A Dummy's Guide to Pain and Suffering

Fifteen days and counting.
Boy, that went by fast.
The other fifteen days I mean.
In the first fifteen days, I only got in six rides, not very good let me tell you.
Although I'm getting in twenty five to thirty miles per ride, I really should be in the thirties and getting into the forties.
Not good.
So I sought professional help.
Not that it's going to do me any good at this point.
I thought it'd be fun to try.
Maybe.
So anyways, I've been reading up some on training and such, getting ready for the Haleiwa Metric Century coming up fast next month.
Looks like I'm going solo for my brother is busy with The Warehouse and just didn't have time to jump on the bike.
Well I've been working on my spin for some time now, sort of getting it up to where I want it. Now comes the hard part.
Speed.
I used to do intervals, sort of, and let me tell you those weren't fun.
When I did them though, I did pick up a half mile an hour or so on my average speed.
Now it's time to go back and work on speed and endurance again so I went ahead and got this:



That's right sports fans!
The Dummy's(me) Guide to Pain and Suffering.
Or Chris Carmichael's The Time-Crunched Cylcist.
Between the covers is a thousand ways to make you puke!
Okay, not really.
Okay, maybe.
I haven't really read it yet, but Carmichael says the workouts are "intense."
Oh my!
I'm pretty sure he wasn't smiling when he said that.
My preliminary skim of the first couple of chapters reveals short but difficult you ar going to throw up type workouts.
The idea being for those who don't have time to go on four or five hour rides, this is the way to go.
Self torture.
That makes perfect sense.
So anyways, here I go!
Off to blow a gasket!
The thing about riding by yourself is that there's no one to push you and for me anyways, if you rely on just your own threshold of pain, you really don't get any fitter.
I mean funny things happen to your brain once that heart rate gets a going and the sweat starts to sting the eyeballs.
Suddenly that hill you were thinking about before you left sounds really good, tomorrow.
I've sort of lost that loving feeling, the feeling I had when I first started to ride around, embarrassing myself.
That was motivation!
Nothing like having women and children pass you by like you're standing still.
Okay, they still pass me, only not as fast.
So now I figure it's time to at least try and keep up.
One of the great things about pain and suffering is actually seeing changes made to your body.
In terms of speed and endurance I mean, I don't think I'll ever be like skinny.
Seeing those changes come is a nice reward, but also for me, a sign of control over my health.
Something that went way out of control.
In another life dont' you know.
So anyways wish me luck!
I'm off to seek bicycling fame and fortune!
Or something.
Oh, and will someone please stop me if I start mentioning a Powertap.