Pearl
THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING
Trying to get back into the swing of cycling things since the holidays has been rough. Between a crappy two weeks of cold (was a low of 10 or so for the 4 days) snow, rain and Mandi going back to work, I was not in any rush to try and be outside. I easily talked myself out of it.
"The roads are wet."
"I don't know where my arm warmers are."
I just didn't have the urge to do it.
I was hoping I would never have to ride inside based on the weather down here. Last Monday, I broke. To make sure I wasn't going to get too fat or go too long without pedaling, I dusted off the cobwebs on the trainer and set it up in the living room.
Jack seemed to enjoy the sound it created, put him right to sleep after a nice warm bottle. He's been sleeping through the night, which has been amazing. He's smiling and in general is a happy, predictable boy. It's awesome seeing him be happy and he's almost at the point where he's going to start to laugh.
Right now it's easy to kind of let him be on his own or sit on the trainer while he isn't interested in being held, or is due for a quick sleep. In the future, I can see this being harder and harder as he starts recognizes me more, calls for you, that kind of thing. It's a feeling that, as weird as it sounds, seems to be replacing my desire for this peak cycling fitness.
Now I don't want to be fat and shit stuffing my face with canolis for breakfast. I do still enjoy riding bikes and going fast on them. I would never say I'm going to quit bikes or anything like that, I don't see that happening in that extreme at all. I would still like to show up to the 3 hour group ride and drill it with the boys. I still want to put a number on my handle bars or on my back and race. I'm sort of struggling with the idea of just being mediocre in my own eyes and being 100% okay with it at this moment. I need to not think about "what if I trained" or "I'm faster than this". I'm just not sure how I'm going to feel in the next year or so about racing fitness. If you know me, I flip flop back and forth on everything, maybe this is just a phase at the time.
What's on the calendar doe?
The cycling event schedule just never ends here. The last cross race of the year for NCCX is on Saturday, and then the weekend after that, the first MTB Short Track race is happening. It makes sense that you could ride your fitness into Short Track, but up north, it was always the "get the legs going for MTB" season race. Not the "ride your fitness from CX into MTB season". It makes sense why people were freaking RIPPING this time last year. They just finished nationals and were raging. You almost need to pick a discipline to skip in order to not go completely mental. I've always been a fan up peaks and valleys of fitness and down time. Once I started training, it was all I knew and it made sense. You can't be on your A game for 12 months out of the year. Here you can be on the gas all the time and race once a month. So instead of being 100% for 2 months out of the year, it seems you need to be 80%, all year round... I think. Strange.
I've been toying with the idea of unzipping my SSAP SS setup and throwing it on the Scalpel racing the SS category for Short Track. I would probably just do the sport category for my age group anyway based on how the riding schedule has been going, which is fine. I was looking at the times for the Super Sport and my age group and they are almost exactly the same, so why bother. The age group and SS start times are at 10ish instead of 2:40, which makes the whole afternoon open to do things. I don't think I would win my age group... If I did that would be interesting.
While I have sworn off of singlespeeding year round, it's funny how things come full circle. Before we moved down here, I thought that if I was going to stomp the Cat 3 races (we see how that worked out... HA!) I would just race the SS category if I was forced up graded. I would convert the SuperX to a singlespeed and have a fun time. I don't know if I will be traveling as far as I have in the past to race cross, but the ~1 hour away races, it would be fun, I think. Maybe I'll get myself some cut off shorts too?
The snow is melting, the sun is staying out longer and Spring is right around the corner.
"The roads are wet."
"I don't know where my arm warmers are."
I just didn't have the urge to do it.
I was hoping I would never have to ride inside based on the weather down here. Last Monday, I broke. To make sure I wasn't going to get too fat or go too long without pedaling, I dusted off the cobwebs on the trainer and set it up in the living room.
Jack seemed to enjoy the sound it created, put him right to sleep after a nice warm bottle. He's been sleeping through the night, which has been amazing. He's smiling and in general is a happy, predictable boy. It's awesome seeing him be happy and he's almost at the point where he's going to start to laugh.
Right now it's easy to kind of let him be on his own or sit on the trainer while he isn't interested in being held, or is due for a quick sleep. In the future, I can see this being harder and harder as he starts recognizes me more, calls for you, that kind of thing. It's a feeling that, as weird as it sounds, seems to be replacing my desire for this peak cycling fitness.
Now I don't want to be fat and shit stuffing my face with canolis for breakfast. I do still enjoy riding bikes and going fast on them. I would never say I'm going to quit bikes or anything like that, I don't see that happening in that extreme at all. I would still like to show up to the 3 hour group ride and drill it with the boys. I still want to put a number on my handle bars or on my back and race. I'm sort of struggling with the idea of just being mediocre in my own eyes and being 100% okay with it at this moment. I need to not think about "what if I trained" or "I'm faster than this". I'm just not sure how I'm going to feel in the next year or so about racing fitness. If you know me, I flip flop back and forth on everything, maybe this is just a phase at the time.
What's on the calendar doe?
The cycling event schedule just never ends here. The last cross race of the year for NCCX is on Saturday, and then the weekend after that, the first MTB Short Track race is happening. It makes sense that you could ride your fitness into Short Track, but up north, it was always the "get the legs going for MTB" season race. Not the "ride your fitness from CX into MTB season". It makes sense why people were freaking RIPPING this time last year. They just finished nationals and were raging. You almost need to pick a discipline to skip in order to not go completely mental. I've always been a fan up peaks and valleys of fitness and down time. Once I started training, it was all I knew and it made sense. You can't be on your A game for 12 months out of the year. Here you can be on the gas all the time and race once a month. So instead of being 100% for 2 months out of the year, it seems you need to be 80%, all year round... I think. Strange.
I've been toying with the idea of unzipping my SSAP SS setup and throwing it on the Scalpel racing the SS category for Short Track. I would probably just do the sport category for my age group anyway based on how the riding schedule has been going, which is fine. I was looking at the times for the Super Sport and my age group and they are almost exactly the same, so why bother. The age group and SS start times are at 10ish instead of 2:40, which makes the whole afternoon open to do things. I don't think I would win my age group... If I did that would be interesting.
While I have sworn off of singlespeeding year round, it's funny how things come full circle. Before we moved down here, I thought that if I was going to stomp the Cat 3 races (we see how that worked out... HA!) I would just race the SS category if I was forced up graded. I would convert the SuperX to a singlespeed and have a fun time. I don't know if I will be traveling as far as I have in the past to race cross, but the ~1 hour away races, it would be fun, I think. Maybe I'll get myself some cut off shorts too?
The snow is melting, the sun is staying out longer and Spring is right around the corner.
) 
