Breaking the Rules of Early Season Training

I successfully rolled with the punches yesterday morning. In a virtual white out, and with plenty of chapstick, hotshots in my gloves and Dixie Chicks on my mp3 (don't judge me), I got a 1.5 hour run in through the vineyards, followed by some soggy ab work on the living room floor (when I stood up, I had created a sort of inverted snow-angel on the carpet).

In an effort to compensate for my lack of gym membership, I've taken to doing weight-bearing and abdominal exercises on the living room floor after a run. I have no appetite for doing exercises at home; I find it hard to shake the association that a living room is for living in and the gym is for sweating in. Flailing around on the living room carpet in strange contortions just doesn't feel right. Plus, I am easily distracted by things like the dust bunnies under the TV stand, or a renegade peanut under the couch, which have resulted in augmented or abandoned sets. Maybe there is also something to be said for the knowledge that other people are watching; whatever it is, I somehow put more heart into weight workouts in the gym.

That was yesterday. We woke to sunny skies this morning, which undid all of Mother Nature's hard snowstorm work yesterday in short order (I have to say that the changeable weather of late leaves me unsure of what sort of mood to be in). With the roads cleared by 1pm, I managed to cajole Michael into turning our 4 hour ride into a 5.5 hour ride (which was actually very accommodating of him, given that he announced his butt was "no longer having a good time" somewhere around the 3.5 hour mark). I stretched a Cliff bar, banana and a slice of walnut pie found at a bakery pit stop (it was made with margarin, not beurre, and egg-free; a truly exciting find!) to cover my calorie intake. We estimated that we clocked somewhere between 110 and 120 km's in total.

I'm breaking all the rules of early season training, I know, but I really have to channel my energy into something. The absence of muscle tiredness is getting eerie, and a large part of me is just plain curious to find out what it will take to get some of the familiar leg tiredness of increased training volume. But I know I have to be careful and not overload my soft tissues with too much too soon. Tomorrow, I'll be good and I'll just swim, and maybe pound the milk out of some almonds...