When does the fun part start?

Well, I went to Oxford yesterday to ride with Jonny. He pretty much smoked me the entire day. It was very cold and very windy. 40 degrees isn't too terribly cold when running, but it is a bit chilly on the bike. Luckily, Jon had an extra pair of really manly tights that he let me borrow. I had a lot of trouble getting my legs going, which I think was partially to blame on my Saturday run. I felt comfortable and my heart rate was staying at an appropriate level, but I just didn't have a much power when I told my legs to GO. I make a lot of small guy jokes to my buddy Jonny. Unfortunately, it is hard to make fun of a guy's build when he is scampering up mountains because gravity has no effect on him. I can say that Jon looked extremely small most of the day, but that was because he was so far ahead of me I could barely see him.

I think part of my general fatigue stems from the amount of training I've been doing the past few weeks. This brings me to the good news -- today starts a RECOVERY week. My biking and running schedules are slightly reduced, and my swim classes (even though they are still on my training schedule) are cancelled due to pool construction. I will replace my swimming workouts with light bike trainer and running sessions, but really concentrate on eating well and catching up on some much needed rest this week.

I mentioned "fun" in the title of this post. My question is. . . is this process even supposed to be "fun?" is my idea of "fun" just different than most people's idea of "fun?" does the "fun" part wait and kick in all at once? should I be doing this at all if it isn't "fun?"

I think the answer is a little bit of each. Take into account my ride yesterday -- I almost froze my unmentionables off, was tired and fairly weak feeling the entire time, sat on a bike seat for over 40 miles, and by most people's standards really didn't have any "fun" at all. But the second we pulled back into the driveway, I felt great about myself and was completely glad I had done it. Maybe that feeling of accomplishment is the "fun." Maybe the fun comes before and after the workout, with just a few little periods of enjoyment during (if you are lucky). Maybe the fun is in just knowing you did it. Maybe the fun (at least for nerds like me) is in reading magazines, books, and catalogs in search of the newest fad that promises to make all of this easier.

All in all -- except for the exhaustion, hunger, crankiness, and soreness -- I really am having a lot of "fun" with this. At least there are only 11 weeks left.

*** Yesterday, I rode 40.8 miles in 2:37:15, a 15.6 MPH average speed (This data is from Jon and I can not verify its accuracy since I am too stupid to remember to turn my Garmin on for a substantial portion of the ride.) Tonight, I have a 1 hour session on the bike trainer.

Later.

Danny.