Midweek Update

Not a whole lot going on but since it's Veteran's Day (thanks to any/everyone who's served or serving!), I got the day off and there's only so much of an NCIS marathon I can watch. I've come to realize that about 8:30 is all the longer the dogs will let me sleep and I'm not sure if that's good or bad. Either way, I was up for an uneventful morning routine but I took it slow since, well....., because I could.

The last two days I had good intentions but poor follow-through when it's come to working out. It's a poor excuse but I'm still thrown off by getting home and having it completely dark out. Once I get out I don't mind running in the dark at all but I start feeling like I have about 3 hours less to get some other things in, including dinner. With today off, though, I was able to get out for a good ride. It wasn't long, but it was at a good pace. Too bad my powertap wasn't working since I was curious about my watts. I'll keep that up through the weekend to try and maintain some pop in my legs for the cx race on Sunday.

One of the things I did today was go to an accupuncture appointment. I won 4 sessions in a silent auction that was held for two friends that were involved in a bike accident. I paid $50 and got 4 sessions. Pretty good deal! I think there's a good balance in there somewhere between Chinese medicine and Western medicine where the body has natural healing energies that can be triggered. At the same time, science can help jumpstart the process as well. Point being, they're not mutually exclusive. Anyway, the accupuncturist/therapist is a competitive open water swimmer so while she was pricking me with about 20 or so pins (I'm guessing), we were talking about having a proper off season. Right now I'm definitely not in top shape, but that's not a bad thing. Rather, it's an appropriate thing. Still, it's time to start getting it back. I know I've said that before, but then the whole job thing happened so it's take 2.

I'll be using the last four or so 'cross races for my weekly dose of high efforts on the bike and just maintaining otherwise. I even have plans to hop in the pool starting next week. That will probably be 2-3x/week. Then in December we're working on some sort of running "challenge." Rick and Chad are in charge of details so I'm just waiting for the word. The only hesitation I have with it is that I'll be going from low volume to an initial guess of about 120 miles in one month. Maybe not the smartest thing but if I feel like I'm starting to get an overuse injury I'll shut it down. That also highlights the need to get going in the second half of this month.

No insight as to a schedule for next season just yet but I'm thinking I'll start the heavy training later, as in March. I've come to realize just how much I like riding my bikes in the Fall so instead of having my fitness start to decline in mid-August, I'm going to try and push that to mid-October. I can fake it for a couple months there through 'cross season.

There are a couple other things going on like a cycling club we're working on throwing together but that's a post for another time.