Hindsight, as they say is 20-20 and I should have known better but hey! blame it on a combination of the holidays, early onset winter madness and the promise of being outside!
Wednesday dawned with fair skies and for the first time in almost a month the potential to do my bike workout outside … on the road! For those of you in more temperate climates this might seem like a no-brainer but here in the frozen waste land known as Canada, when you get handed a day that might not freeze yer privates plus no ice on the road? You run (or ride) with it!
Being the holidays, rising later than usual and with other tasks on my TO DO list, I didn’t get rolling until well after lunchtime … 2:30 in the afternoon in fact. But the sun was actually shining and as I started on my hour and a half interval ride it felt wonderful. I was tooling along enjoying the speed and being out on Simon for the first time in 6 weeks. (what?!? Don’t YOU name your bike???)
Now. What I failed to mention is that we were actually in the middle of a Blizzard Warning. Not that you would’ve known it on that afternoon. But as I cycled northward, I noticed the sun starting to drift lazily behind a bank of clouds that had been steadily getting thicker and darker as I spun and sprinted and ground out my prescribed workout. Once the sun went behind the clouds my solar gain plummetted and a slight wind kicked up. As luck would have it I was at the halfway point in my workout anyway and as I “don”t fool with Mother Nature” turned around and headed home taking a slug on my now ice cold water/Gatorade mix.
The water hit my stomach like a cement block and within minutes my stomach started turning, cramps radiating up and out and over and beyond. Bad enough anytime, exacerbated by the posture one assumes on a road bike. I wiggled and fidgeted between the aerobars and as upright as I could muster all the while pounding out my final interval. Oh the pain! And I was still 10 or so kilometers from the car.
But a little voice came to me … funny how it happened to sound just like Coach too!… which said, “Imagine you’re on kilometer 150 of Louisville (or worse, at the 10k mark!) and it’s cold (more likely boiling hot but y’know you work with the analogies you’re dealt with) and you get wrenching gut cramps. Are you going to just pull over and call it a day? Uh uh. Don’t think so. You tough it out. You grit your teeth and you keep going. There is no other alternative. You. Just. Do. It.”
So that’s what I did. I grunted and grit and toughed it out and got back to the car, hurting, cold, exhausted and triumphant. It took me close to two hours to get warmed up and for my stomach not to feel like it was birthing an Alien. But. Another box checked. Another test passed. One step closer to: Ironman.
Note To Self:
- You never know what lessons you’ll learn from each workout
- That which does not kill you makes you stronger
- Find another Gatorade solution
Workouts:
- Planned Time: 9:26
- Actual Time: 9:50
- Swim Distance 4320 m
- Bike Distance 98.5 km
- Run Distance 11.77 km
good job ma!
biking back to the car? you mean you don’t bike your skinny little tires across our dirt/ice road of doom? thats half the fun!
someday we will get good weather….
Yah. I drive to the pavement. Call me a big wuss.
I am so impressed – and cheering you on in your training for your Ironman goal. Publicly stating what you’re going to do is a huge part of getting something done – so you’re well on your way! Count me in if you need company once you’re heading out on your longer runs or rides: I’ll pass on the swimming:)
Thanks for your kind words Karen. You can count on being called into “long ride/run” service come the Spring!
[...] 2. ensure you read, comprehend, and internalize previous LMS articles (see The Bike Ride of Doom) [...]