I had a long ride followed by a swim planned for today after work. Then yesterday I received a call offering me overtime hours at work for tonight. This is the tricky part of scheduling workouts in my life. I do not have any children (and honestly I don't know how anyone with children ever trains for anything!), but since I am an hourly employee, when I take days off I then have to pick up shifts at work to replace the ones I took off. For instance, tomorrow I am leaving for 5 days in NYC, which means the 2 days of the week I am here will both be spent working 16 hour shifts. I love this flexibility, but what it means to someone training for an endurance event is that a lot of my free time is spent traveling (instead of training) and I end up working a lot of 16 hour days (instead of training) when I am in town.
So in the past week I was out of town for two days and worked two 16 hour days. So my plan for today was to get to the gym as soon as it opens (5 am) and get in a 30 minute interval swim session before I have to be at work at 6:30 am. A great plan in theory, except that I went to sleep at 11:30 pm, so the plan would be executed on 5 hours sleep followed by a 16 hour workday. I often find myself weighing the benefits of an extra workout versus lost hours of sleep. Both are indispensable to effective training, but often mutually exclusive. (Again, how do people with kids do this???)
But I am an Ironman after all, so when my alarm went off at 4:30 am I dutifully got up, put on my swimsuit covered by my work uniform, grabbed my pre-packed gym bag and headed to the gym. Or so I thought.
I was the only one in the locker room and pool area, where it was dim and warm, and I put my stuff in a locker and got in the pool. By the time I finished my workout the pool and locker room were teeming with people, many of them children. I went to my locker to retrieve my gym bag, and when I opened it I discovered it was full of Chinese food. Lo mein and General Tso chicken neatly packaged in those little cardboard cartons I so love. I immediately thought, "Oh great! This has been sitting in my locker for 8 hours! I doubt it's safe to eat now!"
Then I woke up. It was 5:25 am. Time to get ready for work. No time for a swim. Luckily, I had already worked out in my dreams. If I can squeeze in a few more of these workouts while I am sleeping it will solve all of my problems, and I can easily complete the whole Ironman in my sleep! Maybe even place in my age group!
So in the past week I was out of town for two days and worked two 16 hour days. So my plan for today was to get to the gym as soon as it opens (5 am) and get in a 30 minute interval swim session before I have to be at work at 6:30 am. A great plan in theory, except that I went to sleep at 11:30 pm, so the plan would be executed on 5 hours sleep followed by a 16 hour workday. I often find myself weighing the benefits of an extra workout versus lost hours of sleep. Both are indispensable to effective training, but often mutually exclusive. (Again, how do people with kids do this???)
But I am an Ironman after all, so when my alarm went off at 4:30 am I dutifully got up, put on my swimsuit covered by my work uniform, grabbed my pre-packed gym bag and headed to the gym. Or so I thought.
I was the only one in the locker room and pool area, where it was dim and warm, and I put my stuff in a locker and got in the pool. By the time I finished my workout the pool and locker room were teeming with people, many of them children. I went to my locker to retrieve my gym bag, and when I opened it I discovered it was full of Chinese food. Lo mein and General Tso chicken neatly packaged in those little cardboard cartons I so love. I immediately thought, "Oh great! This has been sitting in my locker for 8 hours! I doubt it's safe to eat now!"
Then I woke up. It was 5:25 am. Time to get ready for work. No time for a swim. Luckily, I had already worked out in my dreams. If I can squeeze in a few more of these workouts while I am sleeping it will solve all of my problems, and I can easily complete the whole Ironman in my sleep! Maybe even place in my age group!
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