Training Begins, Bring on the Doubles

[Starfish]

How much longer will the long hours go on Starfish?

Kinda hard to tell. I am starting up a new career. It is going quite well, so I'm excited. But, I need to be available when my ultra-busy mentor is in the office, so that I can learn. And, because it is straight commission, for the first 2-3 months or so, I am also still doing a little evening work in our family business, just to keep a little planned-for cash coming in.

The good news is that I really don't have a boss (except me), so I'm working on how to order my life so that I can take the bike to the office and make it easy for myself to get out during a spare hour during midday.

I think that despite the long hours, once I really see what the days are going to go like (and when my house-sit owner leaves), I will be able to squeeze in the shorter, weight loss workouts I need.

The good news is that despite the current long hours, they won't stay that way forever, and I am really enjoying myself so far, and there are some early signs that it is all going to work out just fine!

Also, despite my interest in getting into Triathlons, I have to admit, I went back over my Arnie Baker book last night, and I just feel really excited about continuing to pursue my biking goals. I think I might have one more year of just biking before I start seriously cross training. I'm definitely going to swim more this year, though. It is SUCH great cross training for the bike. That easy, 2-beat-kick for distance swimming is PERFECT recovery for cycling.

Oh, and MP's right. It is hunting season. We all should be careful about using our hi-viz stuff right now. When I had horses and lived out beyond the range of power, I festooned the horses with surveyor's tape, and I quit taking walks in the woods for awhile. Even so, one day, a bullet came whizzing through the yard! I'm not anti-hunting by any means, but I'll tell you, when I went out for my weekly target practice, I would ALWAYS walk all the way behind the barriers we would shoot against, just to make sure no one was back there...even though the barriers seemed to block all shots and were in established target practice areas.

[Veronica]

Hey that's great! I'm glad the new gig seems to be working out.

V.

[Starfish]

Hey that's great! I'm glad the new gig seems to be working out. V.

oops, sorry I kind of took over your thread with my huge reply!

Someday, at least once, I want to do a double like you can. So amazing to me.

[Veronica]

I don't mind thread drift. It's like a conversation.

I bet you could do an "easy" double now. The Shasta ride you did had a lot more climbing than some of them. It's in quotation marks because none of them are really easy. It's a lot of saddle time though. Everybody is different, but I know I always have some moment or 12 moments, when I wonder why am I doing this? And you have to be able to talk yourself through it. I think that's the hardest part of doing a double - just convincing yourself that whatever discomfort you're feeling is not that big of a deal.

I'm still not sure why I keep wanting to do them. When Thom and I were hiking in Glacier, just before we saw the moose, we were talking about doubles and whether or not I was going to do more. At that point, I was like, yeah, I'm done. I don't ever need to do another one. Go figure.

V.

[Pedal Wench]

V,

Thanks for posting. I've got to increase my mileage rides - aiming for something in February, so I've got time, but still need the inspiration!

[Wahine]

Wow. I think a feel a little inspiration going on. Hmmmmmmm. Maybe a double is a good idea. Starfich, haave you done your homework on this? Have we got something in our neck of the woods that would suffice besides STP?

[Veronica]

A 300 K Brevet is close in mileage. The time limits are a little more generous, but in general they are unsupported. Come to CA and do one of our doubles. I normally work Knoxville. It's usually in the middle of Sept. This year they had to change the date and I had already committed to Waves to Wine.

V.