Adventures in Training

It's been a pretty nice week in the desert, other than the dried out skin and static cling dogs.  Every time I check the weather it's 8% humidity or some crazy shit like that.  My life is an endless cycle of drinking water and peeing.

I was fairly nervous heading into the weekend as I had a bike test on tap for Saturday.  Bike tests hurt, a lot, and I don't really enjoy that kind of pain.  But we've been fairly sure that my last test in November was no longer accurate due to the strength gained on the cycling trip in Central America.  Clearly it's LOTS of time in the saddle that results in gains for me, as I also proved last year with the Canada training.  Anyway, I steeled myself for the worst and hopped on the bike Saturday morning determined to give it my all.  I watched part of a Walking Dead episode during warmup and then switched to a couple P!nk songs on repeat for the test itself (20 minutes of bike-as-hard-as-you-can).  Training buddy Mary had a (run) test on her schedule the same morning, so I gave her a post-test breakdown of my experience.

That pretty much covers it.  I went as hard as I could!  The "fan" Jeff said we had in the closet was...not a fan, so I had to rely on a ceiling fan to keep me from overheating, which clearly only worked so well.  In the end, I gained 6 more watts for the average output of the test.  That plus the 5 I gained in November represents 11 huge watts in less than a year.  It doesn't sound like a lot but (a) once you have a solid base, you fight for every single gained watt and (b) as a fraction of my average watts, it's quite a solid increase.  It also bumps up my power-to-weight ratio across yet another boundary I've been trying to cross.

I spent a large portion of the afternoon drinking so my body would forget what I had done to it.

Today I headed out for a nice easy trail run around Papago Park.  No big climbs, just gently rolling trails in the early morning sun.

Photo from This Website

What I fail to understand is that each and every time I go running in a sleeveless top or tank, I forget about the previous time.  There's a reason I always Body Glide the motherfucking hell out of myself before races.  Because I always chafe in the underarms if running without sleeves.  I ran my first loop of the park in about 35 minutes and then stopped at my car for some water before continuing.  I searched the car for anything that might help me (note to self: the car would be a GREAT place to stash some BodyGlide or Aquaphor or anything!).  I happened upon a tube of chapstick and figured, what the hell.  Let's just say, that's one tube that will never be used on my lips again.  But the rest of the run was finished without incident and I didn't scream in the shower, so all's well that ends well.

I can't believe the start of April is upon us.  One of my favorite months and the start of tri season in Northern California!  I'm not sure if I feel quite ready to race yet but well rested legs may make all the difference.  Have a great week!