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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@Buck Rogers
The disconcerting thing is that despite seeming to have more time to think about crashing, you still don't have time to clip out and keep your bike from getting scraped up (or gouging the bamboo floor of your newly renovated man-cave. I'll only ride Bike #2 on the rollers and even then I've considered building up a Bike #3 (really it would be Bike #6) just as a rollers bike on the off chance I lose control and crash again.
@VeloVita
This is so true. Once it starts, crashing on rollers is like crashing on ice or ball bearings, time might seem to slow but everything else seems to slow just that bit more that the speed with which you're heading towards the saucepan cupboard.
@Buck Rogers
I understand that phrase. I took a 40 foot fall (on repel, long story) and hit the deck around 5 years ago. Circumstances worked out for me such that I only ended up with a fat lip and black eye. I still get out from time to time, but I don't climb rock/ ice with the zeal that I once had. You might say it "grounded" me.
@scaler911
Is that where 'scaler911' comes from?
@scaler911
Oh shit. End knot come undone? That's not good. They saw way more climbers are killed repelling off the top after finnishing a climb than falling on the way up.
I used to fall all the time when trad climbing. We always said that if you are not falling, you are not climbing hard enough (although that rule is out the window on vertical ice. There it was simply "Don't Fall" b/c even a 22 cm screw can pull out on ice!) I once took a HUGE whipper on the third pitch of the "Standard Route" on White Horse in NH. Ended up hanging below my belayer as there is just no pro on that slab. But fortunately I have never had a ground fall.
But ever since having kids, I just do not climb anywhere near as much and nowhere near as hard or crazy. Kids have, in a good way, grounded me!
@VeloVita
Sort of. I was working for a company that does high angle rock fall mitigation and slope stabilization. Guys that do this are called "rock scalers" (not for the climbing part, but the rock removal part). With my medical background I was the safety officer for any jobsite I was on. Thus; scaler 911.
We're about 150ft off the deck in this photo, working at an elevation of 11,000ft outside Durango CO.
Hmmm. Try one more time:
@scaler911
Looks like it was a fuck'in blizzard that day! Full white out!
I climbed in those conditions one time in Nepal when descending from Camp 3 to Camp 2 during a storm on Ama Dablam. Had to do all our knots blind as we literally could not see our hands with the storm coming in. CRAZY shit scared that day!
@Buck Rogers
Beautiful mountain.
@Ron
it takes a big man to not be offended. Literally.