Before the New Year, it was my ride up Haleakala. At present, it’s Keepers Tour: Cobbled Classics 2013. Before Haleakala, it was one of the various Cyclocross races and before that the Zoo Hill Time Trial. The targets change, but throughout my life as a Velominatus, there always seems to be a goal looming over the horizon which spurs me on. Training, for its endless nature, is like painting the Forth Bridge in Scotland: it takes a year to paint and you have to paint it every year.
In contrast to my opinion of painting a bridge, training is something I fundamentally enjoy. Lucky for me, I love training for the sake of training; I don’t feel any compelling need to do a particular ride in any particular time. What I do feel, however, is the need to do any particular ride in a better time than I have previously. I’m fortunate to delight in the process of finding form and fitness, of getting better. I love seeing the improvement; I love setting incremental goals and reaching them through the elementary process of working towards them.
Cycling, in this way, presents me with an incredibly rewarding outlet for that bit of my nature that lives on seeing marked progress. In every walk of life, things are complicated. The deeper we wade into any endeavor, the more embroiled we become in the mechanics of staying afloat – to say nothing of actually moving towards an end. Yet, Cycling is simple; put in the work and the results come.
The more complicated my life gets and the more conflicted my priorities, the more I find I love Cycling for its elemental simplicity. Set a goal, make a plan, follow it. There is no one to look to but yourself. There are no external dependencies. There is only the endlessness of The Work.
Vive la Vie Velominatus.
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Frank - He might have caught ya with a bag o' booze, but you caught him with Jumbo Bidons &...is that a EPMS or a hole in the wall? And while I think you could afford to gain some weight, damn, that does put into perspective how skinny the PROs are. His torso is girlish.
strathlubnaig - Actually, some of the fans of goonery are pretty excited about the Leafs this year. They've got some total nuts who love to stir things up, like Colton Orr. He might be the most feared fighter throwing right now.
This won't make much sense, but I'm a Devils fan and a Sabres fan. I grew up going to Devils games (family in northern NJ who could get tickets) & all the Sabres games were on t.v. in upstate NY, where I grew up.
Marcus - ha! That's a pretty amazing reason to fall off rollers. But, I can understand as I used to skip class during a semester abroad in Brisbane to watch "7th Heaven."
That might be the most reprehensible thing I did as an undergrad, and the list is kind of long. Not cutting class, but watching that show, of course.
I fell off my rollers while watching my 2004 Paris-Roubaix DVD. When Museeuw and Van Petegem ride across the finish line together I always get weepy and it broke my concentration. I need to HTFU.
@Marcus Good one on the rollers, but I'm glad I don't have your bucket list.
@frank Obviously he asked you to buy for him because he got carded w/o ID.
@Ron
Well played. But watching 7th Heaven as an undergrad? My god man.
@Sauterelle I fell off my rollers watching one of the scenes in La Course en Tete invovling Eddy riding down a mountain in the rain.
@Nate
Glad I'm not the only one. I don't feel like such a twat now.
@Sauterelle Far from it. Anyone who claims to ride rollers, and claims to have never fallen off, is probably lying, and certainly not trying hard enough!
@Nate and certainly never done a roller derby drunk
@Marcus
Ape index. If Frank were a sport climber, he'd want to be François Legrand.
@frank I want to see a photo where Frank holds Ryder at arm's length while Ryder attempts to punch him.
@Marcus
Why do you think they call him the Dutch Monkey?