Daylight Savings always represents a turning point for my cycling season. In Fall, it represents leaving my season’s goals behind as I find once again the simple pleasure of riding my bike for the sake of riding my bike; the sensation of the rhythm, the hypnosis of rain dripping from my cycling cap’s brim, the cool air in my lungs, the indulgence in Rule #9. In Spring, like the bits of green beginning to appear on the tree branches and shrubs along the street, the ambition to start increasing the intensity of my training is beginning to bud. When I set my clock forward on Sunday, I knew the time had come.
The pleasure I found in riding with my objectives just at my back and a long winter stretching before me has been replaced by a desire to rediscover that strength in my legs that gives me the feeling that I can somehow control the pain of an intense effort. The sensation of Control Over Pain rests in my mind like the shadow of a dream which only becomes more vague the more I try to remember how it felt. Riding tempo on the climb up Interlaken Boulevard on Sunday did little to reassure me that such control has ever been within my grasp.
With Daylight Savings, my attitude turns from being glad that I got out on the bike to being disappointed if I didn’t. Objectives for the season are mapped out – whatever they may be – and a plan is formed around meeting them. At the start, the fitness I had the previous season seems unattainable. I have been working hard to get thin and fit, but the pain in my legs and burning in my lungs tells me otherwise when the road points upward.
Then, slowly, the sensations return. Almost without warning, I’ll find myself at the tight switchback before the steep section on one of my favorite climbs, and instead down-shifting as I exit the turn and hit the first of the ramps, I’ll find myself rising out of the saddle and pushing onward. Then, weeks later still, I’ll hit that same turn while still in the big ring. The power in my legs will feel good despite the pain flooding my senses.
The progression of fitness is something to look forward to. It takes work and sacrifice, but the rewards are palpable; the progression is along a scale of relative improvements, with each improvement a tangible gain over the last. And that is why I do it. That is why I start, for the objective is too far away and too abstract. I am spurred on by the momentum gained through incremental improvement much more than that of the goal itself. The goal is fleeting; once obtained, there is either the next or nothing. The progression towards the goal, however, represents the continuous evolution of the cyclist.
Today I struggle to translate these things I know to be true into how I feel when I struggle up a climb. But over time, by continuing to step out into the rain and climb aboard my bike, I will start to claw my way forward. And each year, the progression starts when I set my clocks for Daylight Savings Time.
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Come to Arizona. We don't do DLST. You can flip Rule 9 by riding when its 115 out and the sun is sitting on your back, that would make you a bad ass and maybe a little sick afterward. Here in Tucson it does get into the 30s in the winter so you can wear your cold weather gear also.
oh and we have Mt Lemmon where all the local hot shots lay down the V.
DLST is finally here in WI. After another long winter, the evenings are getting incrementally longer each night. Warmer weather (40s and 50s) this week should really see most of the snow finally disappear. Having gotten a few rides in during what can truly be considered winter, the pleasure of cycling in all four seasons is becoming apparent. The snow, once hard packed and fresh is vanishing, the cranes are migrating overhead and soon fresh green shoots will appear. I did my usual 50kms loop last night in the high 40s and actually felt a touch of warmth in the setting sun for the first time in months. It was truly a magical moment.Maybe it was the optimism of spring, the slightly warmer temps or just having a few more miles in my legs but I was half a mile faster overall. Not much admittedly, but a sign that things are moving in the right direction.
DST is like Christmas for me.
beautiful observation Frank
DST for me is a season opener, sorta like la primavera'
was in a race this weekend when another 'masters' rider said DST is when 'we' really start to work on form. And that the younger guys have been really working to keep form over winter in the garage, on the rollers etc., and we chuckled in that we hadn't even done any intervals or anything else and were hanging pretty well. They were in pretty good form to their credit, but where else to go if your in form already in March? I like July/august myself and to each his own.
so now, the season has started and full implementation of Rule V
@RedRanger
I hate your guts. You keep your nice weather to yourself, and let me wallow in my rain.
@wiscot
Beautifully said, not to mention that I can sympathize with you much more than I can RedRanger moaning about his warm weather and usage of "cold weather" gear on the occasion that it gets down to 30 degrees.
That little progression you're talking about is all we need to go out and do it again.
@Souleur
Indeed. I like to keep Peaking at a comfortable two-month gap, with maybe closing 'er down to 1 month in July/August. Gives you something to live for, because I't hate to get as good as I'm going to get (better than bad, but worse than good) this early.
Frank, that was poetry. Except for the part of climbing being a good thing. Climbing is never a good thing...
As for the AZ contingent, you guys kinda suck, with your good weather, consistent tan lines, and long fingered gloves when it's friggin' SIXTY DEGREES.
(Please read jealous tones in previous post)
oh, and awesome photo.