Yeah, I know what all of you are thinking. "Man, Adam's writing about being single." Well not really. I'm not saying you won't get a good rant here, but I haven't really figured out what I want to come out of this blog yet. It, undoubtedly, will undergo some transformations as all this gets sorted out.
It snowed last night, and all morning here... again. I miss the days of Choco tan lines, Reef sandals with bottle openers built in, eating watermelon after a bike ride. Those days are gone for a while, and will be back soon when the full glory of summer will be on us once again.
I think the most difficult part of winter is the solitude. Many of you know that I'm an outdoors person. I've lived my entire life being outside as much as I can. That feeling of freedom as the warm breeze blows on your face while your bike glides over the road. I miss the camaraderie of group rides, of the team (HRRC), of the other racers. Instead, it's the dead of winter and here we all are, flying solo.
Yet it's not really flying solo though. Because as a bike racer I'm also a bit competitive. I need to be on form and ready to compete when the time comes. So too, are the ways of many riders. So we train. And we train. And we train. None of us really know how fit anyone else is. We just know that we're not race ready anymore. So we train, and train. Hoping to get closer to that long forgotten July form by the time "opening day" comes around.
But where does that leave us who live in a frozen tundra where apparently hell has frozen over? Well the choices today for me were: put on all sorts of clothes and head out, ride the trainer, run, or sit around and do nothing. Let's see. I tried the "nothing" option yesterday during the 24 hours of rain, sleet, hail, snow, rain, and sleet. I may have mentioned some more than once but that's the order they came in. I ended up lying in bed at 1:40am praying I would get tired enough to sleep. It worked, eventually. Run: Somewhere I developed the tightest I.T. bands in the world. I am seriously considering stretching now. I used to hate running, but lately it's been good to me. Okay, trainer. I hate these things. They totally defeat the purpose of riding. That just leaves the riding outside thing so that's what I did. 3 hours, two cramping hamstrings, and about a billion hard pedal strokes later here I am, totally blown up but happy I rode.
The trails are very peaceful when blanketed with snow. You may think you're alone. But truth be told, you need only to look down and see the tracks from all the critters to remember that many a pair of eyes are on you at all times. Not only that, but your competition is training. You should probably get out there and get some work done.
