Training, Balance and Type

A couple posts ago, I gave you a couple themes I wanted to explore in the near future. Well, I still haven't gotten my vacation pictures organized enough to upload any (but I will... I promise) and while we did do our taped swim on Thursday, we won't see the DVD for a couple weeks. But I can tell you a little bit about combining this triathlon thing with being a Libra. (Disclaimer: I don't really put too much stock in astrology, but let's have some fun with it, why not?)

For those of you who read other tri blogs, you maybe have already noticed that mine is... different. Where are the workout stats? The links to my online tracking sites for my nutrition, or my training plans? At the very least, couldn't I have any blow-by-blow recaps of my long rides?

The answers? I don't track my nutrition - online or off. Unless you count my internal Weight-Watchers-points monologue. A few years ago (God, has it been four already?) I lost about 30 pounds with WW, and by now thinking about how many points I'm consuming (and how many I need with all this exercise added in) is second nature. Every few weeks, I do a little bit of on-paper tracking for a few days. And TNT gives me fully prepped workout plans - I just look at the printouts and do what it says every day. Point of interest: I haven't lost any scale weight despite all this training, but my clothes feel like they fit differently. More importantly, I feel strong and healthy.

Workout stats? I'm a low-tech trainee. I do have a basic bike computer, so I can tell you that my ride today was just under 28 miles, but that's about all the useful stats I can provide. More relevant? I'm usually almost too busy looking for wild turkeys or cardinals or sheep or whatever other wildlife our rides bring into view to follow our cue sheets (non bikers: cue sheets are basically directions that tell you where to turn, etc), much less record details about the terrain. Oh, unless it's hilly, in which case I can tell you, "Oh, yeah, that part. That sucked."

One exception to that rule: last week, out at Prince William Forest, I can tell you for sure that on the last (and steepest) hill, at one point I was going 4 mph. I was riding slower than I run. I know for a fact that I was going 4 mph because I also learned that that's the break point - any slower and my bike would have stopped going UP the hill and instead would have gone... over. Onto its side, taking me with it. I managed to ratchet it up to about 6mph; still slow enough for someone to run up past me, but eliminating crash concerns. How's that for details?

Part of the issue, I think, is my growing affinity for the need for balance "attributed" to Libras. I love my training, but I love it best when it's in balance with the rest of my life. And that goes for so many things. That slightly obsessive pull of new interests always conflicts with my desire to maintain those things I have loved for longer. And I'm only really happy when I find a way to keep all the balloons in the air, even if that means that no single balloon goes as high as it might if I chose to focus all my energy there.

My lack of detail focus also makes me feel kind of Type-B. Remember that whole Type-A, Type-B thing, where the "A"s are punctual and organized and scheduled? And the Type "B"s are spontaneous and scattered and probably also always 15 minutes late for everything? But as soon as I think that (here we go with that balance thing again), I remember that I HATE being late, and I kind of like having schedules, and while parts of my life prove that whole thermodynamic law that the universe tends toward greater chaos, I do find great satisfaction in localized organization.

So maybe, like blood types, there are other personality types we haven't thought about? A hybrid "AB" type, that vacillates (or maybe "balances") between the A and B characteristics? And who knows, maybe some of you out there don't really identify with either type A or B at all... maybe you're a whole different type.

Obviously, people aren't a digital phenomenon. Very few of us are "on" or "off," "A" or "B." We all sit somewhere along a big long spectrum between the extremes. I may not post lots of details here, but Pat has learned pretty well that when I have a good workout, he's going to get a bit of a spontaneous blow-by-blow for the 15 min after I wrap up. Maybe that's the solution. Want a more concrete idea of what I'm doing? Call me at about 7am on Tuesdays or Thursdays, and I'll tell you all about the swim I just finished. Or, if that sounds awfully...early, I'm usually hopped up about a particular brick Saturday mornings by about noon. Just be careful what you ask for... you'd be amazed at how much commentary I can generate about those boring swims I wrote about last week.

PS - Maybe the other reason I don't hit the details hard on this page is that... I'm very slow, still. I may well always be a slow triathlete. Which is ok with me, as long as I'm a slow, HAPPY triathlete, but it makes me a little shy next to some other people out there.