Ups and Downs
I’m sure not in peak form as we head into the last six weeks before this year’s Pan-Mass Challenge. Let’s review it, just for posterity.
After riding 4,600 miles last year, I took the winter completely off, both in terms of riding as well as diet. After commuting 130 miles a week last summer, my job change cut that down to a near-worthless 20 miles per week, and I didn’t even begin training until May.
The good news is that I’m enjoying spending time on the bike again, which I was worried about after spending 310 hours on the bike last year. It feels good again, and I’m still very much in love with my big ole Plastic Bullet. Last weekend I made a trip down to Sharon to visit Ailsa and Easton for Sheeri’s wedding, which… Well, it was good, but it was pretty draining.
Even after I started training, my riding was sporadic due to trips, classes, weather, and job. Two weeks ago I only managed 18 miles all week long! I’ve been commuting those 20 miles during the week, and then trying to put down 150 miles on the weekend.
With inconsistent training like that, there’s no surprise I’m suffering from patellar tendonitis again. Big fun. So now I’m cutting down even further, taking this otherwise ideal weekend off, to hopefully give my knees some time to recover.
Even when I am able to get out and train, it’s frustrating to run out of gas long before friends I used to leave in the dust. I’ve taken to sweep duty, in an effort to mask my all-too-apparent weakness.
Adding insult to injury, I’m five or ten pounds over my usual training weight. That probably doesn’t sound like much, but it makes a noticeable difference. It all adds up.
Of course, none of this really threatens the PMC ride. It’ll all go fine; it’s just a question of how well prepared I’ll be, which determines how painful it is.
The silver lining is that my fundraising is going surprisingly well so far. I’m already 40 percent of the way to the minimum, and a quarter of the way to last year’s record and the Heavy Hitter minimum. Although I’ve only got ten donations so far, four of those are from first-time sponsors, and people at my new workplace seem like they’ll be quite supportive. So that’s really encouraging.
Yesterday, the PMC sent out an email from the president of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute that I found deeply rewarding. I’m proud of what the ride and I have accomplished, and that was well expressed in the letter, which I posted to the PMC community here.
Please check that letter out, and if you have yet to make a donation this year, please sponsor me using this link. Thanks! There’ll be more news to come shortly!