Well Ladies and Gentlemen; March has not been a good month
for me. Besides the obvious lack of
workouts I have been up and down on the motivation scale. Now not all of this is completely my fault as
I have been fighting some form of nasty flu bug that has been making its way
around work (thanks @keilshammer and you too Andy) and struggling against a
couple of injuries (including what seems to be a strained hip thanks to wearing
bad shoes on the long walk a couple of weekends ago). Add to that the double whammy of St. Patty’s
day and the celebration of the IT department on the completion of a major
upgrade and you have the makings of a train wreck.
This is where the Ride for Heart comes in. In a little less
than three months I will be undertaking my longest ever ride on two wheels
(75km) in a fairly aggressive sub-three hour time. That coupled with over 40 sponsors so far
(Thank You again), I have a little bit of a challenge ahead of me. Sure I have
lots of time to get ready, but this process isn’t about getting ready for one
day, it’s about being healthy every day from now on.
As I’ve said many times before, you find motivation in
strange places sometimes and today was one of those days. I was home sick from
work with what I think was a combo platter of lots of events this weekend and
the detox that Eva has me on. It started
Sunday morning; I should have been out on the bike in the beautiful weather,
but all I could do was drag my butt around the apartment and try to find the
energy to even make breakfast. The entire day I was ‘slow’, barely having
enough energy to peel myself off the couch.
Even at dinner time I had zero appetite and even less get up and
go.
The whole thing escalated today and after being really sick
this morning, I couldn’t think straight or even find the energy to get up. I crashed just after noon (I had to stay awake
to do some remote work) and slept until just short of 6pm. Once I had managed to scarf down last night’s
leftovers, I realized that I felt a lot better and that I really needed to do
something.
Suit UP! OK, not a suit, but bike shorts and a T-shirt. Hopped on Spritz and started with a very easy
pace at a very light tension (on the advice of @Wardy_) just to get the blood
flowing and the hip warmed up. Five
minutes in I realized light and easy just wasn’t going to cut it. Now I didn’t go hog wild and I was nowhere
near my normal pace, but there was a good sweat going on (which is the main
reason to workout). I reached the 40
minute mark and decided that I needed ‘more’.
Buckle down and set a distance goal.
25.02KM in 46 minutes and 59 seconds. That may seem ok, but it is well below the
pace I want to keep for the Ride (ok, not well below, but two minutes). My average heart rate was 151BPM and I maxed
out near 174BPM (high I know, but it was really warm and this was the first
session in a long time). Even my cadence
worked out to hit the 90 mark which is the goal every time I’m on something
with pedals.
Hopefully with this and the restoration of towel service I should
be able to salvage the month,
Beez