Quality v Junk

Yesterday I had planned to ride 55 miles with 5,200 feet of climbing. 

That's a lot of climbing. 

I didn't do it. 

About 10 miles into the training I found myself loathing the thought of spending 6 or more hours on the bike, by myself. 

A week earlier I had served as a `domestique / crew' for a good friend who was attempting to do 200 miles in 12 hours.  We started riding at 6:30am on good road, cool temps and almost no wind.  By 8:AM the wind was howling.  Sand, dust, tumbleweeds flying across the road and into our face. 

I saw it my duty to serve as a windbreak for her.  First `paceline' style.  Then `echelon' style.  After 6 hours of on again off again riding, getting water, fluid, food, etc. I decided to `pack it in' and leapfrog her from my car. 

I managed to cover 97 miles during that 6 hours.  For all practical purposes it was both fast tempo and interval training the entire time. Though I was pretty beat by the end I felt really great about the `quality' of the training. 

My `domestique' experience pulled the rug out from under my excuses for avoiding `quality' training. 

So, yesterday I decided to cut my training ride short by doing a fast 35 miles with 3,600 ft of climbing: 3:00:00.  35 minutes faster than I usually do that route.  It wasn't as `painful' as I had expected. 


GETTING INTO A JUNK MILES RUT:

Laziness (and a few aspects of my temperament) has had  me doing long hours and distances on the bike for the past few years.  Here are some of the weak excuses I made for doing `junk' miles:

• the desert is mystical, beautiful and I love the solitude;
• if I exert too much energy on the hills I'll `blow up' and bonk;
• the 15 or 20 lbs of weight I'm carrying needs to come off before I do any serious training;
• my friends, associates and neighbors know me as a long-distance junkie and that appeals to my ego;
• I'm afraid that I push to hard at my age I'll injure myself. 

This is just so much bullshit! 

These are the real reasons I do junk miles:

• laziness. 
• avoidance: anxiety about having to decide to invest myself in other things that may frustrate me, not be satisfying, at which I may be average;
• worry that I'll not find anything I `like' and will be knocking around doing pointless `busy' work;
• ego;
• ego;
• ego.  

TRAINING FOR QUALITY:

• Every other day I'll train. 
• My training will be `smart,' intense and not go on and on for hours and hours. 
• I know I rebel against following a strict calendar plan (e.g., Tuesday, intervals, 60 minutes, etc; Wednesday, 90 minutes of tempo, etc).  So I won't set myself for predictable failure;
• Intensity over long Zone 1 and Zone 2 slogging.

WHAT TO EXPECT:

• Less (and better) time on the bike will confront me with more time on my hands;
• I will invest more time in social interaction with friends, coworkers and acquaintances;
• I will no longer be `special,' i.e., that guy who is a long-distance junkie;
• I will experience failure more often as I work to improve my times; 
• Failure scares me and I `catastrophize' that I will be ... not fast.  (No!  I fear that other's will be faster than me and I'll be average).
• ego;
• ego;
• ego.