Tuesday, the Second Day of 'Suck'

I'm gonna crash and burn, I'm already tired at 7am and have to get to ... heck I don't know, Friday? Does Friday work for you? Before doing my next weigh in. If I'm not happy after five days of suck then I shall go on what will become a legendary binge of donuts, beer and probably barfing which might cut into the weight gain and prolong the binge.

So, I'm happily typing into my little manifesto here after consuming my morning breakfast of coffee, Aleve and tepid G2. I'm not sure the G2 is gonna cut it; I'm pretty sure that I'm going to be visited by God's gift to cramps before the week is out. I had another little peek at the future this morning when I was trying to get out of ponyTail's way since I was flat on my back stretching while she was in desperate need of a BOSU ball. One particular AB locked up with such stabbing pain that I had to roll over on my tummy and try anything to stretch the little bastard out. How do you deal with that? Pressing on it does not work, that's for sure. I'm certain I'll be half asleep in some meeting, make the wrong move and start screaming as this stupid little muscle gives me the what for. The next thing I'll wake up to a appendectomy scar and a very embarrassed surgeon.

So, since I'm determined (I don't know why so don't ask) to get the metabolism ratcheted way up I took the bike out last night in 91 degree weather for a 12 mile ride. A bike path kind of thing through this park called Glacier Ridge. As I'm ambling out there on the bike this dude pulls up next to me, decked out in Trek attire on some red Madone that was far better than mine.

It was intoIt. He puts on the breaks, calls out my name and we ride a long together for a bit shooting the breeze about the Tour and Lance's bad luck. He's gonna give me some alternate routes to try out sometime into bike friendly country. He's just doing a 20 mile cool down after some hellish, thigh destroying ride he did the day before. He looks like a pro on his bike, totally at ease.

He peels off and I turn my attention the to the interval setting on my bike computer. I had configured it for one minute of work, two rest with ten iterations. You can't see it on the pic but a black bar appears across the bottom of the screen slowly filling up, when the work interval is complete a half-black bar finishes its way across the screen. This is pretty easy to discern when you're pedaling along in either phase.

What's not so easy is dealing with all the other bike dweebs out on the path with you. It makes keeping a sustained work interval 'interesting' along with the twists and turns of the path itself. I'll try it on the road next where I might be able to get more sustained effort before running up on a family of four out for a casual evening ride.

Here's what a 30min interval workout looks like in the real world:

Here's what it looks like in a controlled setting:

I'm not sure which is better for me but I like the 'Real World' better. Weather permitting I'll try again tonight.