Don't Make Change too Complicated: Just Begin!




Saturday, May 5, 2012

The Mind and Body in Battle....Who Will Win Out?

7 days before the big event and Cece is out with a double ear infection and a bad sinus infection.  Of course, she blames that gust of wind that got her this past Monday (see below!)   That evening, her ear was killing her like it did when she had an ear infection as a child. Damn  wind! 

She went to the doctor and had her look in her ears, nose and throat and her Dr's favorite phrase came off the docs lips...."Oh God!"    Why does she always say that when she looks?

The Dr.  got out her prescription pad.  Cece stopped her saying, "Lets count how many days until my race.  I want to be covered until the next day."  They counted up 11 days and that is how many days worth of antibiotics she was prescribed.

Now Cece is trying to rest and stay on her training plan at the same time. Did she just say that?  Good Luck!   This is not quite so easy.  Her mind wants to train...her body and lungs do not.

What to do? 

Cece is bargaining with herself.    She negotiated with herself...her mind is hemming and hawing.  OK> agreed.  She will rest most of the day in bed and try to sleep...sleep...sleep  Then later in the afternoon she will get up and start moving around a bit....then early evening she will train indoors  and do the Spinervals DVD called time trialapalooza....80 minutes of push, push push!  Tomorrow if she is feeling better, she might ride the actual route...we will see how the battle of the mind and body plays out.

For now...nighty nite!  Cece will be dreaming and visualizing the route.......


Monday, April 30, 2012

The Wind Got Hold of Me!

Cece has been cycling now for quite a few  years.  She has ridden in many different weather conditions and those of you that read this blog, know that she does not like the wind.  Even though the cyclist's mantra is "The wind is your training partner" Cece avoids it like the plague if she can.

She had checked the weather Underground for her forecast in the Northeast Heights as she took her bike to work today to climb the difficult (for Cece)  Elena Gallegos hill.It is a category 3 climb...so says Map My Ride.  Once outside, she remarked out loud what a perfect day it was.  No wind, moderate temps...a wonderful day to ride.

She began her ride and a few miles later her climb up to the top of Elena.  We are fortunate in Albuquerque to have much land that is designated Open Space and the Elena Gallegos area is one of them.     Click on
 the clicky thingy and scroll down and you will see a  brief slide show of the area.  It is starkly beautiful.  This is the high desert and once at the top, you can look west and see the city from way above it all!

Training is challenging and so was this climb.She was grateful she was not wearing a heart rate monitor because she would have been scared at her numbers...but she was pleased she made it up.  Then the fun part.  The reward for climbing up...is the down.  Weeee!  Weee! We Weee!

Cece wanted to get a few more miles under her belt and decided to go north on  Tramway and then back  south to where she had started from.  When she made the turn to go south, she noticed a horrible head wind was developing.  Where did this come from?  She told herself this is Albuquerque and this is the box.  She was going south into a headwind that had a sheer to it from the west.  But really it was no problem.

But, she had spoken too soon.  Shortly, a gust of wind caught her ,seemingly out of the blue, and took hold of her and her bike.  Time stood still...it was like she was pedaling, but was going no where.  All of a sudden, her bike began to wobble and she was beginning to be pushed into the highway.  This was not good.  Nothing like this had ever happened before.  She thought back to the most horrible wind day she had ever experienced...that day on Frost road with the team....but this was worse. because she found she could not control her bike!

It took only a moment to decide to unclip and stop her bike.  She stopped and held on tight.  The gust passed.  She took a few breaths...looked behind her at the quickly flowing traffic and said a silent prayer
of thanks. 

After a moment, she got back on her bike again, wondering where the wind had gone too.  There was a gentle breeze that was wonderfully pleasant, but no monster wind that made her immobile!  Whew!

Another great adventurous day on the bike!




Sunday, April 29, 2012

Poetry by the Mile

When Cece got off her bike the other day after having done her time trial route, she got real silly and started to write some free verse poetry!
Here is her  poem:

I set my goal

I must have been crazy

to cut 21 minutes off

my previous time trial pace.

            *
With 2 weeks to go

I am 1/2 way there

             *
 If only I could

loose the horrible hill

and the fat butt baggage

             *
My hips don't want to

Climb uphill!

Here are what some of her wonderful friends wrote back to her ...also in free verse:

The stress and strain that we go through

burns calories extraordinaire

and let's one know (as the pedals go)

that life sometimes ain't fair.



But, what counts most when the chips are down,

won't be our weighted buttocks,

but the heart and love and the sparkle shown,

for our friends and those who love us.


And another:
Be your own best friend,

forget about your rear end.