I haven’t been around for a few months, ‘been workin’. Been working on saving my soul and living in the light.. That’s right, I’ve been training.

It’s not like you can be fit, and accomplish anything else at the same time. So I chose fitness over cleanliness, attentiveness, aggressiveness, beauty  and deeper reflection, all in the interests of total purity. I am bleaching my very personality of all  it’s natural traits, like procrastination and laziness, and  getting right to the task at hand. I am sorry to report what you expected to happen will be delayed until further notice… Or until I need some groceries.

You may have noted the training log I started several months ago.  I have dedicated myself to collecting data and recording it, just not in a place you will find it.  Much of it has in fact been in secret, but I continue none-the-less, with total regard for only my person.  I haven’t made those statistics available, but the chiding emails have left their impression. I have continued to train and consider the human demand for verification in the mean time.  Perhaps some day.  Hats off to Hunter Allen and Andy Coggin PhD., for writing Training and racing with power (meters) and getting me off to a good start recognizing my own obsessiveness and taking advantage of it.  For the time being, I am looking forward to my first Sunday ride with Russ and breaking his balls.  He doesn’t dabble in the internet, so our secret is safe.

I haven’t introduced you to Russ at any point in the past, but I am sure when I do, you will find him as fascinating as I do.

We all know that to be able to ride more miles, climb steeper hills or do more gravity runs, we need to condition our bodies for the work.  We need to put time aside from our busy lives and get on a path of continual improvement.  If your schedule includes a career, preparing wholesome food to eat and caring for a family, you may have difficulty finding time.  As for me, I don’t have many interests beyond bicycles and my little circle of humans, so I tend to spend a little less of my time tinkering on old bikes and enriching my historical interest in cycling and a little more time doing what?  I didn’t say riding, I said training.

Riding is really fun. Training on the other hand, not so much. I like all the devices and wires going everywhere a bit. I often think to myself “this must be important, there are wires everywhere”. It’s the same sort of thought with setting up a fan to blow the air in my face while I ride my stationary bike. Sure, I need it to keep from getting heat stroke, but when you add that to the pixel image on Le Moniteur that I am pressing to catch and maybe even pass, it helps me get to a place where the riding seems a bit more “real”. I may not of mentioned I control his pace with a small (+/-) button on my handlebars, but that is the whole point, the distraction. All you need is an imagination.

Or maybe not. Maybe the idea is adding enough distractions and contraptions to get you by until the conditions are more favorable for more miles (not just dressing in warm clothes, and later washing the filth off your bike which I don’t care for) and more adventure.  Sort of the way a phone call or an email keeps you in touch with people you think about, without a huge block of time being spent.

I actually like riding the indoor bike quite a bit. Part of it is my imagination and the ability to put myself in a situation and exist there for a while, though the situation is completely of my own making. If I stop pedaling, I am alone in a spare room, covered in perspiration and going nowhere.  It’s only a temporary situation of my own making that will dissolve instantly in the light of day and blow away like a letter that has already been read.  The real goal is be able to make a small investment when I have a moment to spare now, to enjoy more of the real thing later. Somewhat like the other entanglements we have that are constantly blowing something in our faces.

I have a life outside. Outside the door and outside the view of others.  It’s more dangerous and stressful in certain ways than doing little or nothing, but the majority of time must be spent in challenging conditions to be able to function well in that environment called reality.  You can set up the base miles indoors or toss about words on a screen, but neither will help you balance when your grip is in question or the breeze is blowing the wrong way.  Those are your real training days and I don’t miss them by choice.