Before the New Year, it was my ride up Haleakala. At present, it’s Keepers Tour: Cobbled Classics 2013. Before Haleakala, it was one of the various Cyclocross races and before that the Zoo Hill Time Trial. The targets change, but throughout my life as a Velominatus, there always seems to be a goal looming over the horizon which spurs me on. Training, for its endless nature, is like painting the Forth Bridge in Scotland: it takes a year to paint and you have to paint it every year.
In contrast to my opinion of painting a bridge, training is something I fundamentally enjoy. Lucky for me, I love training for the sake of training; I don’t feel any compelling need to do a particular ride in any particular time. What I do feel, however, is the need to do any particular ride in a better time than I have previously. I’m fortunate to delight in the process of finding form and fitness, of getting better. I love seeing the improvement; I love setting incremental goals and reaching them through the elementary process of working towards them.
Cycling, in this way, presents me with an incredibly rewarding outlet for that bit of my nature that lives on seeing marked progress. In every walk of life, things are complicated. The deeper we wade into any endeavor, the more embroiled we become in the mechanics of staying afloat – to say nothing of actually moving towards an end. Yet, Cycling is simple; put in the work and the results come.
The more complicated my life gets and the more conflicted my priorities, the more I find I love Cycling for its elemental simplicity. Set a goal, make a plan, follow it. There is no one to look to but yourself. There are no external dependencies. There is only the endlessness of The Work.
Vive la Vie Velominatus.
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@eenies
More like the bridge is doping, using performance-enhancing paint. Lame.
@Steampunk
Plus one badge to you, matey. Strong work.
@frank
Couldn't give a fuck about your mispelling. I just want to see if you can write an article this year without mentioning Haleakala.
Even offshore you cannot escape the doping.....
@Marcus
Plus One +
@Roadslave525 I'm with you (and Frank, and all the others who are thinking in this way).
Nice one Franky boy...
I gave up 'training' a while back, no more intervals, no more set days of doing exactly what a program says. Just riding. Riding hard with my mates, challenging each other up hills and in sprints, sharing the work, just having fun. And it works.
Right now I guess I'm training for Keepers Tour, but haven't said once that 'this is what I need to do'. We ride our road bikes on 6 hour rides, we ride our singlespeeds on short and fast loops with plenty of hills, we ride our mountain bikes on technical, steep trails and we ride our steel bikes around the bays checking out the talent. And we usually have a beer or two after. The social aspect can be one of the best 'training tools' out there. And we're all pretty damn fit for it... I'm in way better shape than this time last year for Keepers Tour, without really thinking about it.
If riding is a chore, then you're not going to make any progress because chores aren't enjoyable.
@brett
And yet the riders we most admire are the ones most able to suffer.
@frank
Seriously?? Fuck: this place is going downhill fast.
@Marcus
You're just jealous because you can't haul your Umpa Loompa carcass uphill for shit.