I had Coach Monster’s spin class this morning. Before class, I look over at him, and he gives me the hairy eyeball. Oh no, I thought.
Coach M: So you did 13.1 on Saturday?
Me: (grinning) Yep!
Coach M: What did your schedule tell you to do?
Me: (no grin) Ummmm….
Coach M: Okay, maybe I can remind you. How about e-lev-en miles?
Me: I know, but I was so close and I thought I could go ahead and…
Coach M: How did it feel?
Me: Well, the first eleven felt good.
Coach M: Yeah, the distance you were supposed to go?
Me: Yes. But I wanted the race monkey off my back!
Coach M: The race monkey? The race monkey? He’s been gone! He’s not anywhere!
Me: Yes, he is. He was. The race monkey, he was—-
Coach M: —- then on Sunday, your schedule was for a 40 mile bike?
Me: Yes.
Coach M: And you rode 25, said “waaaa, there’s alot of hills”, so that equals 40?
Me: Yes.
Coach M: You wacko.
Me: Yes.
Okay, okay. So I see his point. Why have a coach if I’m not doing the precise workouts? Coach M knows his stuff. Race monkey or no, I would have physically felt better doing the 11 miles as prescribed. But sometimes, doing what I want is liberating, even if it results in a verbal lashing, following by an equally as evil physical lashing during the spin class.
Coach M was at Ironman Louisville over the weekend with some of his athletes, and was commenting about their races after class. He said one athlete wasn’t as prepared as he could have been, and he paid for it on race day.
Then he had a wicked quote for today: You either will pay in your training, or you will pay on race day. Either way, you will pay. But payday is your choice.
Of course, he then went on to qualify: Sometimes, you’ll pay in training and a race…but anyway…
But I got the point. Train and suffer and bleed in the weeks prior – and maybe race day will make sense of all the training. And maybe the monkeys will then stay home on race day.
On tap for the weekend: 6 mile run tomorrow and swim on Sunday. Last two days of “recovery.” Then comes the 6 week countdown, and the 2 week taper. Holy guacamole.