Less Is More

After this weekend's training, I'm convinced that less is more for me this season. And that being less committed and not-so-consistent ain't such a bad thing either. I set my alarm for a 5:30 AM wake-up 4 times last week, and I went 1-3 with a losing record for waking up and working out, or one could look at it as a winning record of 3-1 for staying in bed. But on the tail-end of this losing streak, I somehow managed to pull off my best track workout of the season on Thursday night, seeing 71's for the first time in quite some time. On Saturday, I committed to an 86 mile ride with about 6,000' of climbing. My longest ride this season is 74 miles, completed in early January, and my longest ride for the past 4 weeks is 36 miles. I was scared for Saturday's ride not only because of my lack of cycling miles, but also because I'm notorious for bonking on long rides; it's just my thing, bonking on long rides is something I do particularly well. Like many things in life, fear is a good motivator, and my fear of bonking meant I stayed on top of my nutrition from the get-go of the ride. I don't really know how I did it, but the ride was a huge success in terms of training numbers, and I didn't bonk (which I made sure to text to my fellow bonker, Charisa)! In fact, during this 4-mile climb, I dug deep and I was able to drop my Cat 3 riding partner in our epic battle, and I recorded a time I have not seen since my early 30's. I apologize if it sounds like I'm gloating, I'm just really stoked that the ride was such a success rather than a bonkfest.

Yesterday, the schedule called for a 10-mile brick run. It was Earth Day and I had made a pledge that I would make all effort not to produce any garbage by eating food with little to no packaging. Uh oh. I took a handful of cashews, stuffed them into my jersey pocket and off I went. I was feeling a little depleted off my bike and getting ready for my brick run. Uh oh once again, 10 mile run with no packaging, like no gels? I made a quick smoothie from contents with no packaging and took down as many calories as I could without making me puke for my run. Starting the run, no way did I think I could pull off 10 miles, thus I adjusted and said 8, or even 6 miles would be cool. 10 miles later, I was elated not only because I did all 10 miles, but I was able to hold 4 miles at dream half-ironman race pace. Right on!

Less is more seems to be the right balance for me this season. Though I missed three workouts and I didn't put in all the miles I had hoped this week, I still managed to hit the efforts when it counted: on the track, during the climb, and during the brick run. Train to race. And oh, in other news, I'm an uncle for the fifth time. Welcome to this world Reese Yen Murphy!