Guy, please

I am back on track in that I am able to do something daily again.  I always start back at Z2 and this time is no different.  It lets me build my tendons and strength back up while hopefully giving me some aerobic development.  I never mind Z2 and can do it for months and months....as long as I see some progress.  It has been particularly hard the past 2.5 years because I haven't seen any improvement like I used to see due to so many health issues, but I inherently know it is the right way to build so I commit to it and do it yet again.

Saturday I rode 3 hrs by myself in full Nola sun on the boring levee just being kind of miserable.  Well, mostly just lonely.  I was Z2 and kind of plodding along at  probably17mph.  I don't ever look at my pace when riding HR because it doesn't really matter.  It just is what it is.

About 2 hrs in a guy comes up to me and is like "Ha!  I caught ya!"  And I said aloud, accidentally, "Were you trying to catch me?  Why?"  But of course I know why, it is just what we do sometimes to motivate ourselves to ride quickly.  We try to over take other riders.  I get it.  I just don't ever say it!

Minutes later and the guy is still talking to me and I realize he thinks I am a shit rider.  I am riding Z2 about 17 mph I think or maybe even slower and just steady eddy.  He is talking about his big week of 225 miles on his bike, and I congratulate him on such awesome mileage.  (while in my head thinking I used to do that many weeks when I was really focused on ironman).  I try to be polite, build him up, and enjoy the company.  He asks me absolutely nothing about myself.  I ask him if he rides with any groups, to which he says that no, he rides solo and only stopped to say hi since I was slow.  

And boy did my ego have a fun time wrestling with that.  Of course I politely let him know I didn't want to hold him back, being such a slow rider and all, and it wouldn't hurt my feelings if he needed to continue on.  And he did, thank gosh.  So I could get back to listening to my Def Leppard Hysteria album. Cha-Ching!

So interesting how quickly athletes in the SBR world judge others.  I mean, I am out of shape.  I am riding/running/swimming way slower than I have in a decade.  On the surface it is so easy to judge.  But I could probably teach him a thing or 10 about riding, getting fast, etc.

I call it the Strava culture.  Impressive training is posted everywhere now.  In Memphis I was a little immune to it.  Most of the guys I rode with were amazing, having won tons of things over the years.  But very few of them had a Strava account, and no one care about KOM stuff.  It just wasn't even a conversation.  Down here in Nola, it is everything.  The race you didn't know you were doing.  The good riders have the best training on Strava.  No one wants to see zone 2 rides.  They want to see the World Championship Saturday morning winners.

Just like I took Facebook off of my phone, Strava got the good old delete as well earlier this year.  As did riding partners that stare at their mph the whole time.  I know what gets me to my goals: train easy on easy days and hard on hard days.  Don't be afraid to be the slowest person out there.  It works.

Because doing the right training matters more than doing the impressive training.