I was out of town on business for most of the past 10 days. That gave me time to reflect a bit on what has caused me to feel so flat during the past two races. I understand, yet find it hard to accept, that other obligations in my life drain my energy. It would be so much easier if I could do all of it and never get sick or feel tired, but that’s hardly reality.
The next 10+ days can be put to good use in prepping for the GNCC in Crawfordsville. My normal daily and weekly routines have returned and I think the weather will cooperate to the point that I can slip in some additional workouts. I’m feeling more rested this week so I think I can start putting some harder workouts together. From experience I tend to do do better on race day when I have trained relatively hard on the seven or so preceeding days. That formula does not work when I am tired but it does when I feel good.
Today I tried to wake my body up from the business trip I took. I was on a plane for nearly 10 hours yesterday so I was slow to come around. I rode my bike to work – 25 minutes of soft pedaling and thinking – then did 45 minutes of Pilates and 8 minutes of rowing at lunch and I rode home this evening. Judging from how I feel tonight, I’m doing okay and think I can probably hit it a bit harder this weekend.
My goals in Crawfordsville are to 1) ride smart by picking better lines through the rutted sections, 2) have consistent lap times, 3) enjoy the race and 4) do better than my lowly 63rd overall from last year.
