Week 26: Crash & Burn...Huh, Mav?

 

    Spoiler alert....I'm fine. My bike is fine (mostly--nothing that's a big deal). We're all fine. Just a little slip off the side of the road. Details ahead.  And yes, I know Iceman isn't the one who asked Maverick this question. It was Slider. And Slider, you stink. Solid week of training wrapped up today with a long ride and short run.  With a good story 2/3 of the way through the ride.  Here are my weekly stats to start....(I'm going to try and keep this shorter as I'm kinda tired--also, Julie said people might thank me!!)

Weekly Stats:

• Swim (3x)
• 3.92 miles (6,900 yards)
• 2:13:36
• Bike (3x)
• 102.54 miles
• 6:01:11
• Run (4x)
• 21.68 miles
• 3:49:04
• Yoga (5x)
• 2:17:17
• TOTALS:
• 15 Workout Sessions
• 128.14 miles
• 14:21:08

Training Notes:

    I think I jinxed myself this week.  I was telling someone that I really haven't had any bad days or weeks of training since I started 2 weeks ago.  And in reality, that statement still stands.  I've been trying to ride the learning curve when I have a bad workout or day of schedule conflicts, and know that there is NO way I'm going to be perfect with this for the entire plan.  It just ended in a brand new way for me.  

    I had some scheduling conflicts this week with the way the workouts were scheduled, work obligations, and some graduation events happening.  It's only going to get crazier over the next 4 weeks!  I had to change my swim on Wednesday afternoon to Thursday morning since the lap pool was closed Wednesday.  Not a big deal, jut kind of threw off my routine.  On Friday I decided to just swim a half-Iron distance (1.2 miles or 2,112 yards) straight to see where I am.  In a pool without a wetsuit and 1000 of my closest friends fighting me for the same space of water, I felt really good.  1:45 average for that distance.  Compared to my last 70.3 training in 2021 (which is what I'm comparing this training block to), I am about 5 minutes faster now! Hoping that holds for Eagleman...

   

    Thursday I had a one hour, 45 minute Zone 1 and 2 HR run.  After school. In the afternoon.  In the warm (not really hot yet).  I usually don't run well in the afternoon, but I'm working on that since my running in my races will be in the afternoon after I'm already tired. That was something new for me...a long run in the middle of the week.  And there's more coming....

    I didn't get any strength in this week just due to my schedule.  I figure with the yoga and the amount of other activities I was doing, those would take the place of doing 30 or so minutes of weights.  I did get in 5 sessions of yoga, though and might have fallen asleep at the end of one session right before bed.  Namaste!!

   

    And I saved the best for last.  I biked over 100 miles this week for the first time since August of 2021.  I had two 90-minute rides, both of which I had to do ("got to do!") in the afternoon.  Stayed on my trainer for those rides.  Due to the annual car show at school on Saturday, I had to bump my 3-hour ride and 30-minute run to Sunday.  I was debating whether to split the ride up on Saturday, but with the advice of the podcast FB group, I decided to move it. Still had to move some things around and knew it would be a right window as Ethan had a graduation ceremony at church on Sunday.  So...I got out on the road with a new-to-me bike computer (thanks Chad for hooking me up!!)  Set my 51-mile route into the computer and started off.  Pretty sure I had a tailwind most of the first half since I was averaging into the 19 MPH range.  Then hit the headwinds! Still finished 54.5 miles with a solid 18.1 MPH average, just 1.5 miles shy of a half-Ironman distance of 56 miles. I climbed 2,700', more than 8x the elevation I'll face in Maryland (328' total!)  Then....

    Right at the 2-hour mark, I was reaching back for my water/nutrition bottle to refill my front hydration bottle. Went to my left side behind the saddle where I knew I still had a full bottle, but couldn't find it. Felt around and couldn't understand why I couldn't even find the bottle cage (I thought maybe I lost my bottle).  I glanced back and saw that one of my cage screws had come loose and fallen out and my cage was upside down with the bottle hanging. No idea how it didn't fall out.  I tried to grab the bottle, and....DOWN GOES FRAZIER!! I veered off just a little to the right and realized I was heading toward the ditch/downhill embankment.  Tried to slow down and recover, but nope!  My front tire went off the road and the bike just slipped to the right.  First time I've laid a bike down and I immediately came out of the clips.  Both feet had come free somehow, and I disentangled myself from underneath the bike.  Jumped up and checked for traffic.  Not to make sure I wasn't going to be hit, but to see if anyone saw!  No cars!!  No scrapes or blood or scratches.  Just some dirt and dust on me and the bike.  Garmin alerted to the crash and started the crash notifications (like OnStar) to Julie and Rylan, but I was able to cancel that.  At least I now know that works!  Once I settled down and tightened my bottle cage with the one remaining screw, I continued on for the last hour. I did hear a small noise every now and then and once home realized about 2 inches of my rear tire had bulged out where the bead sits in the rim.  I just need to deflate the tube some and reset that.  Other than that, as far as I can tell, everything is OK, just needs a good washing and cleaning of the drivetrain since it got all dusty.  I was already dealing with a squeak from my rear pully that I had to listen to for 3 hours.  So tomorrow will be a cleaning day for sure.  Later on, I did notice my left wrist starting to hurt, probably where I braced for impact.  Might affect yoga for a couple of days, but I think I'll be OK.  I've always heard "it's not if you wreck your bike, it's when".  Well, today was my "when" and I hope that's it.  Wrapped up the day with a 30-min run off the bike, feeling good going into week 13 of training!  

Life Applications:

"The godly may trip seven times, but they will get up again. But one disaster is enough to overthrow the wicked."

Proverbs 24:216 (NLT)

    As I lay there for literally just a moment (like a few seconds) to regain my composure and do a quick bodily systems check, I thought of how it would suck to get hurt for something so stupid!  And as I got back up, dusted myself off, and finished my ride, I started thinking about how many times I fail.  How many times I fall or don't live up to the standard I set for myself.  Or when I fail in God's eyes.  But I can get up and keep moving forward.  God gives me the grace to fail as a human.  Julie gives me the grace to fail as a husband. My boys give me grace to fail as a dad. If I just laid there, though, I'd be done.  I could have called Julie to come pick me up. I guess If I was hurt enough or the bike was inoperable, I would have had to do that. But I got up, and finished the ride.  

    I have no idea what awaits me on the Ironman course.  A mechanical issue on the bike, legs that won't function right after a long day, or weather.  But I have to keep going.  My training is preparing me to battle everything within my power and keep going and get to the finish line.  That's life too.  I'm human.  I am absolutely going to fail.  Regularly.  But it's how I react, adjust, reorient myself in the right direction, and start pedaling again.  And tomorrow, I might (probably will) fail again.  And I'll have to get back going in the right direction again and again and again. And I'm thankful that the Lord allows us to be human, even when it means I rode into the ditch. I hope that's the last bike "wreck" I have, but it probably won't be.  

Final Thoughts:

    Training week 12 of 17 down.  Three more to go until my taper weeks.  Two weeks until Ethan graduates and I complete the KC Olympic Triathlon.  Four weeks until Matthew get married, and 5 weeks until 70.3 Eagleman.  Busy weeks ahead with lots of miles and time on the schedule.  But I'll get it done!

In the meantime, I plan on doing my best to

Keep Fit, Stay THE Course, 

and Keep Moving Forward

As always, thanks for following along.  

CPC

5/4/25

Olathe, KS

2,945,408 seconds until 70.3 Eagleman

15,583,182 seconds until Ironman Florida