Leap of Faith

Winter often means fewer rides and less time on the bike. The rides we in the northern climates are able to accomplish in the winter are shorter and less intense than rides in moderate weather. If you're committed to continued training and improvement, compensating for the diminished ride time means riding the indoor trainer, lifting weights, attending spin classes, and cross-training (playing basketball and other indoor sports). For the avid recreational cyclist, these activities are focused toward the next cycling season -- the implicit goals are improving strength and aerobic capacity, maintaining or losing weight, and diversifying your lifestyle for a mental and physical break so that the main cycling season is better than ever.

Fundamentally, winter activities aimed at improved performance months in the future represent a leap of faith. When you ride consistently, and begin to repeat routes or sections of routes overlap, you receive feedback in the form of higher speeds, easier climbs, or better endurance, making it easy to gauge progress and remain motivated.

Even workout rides during the season can be thought of as deposits in the bank of fitness, and feedback again comes soon. If you do climbing intervals, you will see within a few days some improvement, or feel less fatigue. If you do speed intervals, you might nip the town line sprint win. This type of training doesn't require the leap of faith that winter training does -- there is very little faith expended.

During the winter months, feedback can go into the deep freeze, as well. The feedback from weight lifting, spin classes, and indoor training is inadequate to measure true improvement on the bike. You enter the realm of doubt, delayed gratification, and faith. It is the trust that the program will work, that shedding 5-10 pounds will pay off, and that sacrifices, diligence, and commitment will mean you'll ride longer, faster, and stronger when the trees bud.

There is a more macroscopic leap of faith over all of mid-life cycling, and that is that in addition to the fun and camaraderie, health benefits will accrue, we will live better and longer. Given the larger leap of faith we all take as cyclists who are trying to extend our athletic careers, I suppose these seasonal leaps of faith are relatively trivial.

Ask any cyclist what exists within this leap of faith, and you are very likely to find a lot of well-informed planning and strategizing. From dietary theories to training hypotheses, many based on sound studies, at least the best we have today, cyclists typically devour information about nutrition, physiology, and training, and use this information to sustain their commitment, to extend and justify their faith.

As you experience your annual leap of faith, be assured that it will pay off, both this year and overall. It is not actually faith, but science, you are using to propel your leap. And that's what makes it safe.

Planning

One aspect of cycling for serious recreational riders is planning for and around major cycling events each year, from local races to centuries to multi-day events. Juggling work, family, and friends can be a high-stakes adventure, so long lead times and complicated logistics are inevitable. You'd better plan early and well, or someone will be upset or your plans may fail.

With the dawn of the new year upon me, I find myself suddenly thrust into the first bouts of planning rides that are many months away, with maps of half-remembered regions flashing across the screen and terrain profiles boasting their high points in defiance.

This rush of future realities comes at just the right time, jarring the restful holiday gentleman out of a reverie of food and drink and sweets. Snapped back into the reality of training and diet, I have already reaped one benefit of planning for future events -- I stopped eating pie and dip, and started back into a training routine, well before much harm could be done.

That nice side-effect of planning is but one of many. In addition, planning for future cycling events reinforces dates many months into the future. Armed with the knowledge of your key ride dates, you can astound colleagues and friends when you can immediately identify which day of the week the 4th of July falls on this year and the day of the week that May 20th is. Because you've planned rides in these months, you know the weekend and holiday dates already, so you appear to be a calendar shaman or savant.

Planning for rides well ahead also means a lack of spontaneity as the halcyon days of summer actually move into view. Having plunked down a registration fee and perhaps set some travel plans, you are loathe to whimsically shift plans for a picnic or softball game that comes up spur of the moment. This can make you appear more rabid a cyclist than you truly are. You aren't rabid -- you just planned ahead.

I seem to like having 5-7 major rides per season, just enough to sprinkle through the peak summer months, with a spring warm-up and fall cool-down ride thrown in for good measure. I can't imagine balancing more and keeping relationships and career both on-track.

Good luck with the plans you hatch over these dark and cold winter months. Casting your plans into the future is an act of optimism combined with discipline. May your discipline pay off, and your optimism be exceeded by results.