Balancing my Sunday

It seemed like it was going to be a lazy Sunday. I was tired and wanted to rest, but had a lot of work to do at home, and plenty I wanted to do fitness-wise. In the end, I could have done a lot more, but I think I achieved a nice balance of work and play and rest. I slept in until the part of me that was jittery and felt it needed to accomplish something before the day was completely wasted won out and I ended up doing heaps of stuff.

My Sunday consisted of:

• mowing the lawns
• going for two bike rides
• sweeping and vacuuming
• doing 5 loads of laundry
• baking 3 loaves of bread
• buying plastic crate boxes 
• sorting temporary fencing gear into one box
• sorting TKs vetting gear into the other box
• and lots of general sitting about, chilling out, visiting

Not too bad as I was taking it easy really. Nothing was too pressured, I just did what I wanted, when I wanted to.

The bike rides were challenging. The wind was strong. When I rode out to Woody I had a head/head-cross the whole way. The good news there is that I had a tail wind home, so though tired, I still kept a good average and worked at over 22kph, even with the hills for the whole ride.

The second ride was nice, a social ride, that was actually at a social pace! We had a tail wind out, so the ride in was a big challenge. I drafted in a nice pocket behind the three guys and did alright, but did drop off near the end. However, I still stayed over 22 for an average. My average used to be 20, so I am on the improve! And that's on already tired legs INTO the wind on the way back.

I am always torn between the desire to have a social ride and enjoy that time with friends, and my concern for holding them up. I am the weakest link in our little cycling group. I mean, they train 60km a day, I do that in a week if I'm having a good week, so I mean, it makes sense that I'm not as effective on the bike as they are. But I do okay, and I am getting stronger. 

It's funny too, I am feeling a little frustrated with myself these days because I know I've got the distance in me, I just don't have the speed to go with it. I find that is true of all my disciplines right now.  But I'm working on it!

After my adventures on TK on Saturday I found my neck, shoulders (traps mainly) and upper back really tight (from trying to pull him up) and my lower back was stiff for awhile when I got up, obviously from harder riding than I'm used to. I'm still wearing the shoulder tightness today. A little deep heat rub helped quite a bit, but I have been a bit worried about paddling. Perhaps I should just have a go - it might work out the kinks!

I also have another new plan: I am going to do a mini-blackwood each week to practice my transitions from one discipline to the next. You will be hearing all about these efforts soon!

Have a marvellous week!