Adjusting your training plans

Each week, I sit down and try to map out a general plan for what my training will look like over the next seven days.  I have a year-long, master schedule that I go off of, just to make sure I stay on track, but each individual week requires a bit more planning.  Most of the time, I schedule in an extra workout or two, because I know my schedule is going to get busy and I'll end up having to miss a workout.  Other times, I will schedule some of my training around my training partner, The Captain, when he is available and our schedules allow for it.  Today was one of those days.

I had originally planned for a long bike ride to take place on Friday morning, after I left work.  This would have meant that I would be starting my long bike ride at 8:00 a.m. at the earliest.  And in Phoenix, it was already near 90 degrees by then.  If I were to embark on this long ride, I would be out until about noon, when temperatures would be well into the 100's.  In fact, I've heard of people spontaneously combusting while riding their bikes in the Arizona summer (unfortunately, no video evidence exists, so you'll just have to trust me!).

Thankfully, my plans changed.  Not only was I not going to do the long ride on Friday, but The Captain was going to be able to join me on Saturday!  But then his plans changed.  He got called into work and ended up not getting home until around 11:30 p.m. on Friday night.  Because of this, we decided to call an audible on our bike ride.  Instead of doing the really long ride, we would do a long-ish ride and try to push the tempo.  Well, that was out plan anyway.

Friday night wasn't so great for The Captain.  He didn't really get any sleep, so he didn't have much energy in the tank.  It wasn't really much greater for me either.  Friday morning, I did a time-trial type ride home from work, followed by a 6 mile run in the wonderful Arizona heat.  It was probably the hottest run I've done in a long time.  I was pretty beat for the rest of the day.  Then when the night rolled around, The Wife and I still had some house cleaning obligations to take care of in order to be ready for my cousin's baby shower.  I think I laid in my bed at about 11:00 p.m.  It didn't seem to bad at the time, but I sure felt it during the bike ride.

When my alarm went of at 4:00 a.m., the thought of canceling crossed my mind, but then I remembered that I just wrote a post about training with a partner to hold you accountable...I hate it when I'm right! (and the funny thing is that The Captain said he thought about canceling too, but also read my post and thought to himself, "Dang it Jason!  Why'd you have to write that post?")  About half way through our ride, both The Captain and myself were feeling pretty tired.  My lower back was getting pretty sore, not only from pushing the tempo, but it was sore from some of the bent over positions that I was in while cleaning the house.  On top of all of this, we never really seemed to catch a break when it came to the wind.  It seemed like we would have a tail wind, and then the wind would change 5 minutes later.  I think I felt the wind at my back for about 10 minutes during our 3 hour ride.

But, even with all of that, we were able to keep the pace high enough to average what we want to do for Ironman Arizona this November.  It was definitely a character building workout.