Lesson Learned, and Some Homework

Once again, I'm in bed, blogging. Unlike last night though, the lights are on, and my laptop is recharged.  As am I.  This time though, it's from you, my readers.  I got a couple great comments from yesterday's blog and I really appreciated the perspective. I will take each workout one day at a time.  I needed that reminder.

Today's workouts were meant to be one long workout, a three-hour bike ride.  But I couldn't get out of bed at 5:30 a.m. after a hard evening swim last night.  So, I rode for about 1.3 hours this morning with Bob, the same Griffith Park route. Today was absolutely gorgeous out.  You could see the ocean clear to Long Beach from the Hollywood sign lookout point near Griffith Observatory.  One funny thing that happened on our initial climb was the howl of a coyote directly behind me not more than 20 feet away.  I wish we had it on film, but I sped up so quick, my legs must have looked like Shaggy and Scooby-Doo when they encounter a ghost or monster!  I hauled ass outta there!

For the first time in my training, I climbed the Hollywood sign route twice, back-to-back.  It's not that bad considering the longer climbs I've been doing recently.  It was nice to find some progress in my training, along with improved handling skills on descents.  That's something that really has taken a lot of time, getting used to the feel of a tri bike on cornering compared to a road bike.  It's literally something I work on specifically for every workout.

Another gem worth sharing from my ride was this tidbit: Give yourself a specific goal to shoot for and achieving that goal is much easier. I made the mistake of telling Bob how hast I had ridden up to the Hollywood gate last week, speculating that he could beat me by at least a full minute.  Well, Bob needed to see for himself, and beat me by nearly two minutes.  He explained, while panting between breaths, that a specific goal helps him motivate more than something vague.  I took this to heart and am going to figure out how I can apply it to my own training behind the 12-hour IM CDA milestone.  Maybe you can use this advice too.

So how 'bout some late night homework then?  I'll think of a specific goal in the short-term for my training, and you do the same.  Feel free to let me know what you come up with!

104 days and counting.