Saturday, May 24, 2014

Training Update: Doing Good, Then Doing Nothing, Now Maybe Doing Good Again

I did so good for the first week -- no, eight days, I need every bit of credit I can give myself -- of class. I had purposely started my training schedule a week early so that I could have some "wiggle room" while I was in class, but for the first eight days I honestly thought I might not need it. I was inspired, I had energy, the weather was nice, I felt better starting the work day when I had worked out first... I was doing double workouts every day when I wasn't on duty, and I was sure it was going to last.

Then, something happened on Day Nine. I don't know what it was. Frustrating day with clients, maybe, or maybe just lack of sleep catching up to me, but I was faced with a 30-mile ride after work and I just plain didn't want to do it.

Okay, no big deal. I was a week and a half ahead in my schedule, so no harm in skipping a workout, right? I mean, that was why I had put all that room in my schedule to begin with, because there are ALWAYS days like that in class, and usually more of them as class goes on, so I was totally entitled to skip that one afternoon (an afternoon with perfect weather, by the way) and sleep all afternoon (and all night) instead. It was also okay to sleep in the next morning instead of going to the pool, because my body needed it, right?

Well, maybe it did, but that break in routine combined with some inarguably shitty weather for the next week or so was like a sledgehammer to my discipline. I would get up to swim a couple mornings a week, or go out for a run a couple afternoons, but didn't do any biking at all. I hate riding in the rain, and it really did seem like there was nothing but rain for a big chunk of class. A couple times I sucked it up and went to Lifetime and forced out 20 or 25 miles on the stationary bike, but you, me, and everyone else knows that miles on the stationary bike are nothing like miles on a real bike. I watched my cushion get smaller and smaller until, finally, there was no cushion left. It was obvious that I was never, ever going to make up those missed rides. The runs, maybe. I was going to Disneyland and California Adventure for a week and could totally run every day while I was there. The swims I was actually caught up on. I figured I could just let the bike go because I also happen to believe that the amount of training I do, or do not do, on the bike has the least effect on how fast I ride. The speed I ride seems to be mostly determined by how fat I am, and oh! I forgot to mention I had done really well with diet while I was in class. I told the kitchen only egg whites and fruit and salad for me, and that was what they gave me so that was what I ate. I finally lost about seven pounds of my "winter coat" while I was in class.

So I headed to California for vacation with all my running clothes packed. I had the best of intentions, really I did. But once I got out there, I was busy all day long. Every single day. We were staying at a house a mile from Disneyland (.6 miles if you took the tram, which I never did because the tram line was just ONE MORE LINE in a day full of waiting in lines, and it only saved .4 miles), and every day I walked to and from Disneyland twice a day. (Naps were absolutely mandatory at Disney. I can't imagine getting through one full day at Disney without a nap.) Between the four miles of walking every day, and the fact that I was on my feet all day long except for the 2-minute intervals of sitting down on rides after waiting an hour to get on them, I was completely exhausted at the end of every single day, and by Day Two I knew running was not going to happen while I was there, not at all, not unless you count the running I did when I knew I was about to miss that forever-long light at Magic Way and Disneyland Drive.

So! In total I missed four scheduled runs and six scheduled bike rides. To put this in perspective, the schedule has 59 runs and 59 bike rides. I have decided I can live with missing those. I will just do better from here on out. It shouldn't be that hard. My life is back to normal again, no vacations, no class, no new puppies, no buying a house, good summer weather coming up, none of those things that have derailed past training schedules. On my first "real" day back in Michigan (I don't count Friday, because I got home at 5 a.m. after a hideous day and night of screwed-up travel and slept almost the entire day), I managed a double workout, swim in the morning and 35 miles on the bike in the afternoon, and hopefully I can do the same tomorrow and Monday; we shall see. In any case, the race is still nearly three months away, so I have time to redeem myself, I hope.