How to break out of a funk/Why training with Abbey is awesome
Since St. Anthony’s I’ve been in a pretty big funk. I’ve been feeling crappy training and motivation has been non-existent. That changed today though.
My friend and teammate from BU (and 4:44 miler to boot), Abbey is out visiting for the week from Boston. Sunday we did a solid 12-miler up Waterton to the dam as a nice intro to altitude. Today we did a 2 hour ride down to dinosaur ridge, up through Red Rocks, up Bear Creek Canyon, and back home up 26. I always knew Abbey could roll out of bed and run a sub-5 mile, but turns out she can hold her own on the bike too! …which is a little scary b/c Jordan and I talked her into signing up for the Barkin’ Dog Duathlon this weekend in Cherry Creek. Watch out!
Abbey heading up Waterton
Not bad for a first day at altitude!
@ Dinosaur Ridge
Up Bear Creek
So aside from the great company here’s why it’s awesome to ride w/ Abbey and how I got out of my mega-funk:
We were moseying through Morrison and had just started up 26 and we were engaged in a very serious conversation about furry animals and if Abbey had just seen a deer or some mystery creature. As we’re discussing the creature’s furriness as a determining factor, a cyclist passed us with a smug little smile and dropped the hammer. He got about 50ft ahead and when I looked over at Abbey all she said was, “Yea Yea YEA!!” I can’t stand smug cyclists, especially ones who would never expect girls talking about furry animals to give them a run, and apparently neither can Abbey (most girls I know aren’t into the whole Battle Royale thing, but when you run along the Charles for a few years I think it gets ingrained in you). So I stared at his shoulder blades and gradually brought it down…and down a little more and realized he was going faster than I had originally signed up for, but I kept at it…when I got about 10 feet behind him I let out a little cough and he started to take pretend glances to check out the scenery (aka look back out the corner of his eye). I passed him shortly thereafter then dropped the hammer. It was the first time since St. Anthony’s that my legs were cooperating and I’m glad I pushed it so I can realize that maybe my season isn’t doomed! The smug cyclist turned off up Alameda before Abbey could reel him in, but I know she would’ve got him if he kept going to 70. Good fun, and good proof that great minds think alike!
We made a quick stop at Safeway when we got back to Golden. Nothing like riding a TT bike and only have jersey pockets to chop down the grocery bill. We came home w/ a jar of sauce and cooked up some quality pizza.
A quick stop at Safeway for some necessities.
I’m pretty sure Abbey is hooked on Colorado.
