Crossing to the Danger Zone

After training and completing a handful of endurance events as your basic non-athlete, I've come to recognize when I've crossed into the Danger Zone.  This is the point in training when you start to really push and tax your body, when you realize all the base work, core work, and proper nutrition really matter.   And because I appear to have the ability to forget everything I have learned, I am never able to see when this is coming and take preventative measures.

Yesterday we did a 50 mile ride from Orinda including the Pinehurst loop and the 3 bears.  It was a terrific ride.  We managed to have a completely rain free ride, the climbing we challenging, and we survived with only 1 flat amongst the 6 of us.   Through the first 20 miles, though, where the first climb was, I felt so sluggish and not all together there.  One of my teammates felt the same way.  We compared notes, and concluded that likely culprits were her glasses of wine and a cosmo, and my  beer and two manhattans I drank the night before, and my dinner of popcorn and duck fat fries.OK, probably not the healthiest of dinners on my part on any night, but the night before a significant ride, it was a really bad idea.   (In my defense, it was my birthday present night  -- we went to see Cirque du Soilel and then to Orson for drinks.)  Today my legs are super tired, I feel pretty sluggish, and it took me a long long time to rehydrate afterward.  Not a graceful recovery at all.

So the Danger Zone is really about when its time to straighten up and fly right.  I have been doing my core workouts and *trying* to get in mid-week spin classes and runs.  6 weeks to the event.   Gotta be better about  those mid-week workouts, and on Friday nights about getting more sleep, drinking less.  And gotta do better on the recovery front after the rides.  And I'll start that next week. .. since last night I drank too much beer and ate too much delicious pizza.  Hey, in my defense, it was our friends 40th birthday . . .

Hmmm. Starting to see a pattern here. Danger! Danger!  :-)