And Wussing Out...

Okay, so I'm not really beating myself up about it too much, but I needed a title and my efforts over the past few days have been less-than-heroic.

Friday I skipped my squats because my legs were junk and I didn't really see the point in causing the significant muscle fiber trauma that I knew it would when there was definitely not enough rest scheduled in the near future for it to heal. Breaking down muscle only works when you let it grow back.

Saturday was my one "heroic" day of the weekend. My scheduled workout was 8-12 X a 6-8% grade hill that took 60-90 seconds to climb. The first part of the climb was supposed to be zone 3-4, then stand and push to zone 5 for the last 20 seconds, and finish with 5 powerful pedal strokes at the crest of the hill. This is a Coach Dave staple and as many times as I've done it, I've never made it through more than six reps. However, once I saw it smack-dab in the middle of a power block, I finally got it. It's not about the hill; it's about the sprint at the top of the hill.

My legs once again felt terrible going into the workout, but I decided to do one rep and then if I still wanted to quit I would. This time I made it a point just to climb the hill, not try to push too early like I have in the past (a steep grade will get me to zone 3 without training) . Sure enough, I had a much better workout this time and got 8 reps in. I might have been able to do more, but I didn't want to be greedy. I had made my point and I wanted to live to train another day.

Unfortunately, the next day I woke up to rain, high winds, and a temperature that topped off at 51 degrees. Great weather in February, not so much in May. I had two workout options for the day: a four hour mountain bike ride if I felt good or a two hour road ride if I didn't. Well, I didn't feel good and couldn't have mountain biked even if I did and it didn't take long for me to decide that I didn't really feel up to a road ride in the rain either. Adam had some sort of nasty flu thing last week and I'm still not fully convinced that it won't get me yet. I've had a low-grade sore throat since Friday, but nothing else so far.

The only problem with this plan is that Monday is ALWAYS my day off. I have a serious mental block against riding on Monday, but I somehow convinced myself yesterday that I would. Yeah right. I came home and stressed about what to wear to our office "retreat" tomorrow as I wanted to look nice for all the important folks in other departments.

Then I stressed about my first week of homework, because I just began the first class of a "graduate certificate" program in Instructional Systems Technology. I don't officially need any more education, but I'm definitely wanting to make a bit of a career change. Well, I've been wanting to do that for two years, but I'm finally getting a clear picture of what my strengths are. They include being a student loan guru/superstar, but unfortunately there's not a lot of room for advancement in that field (at least without moving), so I have to figure out a way transfer my skills to something more profitable.

So the ride got bumped for homework. That's not going to happen again, I swear.

The good news is that my legs should be good going in the next week. I'm going to keep pushing the limits about what I can handle and see what happens. I really wish I had a power meter, because I feel like my legs and HR monitor are lying to me about what I'm really capable of as far training volume and intensity go. Too bad that probably won't happen for a while on the current salary.

From what I hear, power meters and Shakira's hips are the only training devices that register fully accurate information.

(For some odd reason, we like making Shakira jokes in the Rodkey household.)