It's been hot and humid all week, and I've been avoiding exercising as much as I can while still getting some training in. It's so easy to justify driving to work when it's going to be in the 90s on my way home. I've found that keeping a training log helps me stay honest with myself. I can look at my weekly totals and check whether I'm doing enough to keep on track despite the weather. Or at least enough to feel okay about slacking!

For most people, the advice to write it down is old news. But I've never done that. I wasn't one to set solid goals and stick to them. I didn't understand the allure of making life lists, or setting training goals. Instead, I'd do what I wanted, what felt right, as long as it was convenient. I'd increase my exercise during a week of good weather and few commitments, and then a week later, there'd be some unusual demands on my time from the girls' school, or it would rain all week, and I'd realize at the end of the week that I had only run once, and hadn't gotten on my bike at all. I even trained for the AIDS LifeCycle ride that way. I'd get nervous about the length of the ride (545 miles over 7 days), go for a long weekend training ride, ride to work on Monday, and then decide I needed the car on Tuesday because there were errands I had to run, and I wouldn't look at my bike again until the weekend.

I felt bad about this training method at first, but I also felt that it made sense. I was trying to fit my training into my family's existing life. My family is important to me, and I want to prioritize the girls and their needs while they're young enough to still want me around. I didn't want to be ducking out on family activities because I had to get my miles in. There is something to be said for that attitude (and I said it repeatedly, while trying eagerly to convince myself that my haphazard method was going to be sufficient training for the ALC!), but it won't knock you into shape.

The ALC changed me. I learned a lot about my physical abilities on the ride, and a lot more about how much I have held back from pushing myself. I had a great ride, but I could have been stronger and had an even better ride if I had stuck to a real training plan. If I had been willing to ride even though it was hot, or I had to get up half an hour earlier, or had to run in the evening when I'm tired. But it's not just the awareness that I let myself slack that's pushing me this time. It's also realizing that if I want to do this, I have to hold myself accountable. That means I need to set goals and stick to the training to meet them. It also means that on a week like this, I have to not only keep tracking my training, but I have to find ways to get around the heat, or I have to push through anyway.