Falling Back to Move Forward

Wow, what can I say? It has been awhile Blogger....I know you missed me and wonder where I had gone....well I am back and look to be for sometime...so rest easy, and be placated knowing I will be here to fill these pages with endless text and stories of Kirsten and I's follies through life and training...in that order of course ;)

So it has been a long time since I logged in here and updated things, almost a week actually, well it HAS been a week! So long! Kirsten pretty much updated you on our trip to Cheshire which was a ton of fun. I always like going up there, especially with my wife and hanging out with her family. Even though we are racing around, life seems a little slower paced up there and I always come back in a better mood, at least in the Fall/Spring/Summer...I haven't been there in winter yet...but I have a feeling my disposition isn't determined by the weather...it is more the family and love that I experience up there...okay I will stop before everyone out there engages in an involuntary protein spill (i.e. regurgitate). But I digress, the flight back was a little brutal and late enough that I couldn't stop my two week caffeine IV from flowing strong. I felt sluggish and terrible from lack of sleep and was getting a tad grumpy from not having a consistent workout routine the past couple weeks. But I made it through in one piece and got back into my routine with a bang.

I am able to write this now because work has lightened up again. This past week I was consumed with a project at work that is due Monday. So much that I couldn't possibly get it done by Thursday and be able to go up with Kirsten to get her ultra high quality uber bike fit at Signature Cycles. Luckily the love of my life helped out and got us rescheduled for Monday...she is the best! So the projects I work on aren't that exciting but they keep me busy from time to time as it is a constant volley of last minute things and realizations that throw an inordinate amount of monkey wrenches into the proposal process (most of which is the government's fault for not knowing what they really want in proposals or how contractors view the RFP's and put together the proposals. Anyway, boring stuff right here!

So as I mentioned in some of my previous posts from the last couple weeks I had been feeling less than stellar in my workouts and had even dropped off so much that Kirsten and TJ were handing me my butt on our rides and runs (what few runs there were!). It was a struggle but we all have those set backs and can't be on top of our game every workout we do, although for the past couple months I was feeling like I was, until the past couple weeks. This all culminated on Tuesday when we went out for our usual Tuesday morning ride and I could barely hold even a moderate pace with Kirsten and TJ, let alone sprint with them. It was rough and I was feeling like the lack of sleep, proper food, and caffeine induced haze had taken it's toll over the past couple weeks. After Monday I was determined to lay off the caffeine and did just that. Although I didn't feel better persay things started to come around on Wednesday's run.

We left with Kip 15 minutes late (I know but at least I am consistently late and wasn't late to my wedding!!) to run down to the Lincoln Memorial and back, roughly 7 miles or a little more, a long run by standards since we hadn't done much lately! Kip was taking it easy on us and K-bear was feeling a little funky and not into pushing the pace (read her blog about that below). Well on the way back she was pretty far ahead of us and we didn't catch her until 3rd st (Lincoln is roughly 23rd or so) and in that time Kip was pushing the pace like crazy....I was keeping up and starting to feel it, but was holding my own. Of course he didn't go all out, but I didn't expect him to. Then we got to Capitol Hill and he sprinted to the top and left me in the dust as I sprinted to, but it was HARD. Needless to say when I got to work I felt like I had been Ironman Training and done a 2 hour run, not a 1 hour run!

Then that evening Kirsten and I met up to do our weekly Master Swim at CU. The workout was 3100 yds and we had been in the pool twice in the past 3 weeks with one of those only being 1000 meters. I was hurting bad after the 400 warm up and wanted to quit...the main sets were even worse and I was limping along as best I could trying to trudge on...Kirsten and my swim lane partner were kicking my butt, but then at about 2500 yards in I started to feel better....was this a turning point? Hmmm, maybe! I finished strong but was definitely tired overall. The next morning when i woke up, there wasn't a part of my body that wasn't sore from the run or the swim the day before. It was a good kind of sore, but with a bike on the agenda...we would see.

Thursday we woke up pretty early to get going and actually left the house on time or even a little early...hmm...another turning point...MAYBE! Well after a warm up lap with some sprints thrown in our group had grown to the fast of the fastest men and women out at Hains Point on Tues/Thurs, so much that they even branched off from the group they had formed! Well even though my legs were feeling pretty sore I was surprised at how well they were holding up, even so to the point where I was only two people back on a long tempo sprint and was able to blow by TJ and get pretty far ahead by the turnaround. After the first lap Phil started complaining and said "Either go easy, or do sprints...don't just ride 28mph!!! It has no training value!!!" Pretty funny I thought but good to know that they were pushing their limits as was I. This continued for FOUR more laps since you couldn't keep these speed demons corraled with a cattle prod and the total amount of molasses in the Boston Molasses Disaster. I was feeling good that I was leading out in some of the sprint and was able to hold my position longer than I thought. Without a HRM or a Bike Computer it is hard to see where you are at but those around me said we were cruising at 26mph and doing 28mph sustained on the back side of Hains Point...SUSTAINED!!! Are you serious!!!???? That was all I needed to know I was back in form.

Of course our cool down lap wasn't much of a cool down. We get to the gate and Sean and Phil take off to mess with everyone and TJ goes after them to joke about cooling down...the whole group speeds up and catches up to them just as they are slowing down and who goes by like a photo flash? Nope, not the flash....it was my wife...KIRSTEN! She flew by us like we were all standing still and the testosterone immediately filled the air and all you could hear was CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK, about 10 guys upshifting to chase her down. Well she was hard to catch and was leading out the group for a long time at 25mph and looked insanely strong. She dropped back as we approached the point and I was leading out at about 25 to 26mph for a short time but was feeling kind of tired so dropped off to the right and these three guys I had never seen before pulled up. Well they pulled up and slowed the pace to about 22mph, which the group wasn't happy with. Phil and the speedsters go by shortly after I got back on the train and one by one these three guys started dropping off until I was right behind the last guy. He was proportionately bigger than me so I couldn't really see in front of him. All of the sudden he goes right and waves me through as he drops off to reveal that the lead group is 50 YARDS AHEAD OF HIM!!! CRAP!!! So I down shift a could gears and really start to crank pushing hard to catch up....well it took almost 1/2 a mile of pain but just as I pulled up to Kip's wheel....I was done...I just couldn't hold it any longer. trying to catch up to a group of 5 going 28+mph by yourself is HARD! I was proud that I got that far and wasn't disappointed that I reached them but couldn't hold on. Catching up to them was the goal and the hardest part. Besides, about 25 yards later was the stop sign and they all slowed down to head home....whew...welcome back!!!

We have a 100 miler scheduled tomorrow so we will see how I feel on the 2nd half of that compared to the last couple...those were rough so I am hoping that I am truly "back"...more on the results of that experiment tomorrow night...right here on channel KNC, all text....all the time (with some pictures and links every now and then!)