So, I was planning on a 25-or-so-miler yesterday, plus to-and-from the bike safety class thingy, but I was needed at the shop instead. As such, I logged maybe 16 miles total, and was out and about all day.
As such, I'm doing laundry and grocery shopping (I think I shall see how the C'dale fares as a 'grocery getter') today, and probably not going to get around to riding hill repeats at Iroquois, though who knows? I might actually succeed in knocking out the groceries reasonably fast, since I have a list.
This means hill repeats will probably get moved to tomorrow. The Louisville Loop 50-miler will wait probably 'til next Thursday. That will give me time to get the house back in shape.
Aaaand, on Friday, I will ride intervals.
I'm trying to learn to be flexible about scheduling all this stuff. Flexibility in matters non-physical is simply not my strength (I am, however, pretty flexible in a purely physical sense). Also, I'm trying to learn not to overdo it -- I have a tendency to throw myself all at once into frenzied efforts that burn me out completely and wind up with as net losses instead of net gains, cycling-wise and otherwise.
When I first started riding seriously again, I set up a very specific training plan, in which I had a mileage goal each week that was 10% greater than the previous week; no more, no less. The problem has been one of motivation -- when I stopped hitting my mileage goals (after the infamous lamp post incident), I lost some of my motivation to follow so organized* a plan. (Also, couriering without a bike computer makes it ridiculously hard to track total mileage; if I should courier for more than a day at some point in the future, I plan to install my secondary bike computer on whatever bike I'll be using.)
I'm thinking about giving it a try again, though -- simply starting where I am and building from there. Also, I recently ordered a copy of Joe Friel's training diary for cyclists because A) it was like $5.50 including shipping, B) I find it useful to write stuff out by hand, and C) why not?
Since, last week, I racked up 129 miles and change (yay!), I think I'm going to use that as a starting point for this week. I'm also going to accept from the outset that there will be weeks that I miss the mark -- for example, later this month, I'm going to Chicago for four days (Thursday - Sunday), and it's very unlikely that I'll do much riding there. A little, maybe, if I can convince DD that I won't murder him rolling up a hill at some unholy speed this time (fortunately, Chi-town is pretty flat, for the most part). I could ride my butt off, I suppose, during Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of that week, but then I might be too cooked to really enjoy my trip. Instead, I'm going to see how I feel, try to log a reasonable number of miles, and take it from there. I do hope to peel off several pounds before we go ... and to finally get around to cutting my hair, which is totally out of control at this point!
I've also decided to return to using caloriecount.com and a physical log (and a plastic bag to keep it dry in my jersey pocket) -- not just to make sure I'm not eating more than I'm burning, since the more I ride, the more I can eat, but also to hold myself accountable nutritionally and make sure, once the miles start racking up, that I'm eating enough.
Thus far, I'm at 709 for today, with the largest single intake being a large glass of cranberry juice (the 100% juice blend kind) this morning at 260. I usually try not to drink that much juice, but I was way dehydrated and couldn't get myself motivated to drink water. Sometimes you do what you have to, even when it's not the greatest idea (even 100% juice has way more sugar in it than my particular body can manage efficiently). Drinking the juice meant I could actually get going, which led to a pretty sound breakfast of lentils, rice, and onions. (That said, for some reason, the one thing I want most in the world right now is a big fat smoked sausage with cheese, heh.)
Well, I'm now officially way past my intended departure time for the grocery trip, so I'm going to check the dryer, hang up the shirts, and head out.
Hope to see y'all at Saturday's Populaire!
Notes
*I am not, by nature, all that terribly organized, in part because when I do organize, I create soul-sappingly complex systems that tend to collapse under their own weight.
PS - the C'dale makes an awesome grocery getter.
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