For the 9th time, but I think I finally am starting to get it. This year I will be stronger faster and smarter than 9 years ago, although I doubt I will act smarter. As a birthday present for myself, I am going to register for the USAT Long Course championships in Long Island in September. While I may not be able to race this one if the European Worlds takes place, I would like to have something on the calendar besides IMLP.
If I am being honest with myself, European racing doesn’t look promising at this point. The travel restrictions and quarantine protocol are very hard to accommodate, especially if something goes wrong. Having just about wrapped up the required 2 weeks for domestic travel to another state, I am not excited to do it again. Yes, I could do the test and get out of jail quicker, but the weather has been terrible, and between that and not having a lot of free time with work it just didn’t happen. The inbound restrictions could be very impacting if you test positive while abroad and have to wait it out overseas. And also yes a ton can and likely will happen between now and September, but better to be prepared, even if I lose the USAT registration fee. If everything goes off as planned, I am game to do a 70.3 two weeks after an overseas 140.6. Bring it.
So outside of that gift of pain, I also was given some great new Bose earbuds by the family this morning that I am looking forward to testing out later today. Review to follow.
One new thing I am going to focus on this year is switching it up when I want, and keeping it fun. Last night as a change I jumped on the Peloton for a 30 minute ride. That was pretty good as I haven’t been on it in at least a year. I managed to get the heart rate screaming at 171! Higher than it was during the FTP test I just did. Craziness. The funny part was I finished about 5000th out of 48000, and only averaged about 165 watts. I just did about 260 watts for 20 minutes during the FTP so I think the Peloton bike may be a bit off on the wattage. Maybe. Or I just suck at spinning.
I would normally do a mile time trial on my birthday, just as a nostalgic thing, but the roads are very icy and technically I am still hiding at home. Instead I may give the treadmill a go and see if I can hit 12mph and hold on for dear life. It is nice to have a long term comparison of performance to look back over. Last year I ran a 5:46, I should be way up on that at this point. In fact, I just convinced myself, now seems like a good time to test that theory. Time to dust off the Alphafly’s and get after it before the cake comes out.
Float. Spin. Walk. 