The Bank of HTFU

S - 15,000 yards

B - 261 miles
R - 37 miles
Time - 22.43 hours

This week started off with a fabulous day of driving.  The BEST part (yes, the BEST) about driving from NOLA/Gulf Shores to Charlotte is the fact that, through no fault of my own, I alwaysALWAYS lose an hour.  Seriously, what have I ever done to deserve such mistreatment? Unfortunately that fact is incontrovertible and is as certain as gravity.  Well, gravity doesn't exist when I'm running really fast, but that's besides the point.  My Monday consistent almost entirely of driving.  Somebody did indeed have a case of the Mondays.

The week quickly became a nice normal one, however, with my only "recovery" from the race last weekend coming in the form of two runs normally on my schedule which magically disappeared this week!  Unfortunately, this stupendous gift from above (/Brian Stover) did not hold true any more the rest of the week, as real work got started quickly.

Notable workouts include Tuesday's traditional Inside Out Slugfest, in which I did a lot more slugging than festing.  Wednesday had one of the best "track" workouts I've completed all year.  I say "track" because while it is scheduled like a "track workout" would be, I generally do it on the roads.  I have my freedom park loop that I really like and it provides a very honest course.  A track might be faster and a bit more predictable, but I have to get pretty jacked up to do well on one of those.  Sunday's ride was one of (if not THE) toughest rides I've ever seen on my schedule.  If completed properly, it would've contained 2 hours and 40 minutes at 3.7-4.2 watts/kg.  That's a lot of watts/kg.  I had a very good ride, but definitely cracked a little bit towards the end of the third (of four) intervals.

I really wish there was a bonk rock on this route.  I didn't BONK, per se...  I cracked.  I faltered.  I gave in.  I submitted.  I made a deposit of straight cash at the Bank of HTFU but it wasn't enough to prevent my last overdraft.

Enough of this bandying about with words.  This ride was great for my confidence.  At least, the confidence that I can still wring myself dry.  Time to really put the head down and bang out some solid weeks.  As seems to be the norm, when I got my next 2 week schedule today I had to shake my head a little bit at some of the workouts.  It is going to be amazing.  Amazingly debilitating.