Shoes, Ships, and Sealing Wax

I see the light

Every time I've switched on the TV and sat down in the comfy chair to watch the Tour a voice in the back of my head had scolded me: you can't train for that century with your ass on the La-Z-Boy instead of the saddle!

The voice is right, and last week, I was starting to weasle, setting up the justification for doing the metric (62 miles) instead of the full 100 miles. Then the other night I ran across my ride log from 1997, the year I botched my century. I realized a couple of things: I worked really hard, and I was really hard on myself.

I decided that I really do need to try this again, but this year, I need to work smart, and I need to give myself more credit, regardless of what happens on October 7.

First thing I did was set up a list of goals for each weekend, miles and where I'd like to ride. Second thing I did was remind myself that riding a bike is fun...if I am dreading every hours of this training, why put myself though hell? This is an indulgence...I'm allowing myself to spend the summer playing on my bike.

This morning Victor and I went out to ride on the W&OD, a converted rail trail in Virginia. Committed Marylander that I am, I hate to admit that the commonwealth has us beat in nice places to ride. I like Rock Creek, but the trail is in awful shape, and it's so narrow that on a Saturday morning, it's a downright dangerous place to ride a bike. The W&OD, in contrast, is wide, well paved, and most of the people on it are polite about announcing when they pass or keeping their kids from darting out in front of you and stopping.

Anyway, we did 20 miles. I felt good for about 16 miles, and I finished up the last four by sheer force of will. This is typical of my rides.

Also typically, my average heart rate was 90% of my max, and more than once when I checked my monitor, I was at my max. So today I actually hauled out those old training books I bought ten years ago and ignored. Seems I'm doing my training in a zone where I'm pumping out lactic acid, which explains why I finish feeling like shit, and why I'm ready to sell the bike for scrap metal the morning after each ride.

One of my problems is, in order to approach Victor's speed...and in order to avoid being run over by skateboarders and dog walkers...I ride in a fairly big gear. I knew my knees didn't like it, but I don't have the endurance to spin and still move the bike forward. My new strategy...starting next week, since I now realize that tomorrow really needs to be an "active recovery" day...is to work on endurance. I have always focused on two numbers, miles and miles per hour, and all I've cared about is making those numbers bigger. For the next ride, I'm leaving the odometer at home, and I'm strapping the heart rate monitor to the handlebars. I'm focusing on time, and keeping my heart rate at 144.

And I'm patting myself on the back for getting as far as I did today.

Posted by Nic at July 8, 2006 07:36 PM | TrackBack