Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Nocturnal

When I was in the seventh grade, playing on the Jr. High basketball team, I complained to my mother one day that the coach was being terribly hard on me, and I didn't understand why. She responded by saying, "Lana, that's a compliment. That means he's counting on you - the harder he rides you, the more he is expecting of you." I thought that was absurd...until...he handed me one of the 2 varsity jerseys that were up for grabs to all the 7th graders and told me I'd be dressing out for the season opener. That jersey was worth it all, and it never really bothered me to be yelled at by that coach again.

So...with my sporadic motivation and spotty training that is obvious if you read this blog, I got called into the virtual League of Triathlete's office yesterday. Yep, that's right. Coach Bigun sat me down at the round table and popped the question, "How long has your longest ride been recently?"

Lana: Ugh, well, let me check...since this past weekend I didn't even ride.

I checked, and whoa, I didn't realize it was that bad.

Lana: Okay, this is bad. The last 4 weeks I haven't ridden over 37 miles. But I did 100 miles about 6 weeks ago.

Bigun: And when you do you plan on riding long again? How many 100+ rides?

Bigun and I then go into an in depth discussion about the plan I am on, and I skip forward and realize that it's not at all what I thought it was. It really only consists of 2 century rides...I had planned on at least 4. And the more I looked at it, the more we decided it had to go. He drilled me good about my bike mileage lately, gave me a better structure to work with 3weeks hard/1week easy, and basically told me to get my @ss on that bike often and long and quit making excuses. So I made an excuse:

Lana: Bigun, I'm racing this weekend. A short duathlon on Saturday.

Bigun: Then you're riding 80 on Thursday or Sunday.

Lana: But Bigun, it's getting dark earlier in the mornings and the morning is the only time I have. There's so much to do during the week in the evenings, there's no way.

Bigun: Then you'll need a bright light, now, won't you?

So...I got up this morning at 4:30 and mounted that headlight I've had for a year. I took off scared to death for a 30 mile ride/3mile run brick. The sun came up about 5:15, and I felt better, but not great. I was actually 11 minutes into the run before I decided that I was glad I got out of bed so early to do it. But hey, I was still glad. And I'm glad for a new direction and for tri-friends who don't mind calling me out when they see me slacking.

I'm sure that IM medal will feel just as good, if not better, than that varsity jersey.

On another note, today was Briar's first day of middle school. I'm not ashamed to say I went in with him and took a seat in his homeroom with the rest of the class. It was a good thing I still had some endorphins flowing from the brick workout...otherwise I might have asked to be added to the class roll.

One more thing - that light, it wasn't bright enough. It was pretty bright and it worked, but I didn't feel great about it. I've got some product reviews that I need to do anyways, so I'll throw that one in soon, too, and you can draw your own conclusion in case you are nocturnal like myself. I broke down and bought a good one, today, though. More info to come.

12 comments:

Carrie said...

School started in July??

:) said...

Riding in the dark scares the crap outta me.

Yeah, what gives on school in the summer!??!?!?

Jumper 2.0 said...

First day of school in July.
When do they get out April.

That's great of bigun and everything but don't let him try to tell you that he put you in the "Tomb of Shame" (TM) for your own good.

Michele said...

I was thinking the same thing about this plan this morning. I was wondering when the first 100 mile+ ride would be and how many there would be. Guess I better think about upping the milage too.

It was darker longer this morning then yesterday, must have been the clouds. I waited until 5:30 to get started and it was still a little too dark for me then. Don't trust these drivers.

Dan Seifring aka "OBRATS" said...

Safety first, be careful out there.

Darrell said...

Isn't the possibility of catching a beautiful sunrise a good motivator?

Christine said...

Get it girl!! It doesn't take much to get you back on track..thats for sure! I really look up to you and hope I can be half as good at everything you do (mother, wife, career, protein drink shaker, etc) haha

Bethany said...

Hey Lana, check out my blog... I have a surprise for you!

Brooke said...

School in July? Are you on a year round schedule?

Anonymous said...

Sometimes we need to be called out. Way to get up and get out there. Be careful. You always inspire me! You help me get excited about my workouts.

Too cute about following Briar to homeroom. You are not only a great athlete but more importantly you are a great mom.

triguyjt said...

props to bigun for making you see the light..(no pun intended)

course...can't cross bigun...

he is called bigun for a reason

Comm's said...

I think its good that MDot Bigun kept you accountable. Even with my team if we're training for IM and did a sprint we always added a long bike after the race or the next day.

These short races can be a huge distraction to your overall goal of IM, you end up sacrificing LD for shorter stuff and taper/recovery.

The long race is the key focus.

Hey, it may be dark, but it aint cold yet.