thought i'd been getting smarter

this one's a little graphic. here's your heads up.

we've been joking on this camp about how some of the words that come out of our mouths have showed a regression in maturity. it turns out the way i approach my training has shown a similar regression as of late. i ran my body into the ground on day 2 of a 10 day camp.

day 1 was a light swim, bike and run. day 2 was a little more. it started with a set of 9x400's in the pool. long course is hard so it must be good for me. hopped out from that and got some food in before what ended up being a 105k bike. the bike has felt nice since cole helped me replace a very old chain that had definitely been affecting my riding. combine that with beautiful, warm sunny days and you're reminded why you love the sport. but that's when i get excited and get way ahead of myself. i ended grinding in some extra work because i couldn't change into some smaller gears. cole and i hadn't left quite enough chain links so i was forced to push some inclines in bigger gears to avoid coming to a dead stop. at 70k i was starting to feel that it. i fell back to the support van and angie tossed me an apple. greatest apple i've ever tasted. it tasted like the apple orchard from 1st grade.

but no matter how amazing that apple tasted, it wouldn't save me. on the last 20k stretch i had some of the oddest cramps i'd ever experienced. my hand wouldn't close and my abs were popping in and out of my body. i made it home but only because a single pedal stroke can generate enough momentum to move a bike quite far.

45 minutes later we were leaving for a run at the orange groves. i was expecting some ugly results and for some reason when i feel that terrible i feel the need to increase the effort so as to hold the same pace i would on a day where i don't feel so awful. i left about 90 seconds behind the group and was planning on gradually catching up to them. i caught the two frontrunners, tristan and alexander, at about 5k in. this told me i was going much too fast and that i would soon pay. we turned around. the run home would be a solid net downhill with a tail wind. i would end up positive splitting by over 2 minutes. i ran the final road holding a side stitch with one hand, a cramping hamstring with the other, and clenching my butt cheeks closed.

i crawled around the house for the rest of the night experiencing the most physical discomfort i'd felt since i covered my girlfriend's bathtub with puke back in 2009. not even the comfy rugs in this lovely home could save me. the sunburns on my calves don't like to make contact with anything. along with some more cramping and severe headaches, the burns did a great job of keeping me up for a good part of the night. that brings us to the now where i stayed in bed this morning when everyone else went to swim practice. a couple more hours sleep, a coffee and some cereal and i feel ready to tackle two of today's three sessions. although today i hope to apply more sunscreen and keep the training controlled to avoid hospitalization.

oooooh people are home!

talk soon.