My Best Teammate

Yesterday afternoon I got an e-mail from Terrier saying that we should all make sure to wear our Terrier gear for this morning's brick workout because Fox 5 News would be there in the morning talking to our team. I will say that the last time I was interviewed for the news, I made a complete fool of myself, but it was definitely good for a laugh or two. I wasn't 100% sure that anyone wanted me to say anything on TV ever again, especially when representing our triathlon club.

Last night, after work, I headed home and took a little bit of a nap. I then woke up, made dinner and then Drew came over and we watched some TV. I probably stayed up a bit later than I should have, even with the nap, because I have to get up so early on Thursdays for the workout. This morning I woke up to Drew asking me "What is that beeping noise?". I guess my reply of "It's that thing" wasn't very descriptive because he just kept asking me what was going on. It was all I could do in my haze of sleepiness to form a complete sentence. Asking for it to be a good one was really a lot. Anyway, the problem was that the carbon monoxide detector was losing it's battery power and wanted to be plugged in. In the midst of all of this, I glanced at the clock to realize that it was already 5:20 and practice starts at 5:30! To set the record straight, I had actually set the alarm on my phone, which did go off at the right time. However, I had left my phone downstairs and I guess I couldn't hear it go off over the air conditioner. Lesson learned.

I started to get myself ready and realized that there was no way that I could possibly get myself there in under 10 minutes. I had to eat something, pump up my tires, fill up my water bottle, get dressed, pack up my bag with my running stuff, the list seemed endless in that moment. Drew then asked what I needed help with because we're a team and he'd just be a really good teammate. I told him that he could pump the tires and fill up the water bottle, both of which he did, which was a huge time saver. I ate half of a Clif bar, brushed my teeth, threw on some clothes, tried to wake up a bit more, and headed out. Of course, by that time, I was already late. I didn't even get into the park until 5:50. But, it would have been even later if Drew hadn't helped me out.

I realized at some point that I would miss out on the TV portion of the day. I just decided that I would skip the brick and just go for a nice bike ride instead. I knew that by the time I got to the meeting spot and set everything up, I'd really be pressed for time to get in a good workout and I thought that I could do a longer harder workout on my own if I just skipped the running and only did the biking.

It was actually a really nice morning in the park. There were lots of Terriers out so I got to encourage some of my teammates and got some encouragement back. On the beginning of the third loop, a (non-Terrier) guy rode up next to me and asked if I was racing this weekend in the New York City Triathlon. I told him I'm not, but I am planning to go cheer on my teammates. We chatted for a while about triathlons and bikes. I normally might have been a little weirded out by the whole thing, but I've definitely seen that guy in the park before riding, so it just seemed less intimidating. He told me that he used to do triathlons but now does Adventure Racing. I think it sounds pretty cool, but also a little crazy, so it probably goes well with triathlons!

All in all, I did three loops of the park today: 18.19 miles in 1:12:30 (15.05 MPH pace). I'm extremely happy with that time. I checked after two loops and my pace was 15.2, so I slowed down a little bit for the third loop, but not a huge drop off, so I'm also very pleased with the fact that I was giving a pretty consistent effort, even though I definitely felt a bit more tired on the third loop. I will say that my legs in general felt pretty good today. I wonder if climbing all those stairs on Tuesday helped with the biking today?