Endurance Currency

One of my favorite bloggers is IronBob (if you haven't read his blog...it is link to mine at the right). He reminds me of the Uncle I wish I had (my parents are only children). You know the guy Im talking about : the relative you knew as a child that was really cool that did great things and shared amazing advice without lecturing. I have been very blessed to have IronBob do just that.

A few days ago, IronBob commented on my post. He told me to "put that workout in the bank...you can withdraw it on race day"

What profound advice.

Today, I woke up at 4am, drank some coffee and really thought about going back to bed. I did a hard run yesterday and my body was reminding me that I'm 46...not 26. I stretched..and I contemplated...and I decided to make my nutrition bottles, stop whining and get on the road.

My training partners had other plans this morning. They were volunteering at a triathlon near my home. I thought about going there instead of my workout...but I stared at my bike and realized that in 130 days I will be spending more than 3 hours in the saddle. Today was an easy day.

Then I thought about what IronBob said. If I skip today and go "play"..there will be a low balance in the bank account that I need on November 7th. I want "endurance currency"....so off I went.

Although I was unable to go to my favorite trail (Van Fleet), I went to Lake Minneola and got creative with my ride. I went to areas I hadn't been to before but within some roads that I use regularly. I did some flats...some hills...and some of the trail.
I got there right as the sun was rising. The view was beautiful across the lake as I did my warm up ... and then it hit me...this is my "payoff" in endurance currency. Right here...right now. At this moment...Im putting the currency away for my Ironman day.

Ive never been one of those people that wants to be "super rich"...but I wouldn't be too disappointed if I had plenty in the "bank" on race day to make making the cut off times look easy.