Consistency is Key

Someone asked me in the beginning of training “Have you had second thoughts?”  At that point, the answer was most wholeheartedly “No!”  But now I am not so sure. Fear is an interesting thing- it can make you stronger when you rise above it.  It can also cripple you when you are down.  I am incredibly lucky that I have such a great support network keeping it from crippling me, but the doubt is there nonetheless.  Why? you might be asking, well read on friends…

Last Saturday we got back in the saddle (both the proverbial one and the literal one) after three weeks off… I got sick and then we went on vacation and there was nary a bike in site…  Anyway, I digress.  Our ride was longer than I had spent on my bike ever and while I had my cushy Pearl Izumi bike shorts on after an hour and a half- OUCH!  That and I didn’t use enough Ride Glide- that is not an experience I care to duplicate.  (See my last post for comments on that). The upside is that I didn’t fall – dare I say that those days are behind me?  We will see but the streak continues for now… Legs were a burning and lungs were on fire- Wildflower is going to be much harder than our measly 21 mile ride last weekend and I have to wonder if I have it in me to take on Nasty Grade?

Additionally, I am finding that I am spending quite a bit of time by myself on these training rides, which I guess is fine since I will be all on my own for the actual race, but Bobby’s experience last year lead me to believe that I was in for a different ride- pun intended.  He said he was always chatting with people on the rides- I have yet to ride with anyone.  Our team is broken up into two groups- a beginner group and an intermediate/advanced group.  I am certainly a neophyte and for some reason I keep ending up in the intermediate/advanced group for the rides.  It is almost that I am too fast for the beginners, but not fast enough for the intermediate/advanced group- aren’t there any others out there like me?  Personally, I like to think it is my incredible athletic prowess that has allowed me to excel on the bike, although I could just be masochistic and like to push it to the limit by going out with the advanced riders.

Running, like cycling, after some time off, be it for illness or otherwise SUCKS!  We did legitimately run on vacation but running in that humidity for this So Cal gal was incredibly hard so that happened only twice.  Sunday was our first hour run after a break, and I find myself frustrated that I am not running at my peak pace.  We have not been running three times a week as I am used to with the normal additions of speed and hill work.  I know there will come a time in the very near future where that will change, but it still annoys me that I am not running as fast as I know I can.  I mean really, I run a sub 2 hour Half Marathon- not to brag but I look forward to the time where I am running for several hours and not feeling like my lungs are going to burst while doing it.

We had our first time trial in the pool tonight.  Swimming is undoubtedly my weakest sport and my biggest fear.  I have now had several dreams where I don’t make it out of the water in time and my timing chip is taken away.  Can we talk about how unnerving that is?  Bobby says until I conquer Desert Tri in March I will continue to be anxious because it is a big unknown.  All I know is that I felt like my arms were going to fall off and that I had to keep telling myself to stroke and, no I am not going to drown.  I am still the tortoise, but for the first time I almost overtook someone!  It was a small victory indeed.

It is officially on and I am told that training is really going to ramp up now.  In the coming weeks I am going to dive into nutrition and look forward to beating the bonk!  I guess in the end of all of this, consistency is the key to training- you build up endurance where you had none, strength where you need it and confidence when you have doubt.