swim sets. I don't have to go down to a nasty community lake and do 2 mile open water swims. I don't have to wake up at 4:30 am to start a four hour run in hopes of completing most of it before the heat and humidity picked up too much (Didn't work by the way). I have endurance and experience now that makes these shorter races seem like "sprints" for once, which they are supposed to be. I feel like I keep learning every day about training either from media sources or from those around me training for similar goals. This upcoming season is a great chance for me to really excel and maybe have my first overall win. Knowing that going into grad school this fall will probably be extra motivation. Being completely consumed with physical therapy school for the next three years and starting my career after that, I don't know when the next time will be that I will really get to focus on races and put some real valuable time into. This might be my last chance for a while. It might be my last time to suffer, to grow, and to endure for a few years. I'm going to have to make it count and make it last. I'm not fantastic at any one sport. I would get demolished at a swim meet. I would hang for a bit but probably end up watching heals at a cross country meet. And I might be able to hold my own on the bike. But when you put all three together, I have a chance. I have the ability and the power to succeed. I am a competitor. I could look at it as weaknesses in those areas because I couldn't race and win at these events individually, or I could and I do look at it as a positive that I can be decently good at three different things. "Decently good" enough to beat most of the people I have raced.
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