After a short run with friends tonight, the conversation meandered over to one friend’s blog (Keep Smiling, Keep Moving) — particularly, why she writes about both the good and the bad workouts — and I lamented, “Man, I let my blog fall apart. This summer was the time I should have been blogging about my rides and my events, and I didn’t write a word.”
At some point, after repeatedly getting sick and backing out of races, it started to feel like being sick was all I had to talk about. I didn’t want to talk about it. I didn’t want to talk about the cycles of illness, antibiotics and specialists. I didn’t want to entertain guesses about my illness or go into great detail (and I still don’t), but I felt like there was nothing else going on. My last post was almost a year ago — October 23, 2012 — and I had some new ideas for fitness, training and nutrition that I hoped would help reduce the amount of time I was sick. I set myself a few loose goals for what I wanted to do over the winter and spring. I met some of those goals, half-assed others, and wildly surpassed at least one.
You may have noticed a reference to rides in that first paragraph, rather than runs. I did succeed at my goal to spend more time on the bike, though I initially planned to use it for cross-training. However, after riding on the indoor trainer a couple times a week over the winter, by the time spring rolled around I was ready to get out and actually see movement as my wheels turned. I was done spinning in place.
I have ridden in the past with a great local cycling club, Suburban Cyclists Unlimited, so I re-joined the club, paid my first annual dues in a couple years, and started riding with them in April, the “official start” of their ride season. (There are club members who lead rides year round. I’m not that crazy … yet.) I initially started riding with the group every Monday after work, and eventually added the Thursday night club ride as well. On the weekends, I would do longer solo rides, mainly utilizing the Perkiomen and Schuylkill River trail networks. Eventually, I also joined another cycling club — the Bicycle Club of Philadelphia, and started joining them for some of their weekend rides from the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
All this was great fun, but I like having goals. They help me focus, help me reach beyond what I did yesterday and push myself to do more tomorrow. They help me BEAT THE BLERCH or, as my friends have often said, “beat the couch”.
All of which is to say that, after putting myself on a running restriction … I signed up for my first-ever century ride.
(To be continued.)