Good and Bad excuses for not training...

Jonas Brothers

It's been a bad week for training. Some reasons are good some are bad. Tuesday night my daughter and I went to the Jonas Brothers concert. Every father has so many really good bonding experiences with his daughter alotted before she grows up and this was one of those experiences. She had been looking forward to it all summer, and since I was going to the concert I have been giving them a bit of a listen these days so I'd have a good time too. I kind of like their music at this point. As far as teen bands go I think they are one of the better groups out there and thoroughly enjoyed the time with my daughter. The light show itself was worth it actually. Anyway, we didn't get back until after Midnight since the show was all the way across town. It was the night before school was starting so she started her first day in the fifth grade a little sleepy I have to say.

My other obstruction to training was a new video game I have been working on. Once again I could be found playing until 3 in the morning just as teenage Paul could, forgetting my need for rest to recover and prepare for things that were more important, like school then, or training now. The result was I only got in 42 miles of weekday training in this week on Thursday and they were a crappy 42 miles at that since I had missed so much sleep this week. So, I suppose it is what it is. At least I got to spend time with my daughter and probably make one of those memories she will remember forever. I think that's worth a weeks worth of training lost actually.

Dang, I suppose a road bike is out of the question then.

I had not intended to ride far on Saturday. I figured I needed to catch up on that sleep I had lost. The body was stupid though and woke up at 2:15 am and wouldn't go back to sleep so at 3 am I am out the door and am determined to teach my body a lesson. If it is not going to sleep then I am going to make it wish it did!

It starts to complain out on the Bush Highway saying it was sorry and it would like to go to bed now. Ha ha, no you don't I tell my body. You left your bed and now you are going to stay out of it. The mind wants to go for a long ride now! I didn't push as hard as normal though. I was tapering after all.

I had originally intended to go out and climb 9 mile hill out by McDowell mountain park but once I got to it I figured I did need to taper and so I would not do the extra mileage climbing it would give me. Instead I headed down to the needle rock recreation area and turned around where I could hear the river and the pavement ended.

The verde river is the third river that gets sucked dry in this country, albeit after it joins the Salt a few miles downstream. Rivers don't last long in the desert. Neither do people if they stay out in the heat too long so I headed back. It was a warm ride back but not too bad. I ended up with 92 miles and 3000' of climbing. Compared with the last three weeks I'll call it a good taper ride for next week's brevet.