No luck

My wife Missy and I are both training for upcoming races, myself an IronMan and she an Olympic Distance (1 mile swim, 26 mile bike and 6 mile run). As you can imagine both of us training takes up lot of time and makes time management a particular concern. During the week this is not a problem. My Mother-in-law stays with us Sunday - Thursday and watches the kids. This allows Missy and I to train in the morning before heading off to work. Due to the huge time commitment associated with training for these events, early mornings are the norm. My typical day starts at 4:30 am and Missy's 5:30 am. Following this grueling schedule we are both pretty tired by the weekend and cherish the chance to sleep in a little.

Saturday is my long bike day and thus I am the one stuck with the first workout. I try to get out of the house by 6am, though it is usually more like 7am by the time I leave. The early start serves two purposes, it is much safer to bike on the roads at that time and it allows us to both complete our workouts without completely destroying our day.

I spent a fair amount time trying to convince Missy to workout first this morning while I watched the kids (slept in). Without success, victory escapes my grasp yet again. At this point I have three things working against me:

1. the 4 mile race was a heck of a lot tougher then I thought it would be and I just know my legs will be sore tomorrow
2. I drank several more corona's then I planned on consuming. Though this should have been expected in the an energized post race environment with a good friend
3. I did not get to bed until close to 1 am

As usual I awoke before the alarm at around 5:45 am (damn that mental alarm). I laid there for several minutes trying to talk myself out of my workout today. Yes, you read that right, talk myself out of my workout. You know a funny thing has happened during my preparation for this race. Initially, I had to talk myself into going to the gym in the morning. Then I could just get up and go. Now I can't not go (if that makes any sense?). The guilt I would feel due to missing a workout would far out weigh the benefit of an extra hour or two of sleep and a day off.

I got out on the bike around 6:45 am and was pleasantly surprised by how nice the weather was. I eased my way into my ride and finished up with about 35 miles in just under 2 hours. Not bad for a sore, tired, mildly hungover guy. I'll take it. Tomorrow is a 90 minute run followed by a 45 minute bike ride.

Looking forward to having a few friends over for a cook out in the afternoon. Hopefully the weather cooperates.