Flowing

To go with the flow or create your own........?

I'll start this off by saying I had a serious "Type A" personality moment this weekend.  Probably warranted with two weeks out from an IM, but I don't think that I made a big of a deal of it, I just went my own way when the agitation level hit critical. 

You can find this situation when you involve other people into training.  There is always the choice, yes everyone has a choice, to be lead or to lead.  Most of the time I can sit back and wait on stragglers, or problems to get resolved before a training session, but Saturday was not that day.  I rode an extra 10 miles to get to the ride start that was going to go 93 miles so my ride was well over 110, for a very long day planned. First people were showing late, then forgotten shoes, then people not ready, after 20 minutes past ride start time it was enough for me after one last pause for something I said screw it and just took off.

Instead of continuing to build frustration, it was better for me to go it alone.  Nothing would be worse than fuming in the saddle for 6-7 hours when you should be concentrating on you effort and the road ahead of you.  Now, there may be some consequences to this action, such as perturbed training partners, but people have goals and if something is stopping them from achieving it then you have to find that limiter and correct it.  This was my longest ride of the year leading into Texas and making a century ride into an all day expedition was not what I was looking to do as I had another massive 20+ mile run the next day to recuperate for.

The camaraderie and support of group training is a powerful thing and I truly believe in it, but some days you just have to cut the cord and go it alone for your own benefit.  It sounds selfish, but the alternative is probably much worse in that the negative vibe I'd be giving off would spread and cause everyone to have a bad day.  The lesson for the day, don't drag everyone else down if you can't deal with a situation.

Heading my own way actually made for a fun time.  Still got my 100+ miler in with massive hills, and ran into others who got lost on their shorter version of the ride and helped them back home.  Found some sun and calm weather to cap off a spectacular Solo Century ride.