Oh solo mio

I've had a few requests to reconstitute my blog so I'm going to give it a try amidst the pressing demands of a new job and the unrelenting Ironman training schedule, much my own doing as will be explained. I'm also going to try to complain less about my body ailments. Readers should presume they exist...enough said.

It is of course Memorial Day weekend when we honor the memory of the men and women who have died in service to our country. A shout out to the families of those who have lost loved ones, and a special nod to my family's war veterans. Without meaning any disrespect to the real purpose of the weekend, it also means I am 2 months out from Lake Placid. Traditionally, this is the weekend that many of the 2,500 competitors head to Lake Placid to test out the course. I am not among them.

My schedule called for a 2 hour ride and 25 minute bike, and my coach was encouraging me to scratch that plan and join in a group lake swim followed by a ride today. My freakish mind got the better of all of those plans. To date, my longest ride has been 4 hours and some 50 miles up at Skyline. I looked at the calendar and scrapped all plans inserting the need to assuage my mind--I needed mental miles today.

I could not get anyone to come out and play with me today, and to be honest, I was quite fickle about what I wanted to do. I did not want to ride solo at Skyline, particularly in the heavy traffic endemic of any 3-day weekend, so I had a bifurcated plan. First I headed to Prince William Forest Park and did three loops on the hills. Then I packed up the car, went one exit down to Quantico to get in the rest of my road work.

Today was a good day--not measured by speed but instead by the quality and cumulation of my ride. I rode 72.5 miles, much of it in the aero position, then I went on a 21 minute run. I was definitely spent by the end. As any endurance athlete will tell you, you must be most focused at the end of your endeavor--coming down from Everest, finishing the 112 miles of an Ironman, etc. The results of losing focus can be minor or catastrophic. Today, I enjoyed a mental reminder when I lost focus and dropped my chain while climbing a hill at about mile 68. I have never done this before and usually I ruthlessly mock others that succumb to this misfortune. How can you not know what gear you are in? Oh, I see now. So next time I shall give my riding compatriots a little more room when they drop their chain on a hill.....which is not to say that I won't still pass them.

Tomorrow, a 2 mile open water swim--well, race for most people but I'm not a swimmer so it's really just a lovely 2 mile swim. JB will be doing the 1 mile swim. Here is hoping neither of us swallows enough of the putrid water to cause any medical maladies.