Ride Like A Triathlete

I can see why I may need to go back to having my own coach.

I was really good at setting my own program for myself (and following it!) all spring leading up to Honu. But then since Honu I've been feeling like I'm floundering a bit, which is fine, really. For now anyway. My problem isn't that I don't do the training. My problem is that, without a structured plan, I do too much of it. Or too much of it too hard.

This weekend was a prime example of that. The Saturday group ride was flat out fast and hard. And long. Then I took off running yesterday with kind of a plan in my head about how far/fast I was going to go... of course it ended up being far and then I started picking up the pace coming home and eventually I just turned it into a progression run with a fast finish. All well and good until I get to today's hammerfest and I'm doing everything I can to hang on and my legs are just screaming at me and my HR is through the roof... I guess it's fine as long as I take a couple of easy days to recover now. But a good plan keeps you from doing this kind of stuff to yourself in the first place, you know?

(I know that. Really, I do. I just don't care to do it right now.)

Today was actually quite interesting. I got a call a few days ago from a guy who wanted a "personal triathlon coach for the weekend". What? I've never really heard of such a thing. But shoot. I'm game! Turns out, we weren't actually able to meet up until this morning. I gotta tell you though, I was overwhelmingly curious about what kind of person would hire a "personal triathlon coach for the weekend"... I knew his name and that he was visiting from NYC... which is enough for google. Lets just say that I felt a bit nervous when I found his profile on Forbes.com. I'm not sure I really know how to relate to anyone who has a profile on Forbes.com?

But triathlon brings people together in a unique way and it turns out I was able to relate just fine. Though I should have known that he would show up completely decked out with his top of the line TT bike and aero helmet and 808's. Duh. Maybe I should have unpacked my TT bike after all? I was on my road bike and, well, after we took off at what felt like 90 mph down the road, I was wishing I had my P3 instead. This guy was flying. I guess a guy like him doesn't know how to give anything short of everything... I did think it was a bit ironic that he was paying me to sit on his wheel, but, whatever. He said he wanted someone to push him so I just did so verbally, from behind, uttering things like, "nice job" during the rare moments when I could get a breath. Then we took off running. I was thinking that maybe I should just ride my bike beside him while he ran, but he wasn't having any of that... so there I was, huffing and puffing and chasing this guy around Diamond Head... kind of comical. All I could think was that this was such a triathlete way to train. The Just go as hard as you can for as long as you can mentality.

Anyway, it appears that he enjoyed the training session because he said he would call me again next time he comes into town. Next time I'll shave and taper so I can better survive the Triathlete Training Day. Lol.