Friday, July 23, 2010

Stand Down: Come To A Decision On It

No morning weigh-in: my official weigh-in procedure is to step on the scale before breakfast, just before stepping into the shower, but lately I've been eating breakfast at home, and to save time I do that while the water boils for coffee, ie long before I shower. I'll have to come up with a new procedure...
 
Today marks Day # of the Great Clinton Water Emergency, we can't use the tap water here at work (not for drinking, or washing hands, or cooking) because they found E. coli in the town well. I will keep eating breakfast at home, and limit myself to Diet Coke at work, at least until they give us the all clear.
 
My Decision: The Wilderness 101 is a week from tomorrow, and I've decided that I'm not really ready for it, so I am not going. Last weekend's rides were the final tests, and I felt like death on at least one (the other was too short and easy to really tell me anything); since those results might have been anomalous, I tested the situation again with a Sals ride on Tuesday -- and I felt even worse. I'm kind of disappointed, but I just don't think I'm up for it -- 100 miles is a long ride on a mountain bike, that's a lot further than "tough it out" can carry you and I do not feel like spending $200 or more to suffer for 15 hours -- or worse, drop out before the finish like last year. "Go big or go home," as the saying goes, and I think I'd better stay home.
 
So what about all that training? Some observations:
 
1. I really felt great a few weeks ago. The training guide I followed says up front that you'll crash after week 11 or so, after peaking at around week 8 of the program, because this program will not give you the base necessary to sustain high levels of effort. (The W101 was supposed to be at the end of week 10.) I wonder if I actually peaked a week or so ago, and crashed early too.
 
2. I think I made some real progress on this program, and -- up until a week or so ago -- I was riding much better than I had been when I started. Unfortunately, I think I started too far back, I had too much ground to make up.
 
Anyway, now my time is my own again, that weekend as well as training days. I rode last night with a bunch of friends at Sals, and will do it again tomorrow, and will probably be getting back into yoga and the gym regularly soon.
 
Reading: I am almost done with Pynchon's latest, Inherent Vice. Pretty good read, more like Vineland or The Crying of Lot 49 than anything else he's done, and fairly entertaining if a bit thin by Pynchon standards -- it's practically a beach novel. When I'm done with this I'll probably take up The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest, last in Steig Larssen's "Millennium Trilogy," and another fairly light summer thriller. Anne just finished the second book in the series, so I better hurry if I want to stay ahead...
 
Listening: Recent downloads include the Decemberists' "The Hazards of Love," both albums by Neutral Milk Hotel and Titus Andronicus's "Monitor." For some reason, probably just temporal proximity, they all seem very similar.
 
Tonight we're going to the Velodrome.
 
Update: They just lifted the drinking water restrictions! Party!!!
 

5 comments:

HMK said...

loved the photos!
You did 101 a lot.
Move on
Enjoy yourself
No punishing rides needed!

Euphoria said...

no 101? does that mean xc @ BC instead this weekend?

courtney wants to do the 101 next year. i may even think about it...

i heard gabor busted up his shoulder. he was up in the air about the 101 last time i talked to him. u kno if he is still on for it?

HMK said...

Fantastic Fireworks!! In Jim Thorpe?
Good clear shots also.

Don said...

Yeah I heard he was on injured reserve, some tendon thing but I thought it was his elbow. I'd already made my decision when I talked to him, but it made me feel a little better: no one, of the people I've done this with in the past, was going this year.

I think I need to up my ride time if I want to do things like this -- last year my time was about 6-8 hours a week on the bike, and that was this year's budget too, except I thought that the highly structured regimen would make up the difference. Nope, I feel like I did last year, and since I don't feel like a repeat performance I'm bagging it.

Don said...

Those were the fireworks for Easton's Heritage Day, the weekend after Independence Day, when Easton commemorates the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence (in Easton's Center Square on July 8th).

I took those at a friend's house. Paul & Mary live around the block from my old Folk Street apartment and have a great vantage point, so they have a party every year.