Monthly Update
Sick. Horribly sick. Five days now of nastiness unlike anything I have experienced in some time. Everyday brings a new surprise, adding insult to injury. I never call out sick but I have taken one full sick day and two early days. When I called my second in command to alert him that I wouldn't be in on Friday, I could hear the dumbfounded shock in his voice. Blah.
Another weekend of prime skiing shot down. This was supposed to be the epic season to end them all. The snow and weather have certainly cooperated but health and work have not. I still only have 19 days and the season is already half over. 60 was the goal. I can still get there. Lack of snow is not an issue late season but often times temperature becomes the problem.
The sick time refocused my mind set on the coming spring.... on goal setting past ski season. I have been thinking a lot about stepping up my road cycling game. Lots of different ways to do that. I thought about racing but I just don't know if I have the stomach for the carnage involved. Cyclocross looks REALLY cool. But it seems kind of wasteful to buy a specialized bike for two or three events that I might have a hard time making it to during the already jam packed fall time of year. Same problem with Time Trials: specialized bike needed for not many events. There really aren't many road races in the area. Guess I could try one out but crits seem to be the MO for racing in US. I guess that leaves distance?!
I've always enjoyed the thought of building up a distance base and going longer. No competition in distance, though. At least not around these parts. I need revenge on last year's century during which I bonked. But centuries are easy enough to build up to. Distance improvement in cycling just comes down to how many training hours you can log in a week. That can get kind of boring once you get past century training into double century territory. At that point, you need to be approaching doing almost a century ride per week ramping up for something nearly twice as long.
So I think it comes down to more of a personal challenge type thing. Training for faster speeds and longer distances to whatever extent I think is worth my time and effort to work up towards. Already targeting a few events to register for: half century, metric, and a century or three. And the Tour de Boston, need to do that this year. Debated getting a stationary trainer to get a jump on things but not sure if that is just my idle sick mind thinking of things to do while I can't do anything or genuine commitment to ramp up the miles indoors.
Part of being sick has forced me to look at some lifestyle choices I have made (or rather choices made through lack of choosing, omission of choice is still a choice all the same). I need to get my butt in gear. I need to get work under control, get moving again, and cut the crap outta my diet (okay, at least reduce it to reasonable levels). The thought on the trainer had as much to do with that as jumping on cycling.
And part of all these thoughts is sitting here during a great ski weekend with 100% open terrain everywhere, fresh snow, great conditions... and me to sick to enjoy them. The last thing I wanted to think about was skiing. So I am allowing my obsession to move to less painful thoughts.
It'll take a week or two to get that mess organized into coherent direction and intent. Until then, I'm just sitting in front of a computer monitor mentally masturbating.
Another weekend of prime skiing shot down. This was supposed to be the epic season to end them all. The snow and weather have certainly cooperated but health and work have not. I still only have 19 days and the season is already half over. 60 was the goal. I can still get there. Lack of snow is not an issue late season but often times temperature becomes the problem.
The sick time refocused my mind set on the coming spring.... on goal setting past ski season. I have been thinking a lot about stepping up my road cycling game. Lots of different ways to do that. I thought about racing but I just don't know if I have the stomach for the carnage involved. Cyclocross looks REALLY cool. But it seems kind of wasteful to buy a specialized bike for two or three events that I might have a hard time making it to during the already jam packed fall time of year. Same problem with Time Trials: specialized bike needed for not many events. There really aren't many road races in the area. Guess I could try one out but crits seem to be the MO for racing in US. I guess that leaves distance?!
I've always enjoyed the thought of building up a distance base and going longer. No competition in distance, though. At least not around these parts. I need revenge on last year's century during which I bonked. But centuries are easy enough to build up to. Distance improvement in cycling just comes down to how many training hours you can log in a week. That can get kind of boring once you get past century training into double century territory. At that point, you need to be approaching doing almost a century ride per week ramping up for something nearly twice as long.
So I think it comes down to more of a personal challenge type thing. Training for faster speeds and longer distances to whatever extent I think is worth my time and effort to work up towards. Already targeting a few events to register for: half century, metric, and a century or three. And the Tour de Boston, need to do that this year. Debated getting a stationary trainer to get a jump on things but not sure if that is just my idle sick mind thinking of things to do while I can't do anything or genuine commitment to ramp up the miles indoors.
Part of being sick has forced me to look at some lifestyle choices I have made (or rather choices made through lack of choosing, omission of choice is still a choice all the same). I need to get my butt in gear. I need to get work under control, get moving again, and cut the crap outta my diet (okay, at least reduce it to reasonable levels). The thought on the trainer had as much to do with that as jumping on cycling.
And part of all these thoughts is sitting here during a great ski weekend with 100% open terrain everywhere, fresh snow, great conditions... and me to sick to enjoy them. The last thing I wanted to think about was skiing. So I am allowing my obsession to move to less painful thoughts.
It'll take a week or two to get that mess organized into coherent direction and intent. Until then, I'm just sitting in front of a computer monitor mentally masturbating.