"Saturday!"

I really struggled mentally today.  Part of the problem I think was a late start, as the morning was taken up by my grandsons first ever All-Star game appearance.  But ask me if there was anything that could have stopped me from going to that?  Regardless, by the time I got back from the game and had some lunch it was after 1 pm.  Getting on my bike I realized that I was gonna spend the entire afternoon there.  That my friends is a bit intimidating!

I know I've been living on the edge so after about 45 minutes I gave myself permission to ride for an hour and call it a day.  After an hour I gave myself permission to do half the ride and call it a day.  After  1 1/2 hours I gave myself permission to do the entire ride but not to hold myself accountable to the power requirement.

But somehow the time just kept ticking away and before I knew it I gave myself permission to do the entire ride at the prescribed wattage, and nothing less.  Thank god for the third Lord of The Rings movie which distracted me just enough to get through the tough spots, and I actually started to pick up as the ride wore one.  The program called for 195 minutes at 158 watts plus the warmup/cooldown.  I ended up averaging 169 watts!!   Remember my first test ride 14 weeks ago?  Thirty (30) minutes on fresh legs at 172 watts.  I'm having trouble grasping it??

So I'm quite proud of myself while at the same time I question the sanity of this stuff.  Spending a beautiful early spring afternoon beating myself to death in the basement, does perhaps indicate just a wee bit of eccentricity does it not?

But you know what?  That's who I am.  I know that I'm actually relatively intelligent and if my intense stubbornness is also a factor in my decision making so be it.  I have always believed there was a stronger cyclist inside me and I want to find out if that's really the case.  I am starting to believe that the only thing that really held me back was a lack of understanding.  Time will tell eh.

So that brings me to a bit of a crossroads, and a decision making point.  After one more hard ride on Monday I am supposed to back off for a few days and then do my next test ride a week from today.  That's all well and good but the real problem comes the following week when I need to pick it up again.  It's a problem because at the end of that week I have to run the 30K race in Hamilton.  I want to have a decent race to make up for the disaster of last year when I was in the middle of my hyperbaric treatments, but a good race would require a few more easy days.  I could just push the whole bike program out a week but that leaves me with an even bigger problem 5 weeks later when I'm supposed to run the Waterloo marathon.  Hmmm.....I'm thinking about it.

That's it for today.  I'm gonna try for another 30 km run  tomorrow and I no longer know what to think about that.  Right now I would tell you no freakin way, but I've said that before.  One thing I promise myself.  No matter how it turns out, I will be content.

And I conclude my ramblings by asking a favor of you once you finish reading this.  Get up off your butt, find someone you love, and give them a kiss on the cheek.  When they look at you funny and ask you what that was for, tell them it's just because.  Or I suppose you could tell them it's from Saint Peter!!  Your choice!!

Love

Peter