Marysville. Swimming. Running. Time trails. Commuting. Fatigue. Joy. Surprises. Hidden strength. Realizations.

Its been a long week, and with a new weekend rapidly approaching my mind begins to wander. It wanders in retrospect of the Marysville stage races, with excitement for the Steelman triathlon, and with the satisfaction of a week that I can honestly say blew my body apart in the best possible way.

For those of you who missed it, Marysville is the premiere stage racing weekend on the MASS schedule that includes three days of racing in five different formats. The weekend started off with a dreary drizzle and fog, perfectly slimy conditions for a night time trial. A 3.7 mile course was laid out around the Oesterling farm and at 9:15 the race began with Kuhn taking the opening run. Every 30 seconds another rider saddled up, lit up, and rode into the foggy night. Lights reflected back to your eyes in the misty-mess, tires squirmed around for traction, and in the humid night air people rode the ‘race of truth’  through a tunnel of wet darkness that led both through the forest as well as through themselves. I loved every second of it. Saturday morning clouds opened the racing for the beginners and endurance riders, but were soon burned off for sport and expert. Heat was high, humidity was higher, and the race became one as much about survival as it was about speed. My first lap was fantastic with a low time and a strong feel. My custom tires threw the mud off perfectly and when leaned far into a corner clawed at the tacky earth to find a wonderful amount of grip. And they made fun of me for cutting knobs. Amateurs. My second lap started just as strong, but about 2 miles from the finish I cramped. Hard. Both sets of quads and both hamstrings decided I hadn’t had enough to drink and outright stopped me from riding for about 10 minutes. Ouch. Again I am reminded that my body doesn’t perform well in heat. Oh well- I refused to take another DNF so I soft-pedaled the rest of the race and didn’t come in DFL. Sunday started early with the hill climb so knowing this wasn’t a strong event for me my goal was to just get some finish points and save myself for the short-track. Im glad I did because by the time the STXC came around I was fired up and ready.

My legs ached on the fast start. Mike Melnick yelled for me to pace myself. I hung onto the lead group. We made our way down the soft grassy area and into the only real climb of the course which was just long enough to sling me off the back of the lead group. No worries, dig in, corner well, and make power in the flats. Each lap the leaders got a little farther in front of me but it didn’t matter- we had 20 minutes to suffer and I was going to pour everything I had left into the pedals no matter where I ended up. I learned more and more about the course and how deep I could corner, where I could accelerate, and what was going to make me suffer a little more. I kept losing time on that climb, but was enjoying the corners more and more each lap. On the last lap, the leaders came around- Matt needed some passing room going into the big downhill sweeper turn right in the main spectator area and I knew we could go two wide in it. I told him to take the inside line (the grippiest part) so if I slid I wouldn’t take him out. We hit the corner at full speed and I went to the outside- my front wheel washed out a little so I pushed the bike over kicked the ground hard and kept pedaling. It was sweet!  I chased them as long as I could but they pulled on me again on the hill. I finally got my opportunity to pull on someone else in the last corner where I knew my tires would stick and he was unsure, so I sprinted for the line and took it. It was a great end to a great weekend.

After coming home and unpacking, it was time to settle into the training rhythm again since the Steelman is only 5 weeks away. With the confidence of two open water swims under my belt and a rest day on Monday I took to the pool on Tuesday over lunch. I was able to swim the entire 800 yards in one go- plus some. I totaled 1100 yards in a single session and then followed that session with a 26 mile bike ride that included about 13 miles of TT/LT effort. Surprisingly my legs still felt like they had power in them and I was able to maintain 22mph average over rolling terrain. Wednesday was a four mile run, and then Thursday was my day to bike commute for the week. I took the long way, but by then my legs were screaming ‘uncle’ and my body longed for some real rest. So here we are- into Friday, resting today and tomorrow….but still contemplating a century on Sunday.

Something that a week like this does for me is makes me realize how lucky I am to be doing this, as well as realize that my strengths seem to lie in different areas from where I have been focusing. That said, it looks like next year will be pretty different from this year yet again with endurance races early, then transitioning into short events in the fall….we will see how it goes, but Im sure it will bring a smile to my face.

Ride fast, take chances,

/Dan

This would be a great feature- please go sign the petition NOW! I did.

My goal at the start of the week was 12.5 hours. My goal today? Ride a little. What was supposed to be my biggest week so far has ended up being a rest week. I should get some decent volume (10 hours) but it has all been pretty sporadic, filled with cross training, and overall pretty low intensity. Why, you ask? Well, after the big fixie day last Sunday my knee has been bothering me again. Add that to a dragging fatigue and what I think was a low-grade flu and I really haven’t been up to it this week. Whenever I get sick and/or tired my emotions, willpower, and motivation go right out the window. So since my body told me to rest, I did. Since my body told me to eat, I did. Since my heart told me to play with my son and have long deep conversations with my wife, I did. I must say, it was a good week in many ways, but riding wasn’t one of them. I do have next Monday off, so maybe Ill count Sunday as a +1 day for an 8 day training schedule and get my volume there. Base 3 starts one week early.

Ive started commuting to work more often to keep my hours up, and folks have started noticing. Since its been relatively cold and crappy this week, a co-worker asked me ‘why would you do that to yourself?’ I thought for a moment, and came up with my quote for the day-

“If I make myself suffer and am in control of it, it makes suffering when I can’t control it easier to deal with”

So there they are, your words of wisdom for the day.

I don’t know exactly how this works, but whenever I change my training up, I gain weight. The optimist in me likes to think its muscle, but the pessimist in me gets angry because I cant seem to get below 195 for any more than a few days. Grrr….its all power to weight, though, so if it is muscle, at least I have the power end going for me.

In any case, I have started base 2, which means spin-ups, hilly endurance, tempo, and cruise intervals have started. Still not hitting true threshold stuff, but certainly much more intense than the base 1 don’t-go-above-zone-2 style of training. This week has already seen 2 commutes to work, some yoga, some weights, some core, lots of stretching, and the ‘Suffer-O-Rama’ Spinervals DVD, so I have been keeping on my hours goals pretty well. Maybe the extra muscle will help me burn more fat and my weight will eventually just sink like a rock. That’s the optimist in me talking ;)

Ride fast, take chances-
/Dan