Friday, May 18, 2007

Week in Review… Crash Avoidance!

Last week wasn’t great and this week is no better. Most of my department was at a training seminar last week so I had to pickup some extra projects. I was able to get the miles in, but not on my scheduled days. This meant that I had to double up some workouts in order to get them all done… I’m tired!

Next week is the start of my two week taper before Mooseman, I can’t wait! I’m going to run into a problem next week. I’ll be going for three days of training given by the International Software Testing Qualifications Board… Boring! This better not cut into my training again!

Enough about that…I almost went down on my bike… twice!

On Saturday I had my best 44 mile ride with an average speed of 18+. The weather was perfect, the birds were singing, the little baby farm animals were out in the pastures and my legs were feeling great. It was an awesome day… until I almost T-boned a car at 30 mph! It was entirely my fault… I must have been day dreaming about Mooseman. I was on a long winding stretch of road about 15 miles into my ride and I hadn’t seen a car all morning. I just crested a hill and was carrying about 16 mph when I started my descent… I was feeling great. I changed gears, got aero and pushed hard… 16...20...25...30...Woo hooo!

As I said this road is long and winding but then opens up at this weird intersection. Three different roads intersect with only one stop sign… my stop sign. As I came around the final bend heading for the intersection I could see in all directions that there were no cars coming… so I thought! As I approached the stop sign I thought to myself… should we stop… yes we should stop…I don’t see anybody… Oh shit! This car was flying up the road and he didn’t have a stop sign and I was going way to fast to stop. I braked as hard as I could while trying not to lock up my wheels… I was going to make it! That’s when my rear tire hit some sand and started sliding out for underneath me. Luckily I was able to keep control while in a sideways skid and stop within a few feet of the approaching car… that was close! I never even had time to clip out!

The second time (this all occurred on the same day) was fare less dramatic. I had just finished another climb and stopped at the top to check my directions. I clipped out of my right pedal as I always do and had my left at 9 o’clock ready to push off and start riding again. I was trying to decide, turn right and take back roads or turn left and go along the beach. I decided to turn left and ride along the beach. I pushed off with my right foot, but for some reason my left foot was already down and over I went. I was able to clip out of my pedal just in time to stop myself from falling completely over… that was close! I thought I heard some cows laughing!

Well… Mooseman is quickly approaching and I can’t wait. My training has been going well, I’ve put in some good miles and I’m injury free… for now! This will be my first Olympic distance triathlon so I’m not expecting to much… just have fun!

Totals from last week
Swim 4750
Bike 90 miles

Run 18 miles

6 comments:

Robin said...

Omigod! You're training is awesome. John, you are SO prepared. Esp. as I read this coming off of riding the Mooseman course a second time this weekend. I will report on it this week, but wanted to say here, ASAP afer freakin' everyone out, that it is hard but it was MUCH easier than last time I rode it. AGAIN, it is still a VERY HARD course, but I didn't clip out one. NOT ONCE!!! I even got up devil hill....yeah in my granny gear and going 4mph. But I got up! Yeah! And remember, my hill climbing sucks, so you will be FINE. If you can get up there and just ride the course this weekend, I still HIGHLY recommend it, as you'll know the course and it will be easier for you to ROCK IT! :-) But YOU will be fine!

Funny, we ALL have that "tip to the wrong side" episode! And we all catch ourselves sometimes...sometimes we don't :-)

And glad to hear everything went OK with that other "alomst" crash. Be careful out there.

Kim said...

by the way, why did NO ONE tell me about this bike course? AGHHHH!!!!

John said...

Thanks… I hope I’ve done enough to prepare, I started a little late with the swimming but its getting a lot better. I really want to ride the bike course once so I know what to expect… it’s a mental thing!

Hey… Great job on the second ride! There is nothing wrong with the granny gear and going 4mph, that’s why it’s there.

Robin said...

did u go up there this weekend?

John said...

No... Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get up there this weekend. I really wanted to but I just had so much work to do this weekend that it wasn’t happening. We’re heading up to NH on Friday so I’ll just have to settle for driving the course then, I hope it will be enough.

Robin said...

Yeah, drive it -- Yes, it will be enough.