Knowing My Limits

Today was a learning experience for me.  I didn't go farther or faster than I have even gone, in fact, I went slower.

Morning Swim

Lodi High School

The morning swim proved to be a bit intimidating as I found myself in a lane between James and Coach John.  Mike didn't seem to care because he had no intention of trying to follow their lead, but when John announced what the workout was, I figured I might as well try.

As we started off on our first 200y set, I had an epiphany...DO NOT RACE THE SWIMMERS!  Ok, this might seem obvious to a lot of people, but I am a bit competitive and I will always try to at least keep up with the person next to me even if it means my form falls apart and I feel like puking.

However, today was different.  Today I decided that it was Ok not to keep up with the fish on either side of me.  Today I was going to do my swim and continue to focus on my stroke.  Today I was not going to race people that were much better swimmers.  Today I was going to do the best I could do even if that meant sitting out a set.


Aborted Bike Ride

After the swim, Mike and I came home to eat breakfast and rest a bit.  Around 10am I decided it was time to go for a bike ride.  I have been dying to take my new tri bike up to Knights Ferry to give her a spin on the hills.  For whatever reason, I really like this area and do not feel as intimidated by the hills.  Perhaps its because I don't have a fear of going off the side of a mountain or into a tree.

Civil War re-enactment this weekend at Knights Ferry

Anyway, it was pretty breezy when we left Stockton and I prayed that the grass dancing on the side of the road was from cars going by and not the wind.  Unfortunately, it was the wind.

By the time we arrived at Knights Ferry the wind was definitely blowing.  Garbage cans had been knocked over and my Garmin later reported the wind was 22 mph.  Being the hard head that I am, I still wanted to ride.

Knowing that the ride starts with a climb almost immediately after leaving the town of Knights Ferry, I decided to switch to my lowest gear.  I rode around the parking lot to warm up a bit as Mike got his gear on and noticed that I wasn't in the right gear.

As we rode out of the parking lot, I told Mike that I couldn't get in my lowest gear and in fact couldn't get in the lowest THREE gears.  There is a monster hill on this ride, and I knew I would need to be in my lowest gear eventually.  We stopped on the side of the road and Mike made some adjustments.  The bike dropped into the lowest gear, yay!  Unfortunately, the bike would not stay in that gear and kept alternating in and out.  

We rode on for a bit and it felt like the wind was blowing me all over the road.  The clicking noise from my bike was driving me nuts so we stopped again and I told him to just put the derailleur back like it was.  I figured I would just ride without the use of those three gears.  At this point we may have gone two miles.  I pointed to the top of the next hill and told him I thought that was the point of no return.  Once we went over that hill, the only way back is to climb it (the monster hill).

The wind was really blowing by now and as bad as I wanted to continue I decided that it was Ok not to do the ride.  Wow!  Twice in one day I decided NOT to do something!  Who would have thought that a major milestone in my training would be not to do something :-)

Aborted Bicycle Ride by tpengilly at Garmin Connect - Details