I'm the guy in the foreground.
If there is any trouble with training this time of year is that there really isn’t anything to (READ: worth) write about. I work, train, sleep, and start all over again the next day. My minimal down time is spent watching the Bears (I don’t have time or interest to actually watch and other games) and working on my other hobby, home-brewing with my brother. To be honest brewing is a nice change from training for endurance sports, but I would be lying if I said it wasn’t work. While it’s nice to always have a cold brew around, even better when you’ve given it your own little twist, but it’s still work. Work on top of real work, and a full training load. In full disclosure a lot credit needs to go to my brother for keeping things going, I must admit we have to split a lot of time between my workouts most weekends. But eight or nine batches in and we have veritable cornucopia of styles to fit most anyone’s taste. Unless you only drink light beer (READ: yellow water) in which case your out of luck, watch too many commercials, and asking for such swill might bring us to fisticuffs. (READ: I’m a little bit of a Beer Snob) But even brewing is taking some down time lately, brewing beer (home-brewing especially) takes patience. For example: At the moment our batch of American Wheat Ale is bottle conditioning while a Chocolate (mocha) Milk Stout sits…. aging in the secondary, there is no need to rush.
Which is I suppose, despite to the work involved is why I like brewing my brother, I spend hours (READ: too much time) alone. One of the things about getting a coach is group workouts go out the door. Workouts that used to be done with friends are now spent working on my own (deficiencies… Damn you PLANK!) trying to eeck a little more speed out each week. So brewing a new batch, while sipping your own cold beer is a nice change of pace. It’s slow, and I get to work with someone else and think about something other than what zone I am in. In case you interested home-brewing, while work, is all in zone 1.
I wish I could say there were something more interesting (READ: goofy) to write, but to be honest there really isn’t. I guess I can like this time of year to a fine beer aging in the secondary. Not much happening, a little bit of bubbling every day or so, but not a lot of real action (racing). I may look like beer and taste like beer yet I’m still not ready to drink. But soon enough I’ll be in the bottle, cap on building up pressure. Then, finally, after proper conditioning I will pop the cap and enjoy a tall golden glass of the 2011 racing season. So I wait, training (toiling), learing patience as I go, no need to rush lest I spoil the batch.
