Thursday, July 06, 2006

Twilight Zone

Quite a few years back there was a movie production of the Twilight Zone. One of the short stories was about a guy on an airplane who was terrified of flying. Shortly after takeoff the airplane encountered a horrendous thunder storm. The guy was already freaked out and then he looked out the window. Perched on the wing of the plane was this gargoyle like creature. The gargoyle looked at him as lightning flashed, barred his teeth, and began ripping the housing away from the engine of the plane. This sent the paranoid guy into a full blown shrieking fit and he was subsequently restrained by the other passengers. In the end the plane broke into the sunlight and landed safely.

I was thinking about this as I ran today - carefully monitoring my calf injury for signs of trouble. I could picture a little version of the gargoyle perched on the edge of my calf, waiting for the sky to darken before tearing my calf to shreds and ending the rest of my season. Dennis popped up hoping for a front row seat to my ultimate demise. The nameless one was a no show. He usually doesn't show up until the key moment of weakness. That's when he swoops in and kicks me back onto the correct course. Fortunately he wasn't needed today. The morning stayed sunny and warm - no signs of dark clouds and thunder. My calf was much less tight then Tuesday's run so it looks like my "push if it doesn't break form" approach paid off. At the end of the run I broke into pure sunlight and landed safely.



Workout Summary
  • 2160 yd continuous swim - 45 minutes - tempo
  • 24ish mile bike ride - tempo
  • 5 mile run - LSD

    Now that I have the proper lane distance my swim times make a lot more sense!

    Today's ride was the first one this year on my tri-bike. Up until now I'd been riding the road bike and mountain bike only. As an added bonus The Rooster joined me for the swim and bike legs. He's gearing up for Ironman Wisconsin this fall and thought my sadistic early morning brick workouts were just the ticket to get his training in order. We rode a new route I plotted last night through residential streets around the health club. The tri-bike felt great and it was definitely fun sharing the road with a training partner for a change. Once his calf injury gets under control he'll be doing runs with me as well.

    The run off the bike felt good. Form was on, rhythm was on, and none of the injuries flared up. Perserverence wins again.
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