It's good for you!

I remember sitting at the dinner table aghast at the slices of purple beets staining everything on my plate with their unholy blood-like juice. My parents said I wasn't allowed to leave the table until I'd eaten them, and thus ensued a battle of wills that lasted for years. Oh, I ate the beets, that time...and any other time I was unfortunate enough to get caught at the dinner table on a night we were served this vile weed, but I managed to skip dinner more often than the times I had to eat the wretched beets. Though I never cried about it, as one young man I know did once when I told him he had to eat the tiniest piece of broccoli I'd ever seen. Why did my parents make me eat beets? Why did I make my son try his broccoli? The reason given in both instances was that they were good for us.

Now, the question is, was it the vegetable itself that was good for us, or the growth we experienced from sucking it up and trying something we knew we'd never touch again?

Which brings me to my next thought. If you have a competitive nature, humiliation is good for you. Yesterday I mentioned that I had followed up one of my worst seasons of riding ever with one of my best ever, and that following last season's debacle, I was hoping for a similar effect in 2010. As I pondered this question on my ride to work this morning, the reason became clear.

A few years ago, my friend Russ bought a bike and started riding. I hadn't done much on the bike the year before, and one day we were out for a ride, and I found myself dropping further and further behind on a climb I should never have suffered on. Russ beat me to the top of that road by several minutes. I was humiliated and swore that he would never again beat me to the top of a climb. I worked and trained and had a great season that year, with a personal best at Cherohala.

Similarly, 2009 was a disaster for me, fitness-wise, with the coupe de grace coming in late December when Jon was in town and we went for this ride together. Jon kicked my trash all over the road, and the Beast even felt the need to pace me on some of the steep rollers to keep me from falling too far behind. I don't believe I've been as embarrased since the day Russ beat me up Dolly Ridge. I followed it up with an equally humiliating climb up to the Peavine Falls road the next day on mountain bikes (again, Jon and the Beast enjoying lots of time to chat while waiting for me to join them atop the climb).

So, like the previous episode, I'm once again motivated. Motivated to ride strongly, to avoid the shame of barely being able to finish a 35 miler. To that end, I took a longer route into work this morning, a route with more climbing and miles. I've eaten my year's helping of humiliation and I'm hoping it'll keep me fueled up for a long time.

Is it Spring yet??!!

Sure feels like it is...

Yesterday was a beautiful 60 degree day here in the land of BCS Euphoria. I had determined that I wouldn't let a day away from work go wasted and managed to slip in a 2 hour ride in the late afternoon.

As I climbed out of the hole in the mountain in which we live, I thought I might be feeling pretty good, a few minutes later as I summited at Col du Station de Essénce, I was convinced I was going to have to get some climbing in because who knew when my legs would feel this good again.

I met up with my youngest child, Molly, at the Lakeshore trail and we rode to the other end together. It's only 2.5 miles each way, but it's been a long time since she rode and her legs were sore (she claimed). When it was over, she wanted to do it again, but I knew it wouldn't be as nice as the first time, since the legs were sore. We'll do longer next Saturday. But she had fun, and that's what's important, right?

Leaving her to catch a ride back home with her mom (oh settle down, Cathy was waiting at the end with the car to take her), I headed out on a short tour of Mountain Brook. I managed several shortish steep climbs with some effort, and noticed on Dell (a nice steepish climb to the top of Shades Mountain) that I wasn't feeling quite as good as I had previously thought I was...but the weather was so nice that I didn't care. After descending Cherokee, and then descending Smyer, I got my first look at the gate that was erected to keep cyclists from using a certain parking lot to get to the bottom of Smyer. It's sad to see that despite many level heads trying to work out a way to keep out access open, a few pinheads managed to screw it up for everybody. And I do mean pinheads on both sides of this issue, pinhead riders who refused to accept the property owner's requests to stay away until the issue was resolved, and the pinheads who work in the office building who were threatened by spandex clad hordes traversing their parking area.

Anyway, climbing Smyer was actually not too bad. I pushed it hard at times and got the speed ramped up, but couldn't sustain the effort for more than a few seconds at a time. But all in all, I think the fitness will be coming back this season. I was looking at my riding logs (which I have going back nearly 10 years) and noticed that my previously worst season (before this one) was followed up by one of my strongest seasons ever. Of course, that was before baseball and football became part of our lives, but I'll just have to find a way to work around those things.

The only downside to yesterday's ride is that it left me without the legs to ride to work this morning (as I had planned). They're sore, but it's a good sore.

One Commute, hold the ice

It was cold this morning. 15 degrees as I wheeled out of the driveway, bundled up and feeling like the Michelin man.

I still froze the whole way to the office...especially on the downhills. But at least the lack of moisture for the past few days meant I didn't have any ice on the roads to deal with (unlike last week, when it was all over the place)...so I had that going for me.

Still nice to be out burning calories and putting in a few miles anyway. At least it was sunny.