My body decided that I would not train 50 miles today.
This was the conversation in bed this morning. "Hi, good morning, Chad. No. Lay your ass back down. If you still feel the need to work out at 11PM on Fridays, then I'm not moving before noon on Saturday. So lay back down. It's warm here. It's soft here. That's it. Good. Oh, sorry, move that wrapper."
Why is there an empty Balance Bar wrapper in my bed?
"Because I was hungry, dammit! You work out so late, then make egg whites when you get home and come 4AM, I'm up doing some sleep walking and sleep eating. Now, seriously. I really don't want to do another training ride until you get those clipless shoes. You have no idea the amount of work I have to do. So help a leg out."
But it's just--
"WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING!? DOWN! LAY DOWN! Listen, you. I held strong all through this past flu outbreak over the past week, but I'll take you out if you even think about getting out of this bed! Get the shoes. We'll talk after that."
So I went back to bed. Summer called at 9:30 to tell me she was in Savannah and wanted places to go eat. I eventually rose at 10:30 and caught up on some DVR.
And at 3PM I decided it was time.
I got in my car and got on the 110 South and sat for a half hour. I was planning on going to the Helen's Bike Shop in Santa Monica since I know them, but I couldn't take it any longer, and went to the one in Arcadia. This required about an hour of surface streets, but at least I was moving.
They were very nice. But they also shared that there are three stages to going clipless.
1) Watch a movie while clicking and unclicking out of the clips, so it becomes second nature.
2) Go to a field and do it, but fall in the grass. (Why? Because "YOU ARE GOING TO FALL.")
3) Hit the street and fall at your first stop sign. Why? Because "YOU ARE GOING TO FALL."
I got news for you. I'm not going to fall. Why? Because falling scares the crap out of me.
And two hundred dollars later, I have the pedals and the shoes. I didn't take the bike because silly me, I thought the pedals would be easy to put on. Not even Linc could figure out how to get them on. So the bike and the pedals go back tomorrow so they can put it together.
I think I will go ahead and do the 30 mile West Hollywood ride tomorrow with the normal pedals, just because I'm afraid to miss a training ride. Like panic sets in, afraid.
When I did the Dublin Marathon, I trained for the first three months and did not run a block the last three months before the marathon, because ALIAS started back shooting and Fridays were always late nights and the training was on Saturday. I finished the marathon, but I was beat up. I had to walk from mile 19-24. My legs were so swollen that by mile 24, I couldn't stand up. I would literally walk-walk-walk fall in a puddle. Get up, walk-walk-walk fall in a puddle. By mile 25 I considered just rolling like a little log.
