Gone Daddy Gone

Well, it's official. I have managed to be so negligent in my training that my base is completely gone. I rode for just under 2 hours yesterday with a few sprints thrown in for fun, and I was pretty toasted afterward. Sad but true. Given that an entire race season passed without me pinning on a number, I doubt that I can call myself a bike racer anymore. But there is still a piece of me that would like to be. So maybe this is an excuse to start from scratch and see what next season brings. Road racing and maybe track, although I'll probably have to start over as a 4. Who knows?

My fall from bike racing came about through a series of events: Deana's been working in the evenings several days a week as well as many Saturday mornings. And I've rediscovered my musical roots. Despite the fact that I have pursued a career in Technology, I have an undergraduate degree in Choral Conducting. I got the chance recently to join a very talented vocal ensemble called InVocation that does two sets of concerts a year, one at Christmas time and one in the spring, with the proceeds benefiting a charity. This year the charity is Feed My Starving Children, which is a great organization if you've never heard of them. In any case, while rediscovering my musical roots, I also started doing some composition, which takes time. So between needing to be available to watch kids more often and doing more music, I've let the training slide. Big time. Plus, in all honesty, I'm not as motivated as I was. I don't know why. I've said before that I really think I over did it in the summer of 2006 and the winter of 2007. I never really came back from being sick in the spring of this year, and since I haven't been active riding, I haven't really connected with my new team, LSC.

So, the result of all this is that I was down to a couple hours a week of exercise, and maybe one day of cycling. I've been doing some strength training to keep my core strong, but that's about it. Now I find myself motivated to try to get things going again. I'm having trouble visualizing myself balancing all of this stuff, but I guess it's worth a try. I'll sign up to be a Loon again next year. I think I'll ride a couple of road races, and if I can get past my nerves, I'll ride a few track events, even if only to do some Tuesday night training sessions. It is amazingly fun. But I've got to get my base back, otherwise it's going to be a big suffer fest.