Life catches up to you
Funny, life is often like a closet. You organize it to clear up some space and then before you know it you find that it is filled up with more stuff. Unfortunately, that has been happening to me and the bike.
My closet got cleaned when I had my accident that took me off the bike. It certainly wasn’t that I wanted to empty that part of the closet! Still, for a couple of weeks that space was a vacuum waiting to get filled.
I did get back on the trainer and the first week of the Tour De France put in about 7 hours of trainer time. Then LIFE hit me and the vacuum of the empty spaces started to pull in other fillers. The bike — my Tour De Basement — suffered because of it.
On a positive side, I needed to devote more time to some areas of my life. I’m in a time of transition at work. There are also changes taking place at The Worthwhile Company. Of course, there are always more opportunities to spend time with your family.
All those things have pulled me away from the bike. In some ways, it has been a reality check. When I step back and look at it honestly, I have to accept the fact that the bike was probably taking a little too much space in my closet. I realize that not only did it take away from the time I have to spend with other important things, it also saps the amount of energy and motivation I have to devote to those things.
Now, this isn’t an announcement that I am giving up the bike! Oh no. I miss the bike and I can’t wait to get back onto it. However, I do believe I am much wiser in how I’ll approach the bike when I get back on. The bike needs to enhance all aspects of my life — not take away from those areas.
Basically, what this means is that I am going to have to have more realistic goals concerning my competitive nature. To this point, I have been driven to always be at the front. That is why I was so pumped to be at the front in the Category 4 peloton. However, I also understand the devotion it took to get there!
As I have now moved up into the Category 3 field — and more than that, the 35+ Masters field — I understand what it will take to move up into the upper ranks of that group. Do I doubt that I could do it? Absolutely not. Do I think that it would be best for me to give that amount of devotion to the sport to get there? The answer is no.
My approach must be that I will be as competitive as I can be with the time I am able to give. That means I may end up being field fodder at times. It means I will be a worker bee and not a podium finisher. The competition will have to be within myself. More than that, the objective (at my age and status in life) needs to be focused more on having fun and staying in shape than on winning races and moving into a new, tougher category.
We’ll see how that works out. I’m a competitive person and I do love riding my bike. We’ll see how long my closet will keep the new arrangement!
Tags: Crash
You’ve had such a good and positive attitude ever since the crash and for that I applaud you, my man. I’m really sorry this happened to you and I hope you can get back out there soon.
I think you’ll be a smarter, better, and more focused rider when you return.
Darryl
You can fit it all in if you’re really efficient and focused in your training. I’ve been able to finish in the top 10 in Masters 35+ races 7 times this season, on less hours a week on the bike than ever. My average week is 4-5 hours of training. It’s all about quality, no junk miles…
Jonathan, I could see this coming before you had your drash. I am glad though that you were able to see thru the adrenaline haze of competitive cycling to see that it is not always about moving up to the next level that makes this sport so beautiful. What you get is proportionate to what you put in, but there is also a balance that has to be kept to keep other aspects in check. I had a friend tell me, that you can be good at about three things, but two of those three will suffer more because of the other. If you want to be a champion cyclist, the family and work will suffer, if you want to be a really good husband and father, the cycling and work will suffer. When I say suffer, is that you can only be really good at one of those things, it is up to you to decide which of those it is you want to be good at.
HUMP