getting the job done, the not-so pretty way
Friday, May 29th, 2009Today was a rough day training for me. It’s amazing how quickly things can change over the course of a workout,…similar to that which can change during Ironman races. I had flashbacks from my race at Ironman Coeur d’Alene last year, where I blew up 2/3rds into the bike. The nostagia wasn’t pleasant this time.
I attempted to descend a 4 loop bike course again (Sardis to the end of Columbia Valley Hwy loop). I started out at a good clip, knowing full well if I was going to build speed, that things ultimately were going to become challenging. Let’s bring it – I felt!
1st lap: 1hr35min
2nd lap: 1hr30min …Starting this lap, I witnessed a black labrador dog with a cone around it’s neck bolt across the road to chase me; he came oh-so-close to getting hit by an on-coming car. I thought that dog was a goner,…he was a lucky bugger – that cone certainly didn’t help him see the car coming from his side. It reminded me of a time when I was biking with my brother, Brent to Point Clarke – a dog who came out to chase us ended up getting pummeled by an on-coming car.
3rd lap: 1hr31min …I started losing it somewhere during lap 3,…a couple indicators were telling me I was in trouble – the first being, I felt like I was cycling outside my body, and didn’t have a clear focus on anything. The second indicator was that I had to get off my bike and go into a convenience store for a quick fix of food,..anything with calories,…when it came to paying for my food, I handed the clerk my spare inner-tube and driver’s licence. It took me a moment with an apparently confused clerk for me to understand that an inner-tube isn’t a fair trade for Snickers bar; “man, get a grip” I had to tell myself.
4th lap: 1hr40min,…tongue sticking out the whole way…
…the 40min transition run was ugly.