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.
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.
posted by Recycled Cyclist | 6:56 PM
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