Tag: Bike

Daily Life, Health

I’d Like To Buy Some Discipline Please

I went mountain biking with my crazy fit neighbor yesterday. Crazy fit meaning – he went for a trail run and then did leg day at the gym before we went for our ride. Halfway through the ride we joined up with another guy who turned out to be a pretty good rider. I was left in the back desperately gasping for air while they laughed and carried on a normal conversation. Granted they’re twenty years younger than me, but still… I hated that feeling. Being the slow guy who’s holding everyone up.

It’s a very painful feeling because once upon a time, I was the guy in front. I was the guy first up a climb. I was the guy offering encouraging words to other riders. I was the guy bombing down the hill at ludicrous speeds. I was the guy who was a “cyclist”. Now I’m the guy apologizing to other riders and telling them not to wait for me. It hurts.

How I got here is not a mystery. A love of tacos, nachos, and adult beverages. I stopped moving. I like napping more than the gym. I also know how to fix it. The problem is that I just… don’t. And I don’t know why.

Well, that’s not true. I do know why. It’s discipline. Specifically, a lack of.

My crazy fit neighbor and I had a conversation about this while riding. He’s recently semi-retired and has an amazing amount of structure to his day. Up at the same time each morning. Trail run at 06:30. Breakfast with the family at 10. Gym workout at 11:30. Mandatory two hour outside adventure with the kids each day. Bike ride or hike for an hour or so late afternoon. Dinner, then family/kid time. Early to bed. Every day, without fail. He’s dropped twenty pounds over the winter and is the fittest he’s ever been. He says the discipline has become addictive and has made him super productive with everything in his life.

My goal is to get out of my sweatpants by 10.

I don’t know why I can’t seem to find the mojo these days. But I will say, riding with those guys yesterday helped. On my own I would have done a shorter, easier route. Being with others and peer pressure helps with motivation. When they asked where I wanted to go and I picked the longer, harder trail. Although I nearly burst my spleen from exertion while climbing, I did not have to stop or walk up the hill. When I got to the top and they gave me fist bumps for my effort, I resolved right there that I never want this feeling again.

I’m going to do what it takes to no longer be the slowest guy in the group. Like putting a picture of yourself in a bathing suit on the fridge to remind yourself not to snack… I got to see just how slow and out of shape I really am. This will not be tolerated any longer. I don’t know if 0630 trail runs are going to happen, but the drift and time wasting stops today.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go ride my bike.

Cool

I’ve Lost The Edge

For those of you old enough to remember, there’s a scene in the original Top Gun movie in which Cougar visits Cmdr. Stinger after crash landing his plane. He’s covered in sweat and tells the Commander “I’m holding on too tight. I’ve lost the edge”, and turns in his wings. This is how I feel every spring when I start riding the motorcycle again.

In my part of the world we have this thing called winter. Being that I live in a mountainous region, my winter is full of snow. This is a good thing since I like to ski, but it’s not so good for riding a motorcycle. Every fall the bike(s) get put away and every spring I wait for a day or two when the snow is mostly melted off the road and the temps are above freezing. I drag out my riding gear and pray the battery is still good. I roll the bike out of the garage and wonder if it was this heavy last year?

It’s hard to describe what it feels like to ride a motorcycle after riding all summer. Everything just feels… in balance. You don’t have to think about anything, it just happens. Riding is a smooth, flowing experience. Muscle memory takes over and you shift and brake without realizing you’re doing it. Balance feels effortless. A slight drop of a heel, a small push of the handlebars, and the bike does exactly what you want it to do. Most importantly it feels like your vision slows down. It’s hard to describe. You see and anticipate everything. You notice holes, ruts, and sand long before you get there. It’s magic.

The first rides in spring are not that. Everything is just… awkward. I couldn’t remember some of the controls for electronics. I killed the engine because I put the kickstand down without being in neutral. I leaned a little too far in a corner and had to do a panic correction. It seems like I lost all sense of balance. Acceleration from a stop is jerky and uncoordinated. I forget to cancel my turn signal.

And the oddest sensation is that everything feels like it’s happening at 3x speed. Corners and ruts came up before I could see them. Traffic seems like it’s going way too fast. I never had the feeling that I could safely look around while I was riding because something would happen faster than I could react.

