Good Days and Bad Days

As a marathon coach, I am always talking to my athletes about how some training days are picture perfect from start to finish. Likewise, some training days you'd be better off hanging out in bed watching I Love Lucy re-runs. Understanding this concept really makes you appreciate the good days and at the same time tolerate the bad ones.

Great advice, you say, to help my athletes be prepared mentally for either situation and to learn to cope. Sure it is, but, secretly to myself, I am thinking, 'that really doesn't apply to me' in my training for this Ironman. All my days will be good ones. So much for that philosophy!

Good Friday was a 3 1/2 hour bike ride for Chris and me and let me say, it was anything but 'good' for me. It started out perfectly with the sun shining a warmth that we hadn't felt since a day in October. We could actually wear our bike shorts without 2 layers on the top. I popped on my new tri shoes and off we went for a hilly route that would test our conditioning.

It wasn't long into the ride when I noticed no matter how hard I tried to keep up with Chris, it just wasn't happening, and we hadn't even hit the hills yet. The first hill I was spinning my way to the top right with Chris, and maybe even slightly ahead of him. Needless to say, that was the last time I saw him the rest of the morning. I soon found myself struggling with those demons inside telling me that 14 miles per hour was my top speed for the day so I had better get used to it. I felt so bad making Chris wait for me and couldn't understand why this was happening.

Of course, to top off this nightmarish ride, I ended up crashing into Chris while he was patiently waiting for me on Santiago Canyon Road (please don't ask how that actually happened). Let me say, I crashed but he remained upright. When I finally scraped myself off the road, I had what cyclists call road rash all around my left knee. Unfortunately, I've done this so many times, there isn't much skin left on the knee so the repair time is extensive.

I finally finished up the ride, threw my bike in the truck and headed home. I was dejected, not feeling much like an athlete training for an Ironman, and dreading the cleaning of the asphalt from my knee. But then it hit me; maybe this was exactly what I have been preaching for all those years. For all the good days, you are bound to have a few bad ones. That somehow put things back into perspective. Instead of selling my tri bike on eBay, I went home, took a long hot shower and set out my workout clothes for the next day's training.