Then we get a structure fire! Which was awesome, for us. Luckily for the family, there wasn't a lot that burned and almost everything was saved. But it was the first wrench in the gears. We were on scene for close to 2 hours. Waiting for the investigator and then helping him out. Got back to the station, and now I'm hungry, so I eat. I try to eat enough to not be hungry, but not so much that I'll be miserable and slow on the bike. With the food down, I proceed to stretch and get ready for the bike. I brought in the movie the Matrix and was going to use that to numb my brain while I was on the trainer. This would prevent me from having to fiddle with a remote, but was also long enough that it wouldn't end before the 40 miles were up.
About 20min into the ride, a medical call. Get off the bike, throw on my pants over my tri shorts and grab my boots. We return to the station and I try again. About another 20min go by, and another medical call! I'm not even 13.5 miles into this thing, and already a second interruption. Jeez people, don't you know I'm trying to train for a triathlon here? STOP CALLING 911! So off the bike and back on the engine, dripping with sweat. After the second call, I had a dilemma. It was my turn to cook dinner. I could either attempt to get back on my bike, hope for no more calls and have dinner ready around 630 (which is late for a Sunday dinner at the station) or finish up the ride after dinner. I decided that I better get the dinner going; and it was a good thing that I did. Dinner was almost ready when we got yet another medical call.
After dinner, I caught up on my reports, I was down 3 of them by now, and let the food settle. I thought that I'd get back on the bike, and just pick up from where I left off. I attempted to do that too. But somehow, and I'm still not sure exactly how this happened, my rear brake caliper got shifted from the last time I was on the bike. Meaning that I was rubbing my rear wheel on the brake pad the entire time I was on the bike. When I was on the bike earlier in the day, my quads were sore and I attributed that to my hard run intervals from the day before. But the second time on the bike that night, there was a different beast with me. This beast was nothing but pain, suffering and just mentally horrible. I couldn't get into a good rhythm, I couldn't get into a good pace, mentally I was wondering what was going on w/ me, and why weren't my legs working? The pedals seemed to be bricks under my feet, and the harder I tried to pedal, the harder they pushed back. My computer was reading 15mph, and my cadence was struggling to stay at 80rpm. I shifted through various gears trying to find something, anything, that would make the misery easier. Big ring up front, large cog on the cassette, small ring up front, multiple cog settings in the back. Nothing seemed to help, and I was mentally defeated. How was the bike kicking my ass this bad? There was no explanation for it. I mean I knew I was tired, but really? 15mph and 80rpm is all I can manage to push out right now?
After an hour of absolute misery, I called it. 15miles and I was spent. I got off my bike frustrated, angry and disappointed. This was not how I envisioned my Sunday training ride going. I grabbed some more water, took off my cycling shoes and proceeded to take the bike from the trainer. I got my bike off the trainer and went to roll it into the other room, when I discovered why I got beaten. When the bike didn't want to roll into the other room, or even anywhere for that matter, I discovered the brake caliper. Picking up my rear wheel and attempting to spin it by hand brought the wheel around maybe 1/2 to 2/3 of the way around before it abruptly stopped. So that's why I couldn't pedal for anything. Seeing the wheel get stopped by the now discovered brake pad made me a little relieved. At least there was a reason for my performance other than just me. Now I can, at least, blame it on the bike. I still am unsure how my brake got shifted in between rides, but that second ride of the day was just the start to a long week of poor workouts.
I shouldn't really say that I had a week of poor workouts. I should be thankful that during the week I was still able to get all 3 aspects of the triathlon practiced. I got a good swim in, a good run interval, and even got another bike interval that was problem free. The poor workout part came in the fact that I got NO strength and conditioning done. Zero, zip, zilch, nada. I know that this is to be expected, at times, when I'm home for my 4 days off, but I usually am able to get at least 1-2 days of S&C in when I'm home. But not this 4 day. This 4 day was packed with lots of socializing actually. We had people over, or went somewhere 3 out of 4 nights. Which is great, I love spending time with my family and friends. It just gets me frustrated at times, when all I can think about are the missed workouts. I can't turn that part of brain off as much as I'd like to. This 4 day was also full of long nights with the kids, so waking up early wasn't always on the top of my priority list either.
So the S&C this week was an epic failure. I got back to work today, and made sure that if I didn't do anything else, I was going to lift some heavy weights. After another long night, I opted to skip the planned early morning swim, and sleep another 45min. knowing that my tiredness would completely hinder and ruin any attempt at a decent swim workout. Instead, I went to work, got things rolling and the juices flowing. Took a 5 hour energy, and got my S&C workout done first, and then a really good tempo run workout in. Now it's time to say good night, hope for something quite so I can swim in the morning on my way home from work.
Cheers to you, 5 hour energy knock off. Today, when I needed you most, you were there.
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