I made things worse because I’d taken a class towards the end of last summer that had us change the position of brake pedals, levers, and handlebars. I’d barely gotten used to the changes before fall, so now nothing feels right. On top of that I switched to a very heavy, stiff motocross boot and I can no longer feel the rear brake pedal with my foot. The result is that I mash the pedal too hard and slowing down is an ugly lurching thing – too hard, too soft, too hard again.

The end result is the worst thing you can have as a motorcycle rider – I got tentative and a little nervous. Rather than standing up and comfortably powering through gravel and soft dirt, I slowed way down and sat down on the seat. At one point I completely drifted to the wrong side of the (dirt) road because I was so worried about the gravel and sliding. I was panic grabbing the front brake which is the exact opposite of what you should do.

Just like Cougar, I’ve lost the edge. I’m holding on too tight. The difference is – I know I’ll get past this. I have to go through it every year. It’s a matter of time and practice. Somewhere around June I’ll realize that the flow is back and it’s hard to remember why this was so hard?

If you’re new at something, especially something scary, just know that we’ve all been there. Everyone had the exact same feelings you have. For some of us, we have to go through it every single year. It does get easier, I promise.

I refuse to turn in my wings.

Health, Motivation

I’m A Cheater

It’s not something you really want to admit. But confession is good for the soul, or something like that. So here goes… I’ve been cheating. Now in my defense, I didn’t realize I’d been cheating. Let me explain. If you haven’t been breathlessly following my every post, I’d recently written about a life altering change – I switched from clip-in pedals to flat pedals on the mountain bike.

TL;DR – I love them and don’t know why I didn’t switch earlier. But it has exposed one flaw. You have to constantly keep more pressure, or force, on the pedals otherwise your foot will slide off. So now I’m generally pushing a harder gear than I’m used to. What I’ve discovered is that with the clip-in pedals I was able to “relax” quite a bit when pedaling. While my legs were going around, I was essentially coasting far more than I realized. If I try that now, my feet come off the pedals.

So I was cheating at the effort I was putting in and didn’t know it. I could never figure out why my climbing speed never seemed to improve. Now that I have no choice but to push hard, presto, my speed and power output are much greater than before. Crazy how that works.

We all cheat, we just don’t like to admit it. I’ve never had much upper body strength, my shoulder is kinda jacked up, so I suck at things like push-ups. So what do I do? I ignore doing push-ups because I don’t like them and can’t do very many. Unfortunately, push-ups are exactly what I should be doing. How many of you are avoiding doing the things you know, deep down, you should be doing?

Confronting our flaws and weak points is hard. If it was easy, we’d already be doing them. But the older I get, the more I wish I’d been stronger about conquering my weaknesses when I was younger. But you’re never too old to start. Deep down, you know what your weak points are.

So pick one. Resolve today that you’re going to start working on it. You’ll thank yourself later. So now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to see if I can do a push-up. Don’t laugh. I’m pretty sure this will look like the Bill Murry push-up scene from the movie Stripes. But you’ve gotta start somewhere, right?

Cool, Daily Life

Notions Of Cool V.016

A random list of things and shower thoughts that an old Gen X dude finds cool or worth pondering.

  • I listened to a pretty good podcast with Renee DiResta about the Russian trolling and social media tactics. The Russian government is clearly in it for the long game. The bulk of their influence happened because they understand we’re all members of one tribe or another – republicans, democrats, car lovers, gardeners, etc… We’re very susceptible to wanting to think like our tribe.
  • I also started watching Amazon’s “The Widow”. I’ve seen the first two. Not bad, a lot of moving parts. Keeping my interest so far.
  • Stumbled upon an intriguing service – Steady MD. Basically an on-line doctor. Communicate to your doc anytime via txt. Interesting idea. The monthly fee adds up to more than I spend in a year on health care, so probably not worth it for me.
  • The 2020 election cycle is going to be a train wreck. A horrible, nasty, divisive train wreck we won’t be able to look away from. A good time to stay away from the standard opinion news sources and do your own research. Whatever side you’re on, challenge your personal mindset. Don’t be a tribal lemming.
  • The icefall doctors have arrived at Everest. The climbing season begins. Not on my bucket list.
  • George Hincapie launched a hotel, “Hotel Domestique”. An interesting post career investment for a former cyclist.

Song of the day: Anna Lunoe “303”