Wednesday morning started Tuesday night as I loaded up Mama's car with the track bikes and gear. We've been talking about getting a smaller car, but everytime I load up enough gear for me and Kid #1, I wonder how we'll get by with anything smaller (we will, of course, but still...).
We filled and loaded a one gallon water jug as well as a 3 gallon jug. Lots of water. Have you been to the Superdrome at mid-day when it is 99degress outside?
The original plan was to ride road bikes with Noah over to swim practice with Kids #2-3 in the trailer and then on to their school. But we woke up 10 minutes too late to pull that off, so Mama took the little ones to school.
This worked out well for me because we took the scooter to the pool instead, which allowed me to take the laptop and get some "desk" work done while Kid #1 did the swim team thing. By not taking the little ones to school or riding to swim practice, I missed out on 20 or so road miles, but with a solid session planned at the track, I wasn't really worried about it. I was, however, worried about not having time to get some work done. It all worked out just fine.
We scootered home from the pool, ate some breakfast, and Kid #1 took care of a couple of chores while I finished up some work.
Then we took the scooter to where Mama works so we could transfer our bodies to her car with our bikes and head to the track. It would have been fewer transfers if we could have just taken my truck, but it was filled with brush that had yet to be taken to the brush pile...
We got to the track just about the same time Christi (track monitor) showed up, which gave us the maximum amount of time there.
Noah (Kid #1 for those without a program) and I got started quickly with a 20 lap warm up. About half way through this set, Andrew (a hot rod junior client of mine) showed up and got his stuff together. I expected two more clients to show, but Becky was the only one who could make it, and at that, she was running behind because she couldn't take her kids to gymnastics camp until an hour later than she thought.
Having clients out at the track is great because I can easily ride with them without having to chase anyone down too much, and I can watch them all without having to be in multiple places at once.
Andrew needed to do some specific work, as he's preparing for L'Abitbi. Noah was just getting a general workout in, but for him, we have to keep it all in "game" situations to keep it from being work or "training." Though, to be fair, he'd be just fine with whatever and however I threw it out there for him. Becky...Becky is like a 14 year old with a Corvette. She's got a great engine, but she's still learning to drive.
I was just out there to spend as much time as I could with each of them.
As Noah and I wrapped up our warm up, Andrew was hitting the boards for his warm up. I jumped on with him for several laps while Noah wiped down and got a drink.
Once Noah was ready to roll, I dropped off of Andrew and took Noah through a 12 lap thing of sprinting every four (we're in the same gear, and I have to pull all of the time).
We finished that up, and I rolled in, took a drink, and got Andrew going on his workout. For him, though, I was way undergeared, so I just did the best I could. Of course, he's such a hoss that he doesn't need someone to push him or lead him. Just tell him what to do and he'll give it 100%.
So, for the next hour or so, I was bouncing between the two and just working them through their workouts. During the resting periods I tended to a few coaching-related phone calls.
When Becky showed up, I spent some time riding with her, helping her get familiar with the track and riding with company. It worked out that Noah was getting on the track for a set while Becky was riding, and I tried to get us all to ride together, but Noah was getting tired and Becky is super strong...so all I ended up doing was messing up a set for Noah.
We did pull off a few "races" between Noah and Andrew. They'd start on the pursuit lines, and Andrew would have to race 2.5 laps to Noah's 2 laps. Fun for both, it seemed.
After over three hours of baking in the convection oven known as the Superdrome, Noah and I were spent. Andrew rode home. Becky wanted some more, but we were just out of time. And out of water.
Loaded up all the stuff, went to Subway and had one of everything, then took Mama back her car. I rode the scooter home with a quick stop at the grocery store for some stuff to make a dessert for the holiday weekend. Kid #1 went with Mama to go get the munchkins, and we all made it home whupped from the day.
Unloaded all the bikes and got the road bikes ready for an early morning ride before swim practice.
Thursday morning, 5:15am. "Hell, no," I say. We all sleep in a bit longer, Mama ends up taking #2-#3 to school again, and Noah and I knock out 15 or so ending up at swim practice. Pretty darn cool to watch him carry his swim trunks and goggles into the pool while wearing his cycling stuff. I went out for another hour while he swam.
Then we rode home so we could get ready for Andrew's motorpace session.
Just as I got out of the shower, Andrew showed up, and we made quick work of getting ready, since we wanted to minimize our time out there in the upper 90's.
Noah rode with me on the scooter while I paced Andrew through some speedwork out to and at the Texas Motor Speedway. It took Noah about an hour, but he learned that riding on the back of a scooter at 28mph for 2.5hr isn't really all that fun. But he didn't complain. He asked me at one point when he could start motorpacing...
While out at TMS, Noah was riding backwards on the scooter, facing Andrew, and Andrew was all of six inches behind the scooter...and we passed a police car. He waved. He's my second favorite police man ever.
Just as we were all about to crack from the heat, we called it a day.
Smoothies and pasta for lunch. Andrew went home. Noah took off to play with friends, and I got to work on desk stuff.
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