"It never gets easier, you just go faster." -Greg LeMond

I don't know who Greg LeMond is, but I'm pretty sure Ryan and Mark and every other cyclist does. Whoever he is, I think he makes an outstanding point.

I just got back from a spin class at LA Fitness. It definitely kicked my arse. It did because I wanted it to, so I worked hard and died- the way it should be. The way it should be in everything we ever do.

I think as long as something is hard, it's a good sign of many things: 1, it means that whatever you're working at means something to you because you're thinking about it enough to find a way to get better at it. 2, it means you're trying; if you're not trying to do anything, not doing anything is easy. 3, if something is hard for you, it means you're getting better at it because (a), you're taking the time to care about it, (b) you're taking the time to learn about it and (c)to try to understand it so that you can in fact get better at it. None of that is easy. In fact, the harder it is, the better it is for you.

This might all seem obvious to anyone reading this and yeah, it is, but I think it's a concept that gets overlooked a lot. Especially in sports. Alexis Crimes is so admirable to me, not just because she was an unbelievable athlete and teammate, but because she came into practice everyday making sure things were difficult for her. She for sure wasn't the only one on our team who did that, but I think she is such a clear example of what I'm talking about. I'm not saying that she acted like she couldn't do things, even though she did goof around a lot, but I am saying that she MADE sure whatever she was doing was challenging for her. As soon as she got one skill down, she took on another. And everytime she took on another, she really really wanted to get it down because she always made it MEAN somethign to her, and she always learned all she could about it, and almost every single time got better at it. It was all hard.... but all so worth it. Anyone who has seen her play knows it was worth it to put yourself through all the ass-kicking!

I don't know why I decided to talk about all that right now, but I guess the spin class this morning made me think about it again. I just think it's important to not only realize that obviously, it's hard to get better, but also, it HAS TO BE HARD. You can't possibly get any better- at anything- unless you make it hard in the first place.

The Heart Rate Monitor stats from today:
June 21, 2008: Spin class
-Total Time: 56:12.87
-AVG:159
-%Max:88%
-Max:181
-In Zone (Zone 2): 3:05.36
-Below Zone: 0:0.0
-Above Zone: 53:07.51
-Total: 40% fat
-Kcal: 458


Ventura Sprint Tri this weekend....
The plan for this week:
-Sunday: 20mi Morning ride, 2 mile run afterwards
-Monday: 1100m Morning Swim; 200 warm-up, 400 ladder drill, 300 faster pace, 200 cool down
-Tuesday: Spin class
-Wednesday: 5k run
-Thursday: 1000m swim; 300 warm-up, 500m straight at racing pace, 200 cool down
-Friday: 2mi run, 10 mi ride
-Saturday: off, maybe yoga class at 11am at LA Fitness, double check all my race gear.