Another week has gone by and now we’re 3 weeks out from “The Big Dance”. The nerves haven’t set in yet, but they will. I’m generally not nervous at the start of races. It’s 3 or 4 days before the event that gets to me and I’m not sure why. A shrink could find out but I’m not sure I care to know.
The saga of the bike seat continues. I decided not to resurrect the Trek and train with that at the last minute. I opted to try another bike seat on the Roubaix instead. I got one from Kentwood Schwinn on Tuesday and tried it out Wednesday on a short 16.5 mile ride. All was well but (npi) you can never tell on such a short stint on the bike whether it will hurt or not on a long ride.
The Saturday bike ride was a 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 hour heart rate 1 ride and after 3:23:45 my butt didn’t hurt. Hallelujah!! I could feel some pressure but it was far from the agony of last week. Again, that doesn’t mean that the new seat will be OK for 112 miles, but (npi) it seems promising. The ride on Saturday was wet as you who did the Three Rivers Triathlon know (congratulations to you all!). Larry and I didn’t start riding until 9 or so and for the first half of the first 28.45 mile loop it was raining pretty steady. The main problem was not being able to see. I was afraid I’d fail to see a pile of road kill, run right over it, lose control and go down but that didn’t happen. I also knew that if I couldn’t see, the drivers of cars and trucks probably couldn’t see either.
It’s funny how your mind wanders on a long bike ride. Around the middle of the second loop I was imagining a scene where I had won a race (not going to happen) and I was being interviewed about how it felt to beat the best in the world (also not going to happen). I was asked by Howard Cosell (by the way…he’s dead) to describe my feelings and I told him it was like the night you and your spouse “make a baby” (where did that one come from?). It was a great experience and fulfilling to help bring a new person into the world, but I really enjoyed the hundreds of times practicing before we got it right.
Howard and the audience got a chuckle out of that answer (maybe I was just trying to be funny…a comedian I’m not). I went on to talk about how races were there to test how I was doing, but I really enjoyed the training. I talked about the group swims on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings at 5:30 to 6 A.M. at Diane’s, the group rides on Saturdays, and the group runs on Sundays. All of a sudden it occurred to me that the “group” aspect of training conjures up some weird thoughts with the conception analogy. I guess I didn’t think it through very well, but at least it made me laugh out loud on the bike. Passers-by probably thought I was nuts and maybe I am but I’m having fun in my own little world.
I ran the Sunday run alone again this week…75 to 90 minutes at heart rate 1 or 2. Jean said a few people may show up to run in town but I’m cheap and hated to spend $6 on gas to drive in from the lake when no one was running the same distance I was anyway. I did the run around the lake but ran along M-43 to the paved part of Sprague Road instead of doing the dirt part. I went 9.44 miles and walked the last half block ‘cuz my 90 minutes was up and you know how I am about that.
Afterward I went down to the local restaurant for breakfast since the cook and butler had the day off. I usually go to the “other” restaurant (there are two in town) but decided to give this one a try. Now I know why I don’t go there. The only seat was in the smoking section (yes, Michigan still has a smoking section in bars and restaurants) and I was pinned against the back wall with a table of chain smokers between me and the door.
Now I have nothing against smoking. Other than the fact that it’s a filthy, disgusting habit that pollutes the environment with smoke and cigarette butts; causes serious health problems that cost all the rest of us health insurance money to subsidize smokers; is a complete waste of money for something that does more harm than good; and causes others to suffer from breathing second hand smoke, there’s nothing wrong with it.
There were two tables of heavy smokers (both in weight and smoking volume) out of six tables in the section, and both of those tables had families with young children. Don’t they watch the TV commercials about second hand smoke? I have some friends who smoke and none of them smoke around their children (that I know of).
As if the smoking wasn’t bad enough, I never saw my waitress except when she took my order and brought it to me. No coffee refill…no ice water refill…no “How is everything?” question. And every time I took a sip of ice water which, after my run, I really needed, I could smell the bleach based disinfectant residue in the sanitary (?) plastic glass. I kick myself because I left a normal tip.
Just (Back To Cooking For Myself) Jack