For the past two days all I've been looking at is trucks and their mirrors and how close they are to the body of the truck. I figure that the side of the truck was probably only a few inches from me when the mirror hit me. At first when I got hit it really didn't seem like a big deal because I wasn't injured, I was more pissed off because the driver didn't stop. As time has passed I've thought more about it and I've realized how truly lucky I am that I didn't get seriously injured or killed. The driver is also lucky that they didn't hit me.In actual fact the only reason I was hit was because I moved Tuesday's ride back to Monday due to the weather. It was warm on Monday and Tuesday was predicted to be cold and I didn't want to ride in the cold. Then, once I got on the road I decided at the last minute to go a different way than planned, which put me on the road that I got hit.
Tonight was the first ride after the near miss on Monday. Quite frankly I was worried and paranoid. I knew I had to get back on my bike and train but wasn't looking forward to it. I now know what it means "to have courage". I decided to make myself as noticeable as possible and put on a bright yellow cycling jacket and a "road workers" vest. The only thing I didn't have, that I'm going to get, is a rear view mirror for my helmet.
This was my first speed work bike ride of the year and I did some hard intervals. I was more concerned that normal because when I do intervals at an all out pace it is hard to keep the bike in a tight controlled line. I did two of the King hills all out. One took me 7.5 minutes and the other around 5 minutes. It was tough, on one I had to get out of the seat to get up faster. Every time a car passed I was a little paranoid. After the ride I was getting lung exertion coughs, which is great, I think it means I'm expanding my potential. I used to get them in my 20's, but didn't get any last year.
At lunch time I did my long swim. One of the sets was a 1 x 1000 meters and I averaged a 1:49 pace. Anything under a 1:50 I'm happy with. During tonight's workout I realized that I'm prepared to go "all out" on the bike and run, but I'm not prepared to work through that same level of pain on the swim. I think one of the differences between me and the fast swimmers is that they are prepared to experience and work through the pain in the water. I'm not. I've never really had strong upper body strength. My natural strength is in my legs.
Long Swim - 1:03:37 / 3000 meters
Speed Bike - 1:18:52 / 37.18 km / 28.2 kph
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3 comments:
hey, I absolutely love the blog. Those before and after pictures are amazing. I've been dying to get into tri's but I'm nervous about time management. How do you do it with a family and a business?
Hey Tony, thanks for the nice words. In terms of doing finding the time, I was just talking to a guy about the same thing earlier today. He's a top age group runner and we both agreed that it is just making it a priority. For me, I do the 9 - 5 thing and train primarily in the evening. If you want to do an IM and need coaching try markallenonline.com great coaching for only $29 per week. I found that when I signed up for the IM I was motivated by pure fear and terror of hurting so bad and not finishing. I'm not sure if that's helpful or not.
good comment posted on the blog...Great message and focus.good job.
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