Long Over Due

Wow, has it really been January since my last post here--say it isn't so!  Ok...so it is.
This season's Chasing Yellow ventures have turned out to less about cycling & more about life events than anything--daughter's senior recital, attending to aging parents needs on the West Cost, filling in as the interim division chief at work while the boss is out for 7 weeks on convalescent leave...ah, the ever-present rhythm of life! 

 

 

 

Though my cycling ventures have been somewhat curtailed this season, I still hold motivation to train & to ride--cyclists are just that way. :-P  I've also discovered new training materials to incorporate into my regular routine like the Sufferfest series (http://www.sufferlandria.com/) ,The Col Collective (https://www.youtube.com/user/TheColCollective

), and Zwift Island (www.zwift.com) which some may find rather "intense" considering session names like "The Wretched", "Hell Hath No Fury", and "A Very Dark Place"---call me demented, but they're nothing short of a dump truck full of awesome...

As the fall season settles continues to settle into its own rhythm, my cyclocross pals are eagerly readying themselves for their next muddied outings & ventures across the CX landscape;

someday, I just might join them, but for now I'll stick with Lenny & Gino as my velocipede partners in my continued pursuit of quality training and hopefully solid results.  To be a cyclist is to be a student of endurance, of motivation, and sometimes pain.  This sport is, indeed, filled with seamless pace lines & group-ride fun, of secret single-track routes, post-ride culinary dives, and soft muscle tissue transformed to wonderfully firm stature; but at cycling's core lies pain & work, hard and bitter as the pit inside a juicy peach.
It doesn't matter if you're sprinting for Olympic gold, a local criterium finish line, the trailhead terminus, or the next rest stop on a century ride for homemade brownies--if you never confront the associated pain, you miss the essence & work ethos of sport.

When once asked about what he considered best training practices, cycling legend Eddy Merckx responded, "Ride...ride lots."  Sounds reasonable...I hear my trainer calling, time to head to the garage.