As foretold in my last post, I got up early and rode at dawn on Saturday instead of hopping on the team "bus" to the Durand RR. They were leaving at 8:00 am for an 11:00 race start. I probably wouldn't have gotten home until well after 3:00 pm, essentially making it an all day event.
With sunrise still waiting until about 6:20 am or so, I was planning on getting up around 5:00 to ride the trainer for a bit, then hit the roads for another hour so I could get home before the kids got up for the day.
I ended up rolling over with the first, second and third alarms then finally paid attention to the fourth chime. I was still up, dressed and out the door in time to catch this at about a mile and a half into my ride:
It was pretty chilly yet this early, (somewhere between freezing and 40 F) and I wish I would have at least warmed up on the trainer indoors before getting outside. My legs never really warmed up and it felt like I was pulling a loaded Burley the entire ride, but it was still nice to get outside without having to insulate too much...and it's still April. This time last year we were still battling snow showers and dodging snow piles at the end of the driveway.
Just a nice 25-miler around southern suburbia and home in time to shower before the kids were up, make coffee and eat breakfast with the kids before heading outside for a full day of removing even more over-aged landscaping from the yard. The more crap I tear out the more I want to tear out.
At least the manual labor around the yard is enough like cross-fit for me to count as a workout.
Doesn't matter; still exercise.
Race Date: April 17, 2012
Packed my race bag the night before. Checked over the bike and wiped it down and threw the front wheel in the trunk of the car. Racked the bike on top of the car before work and felt great all day. Light lunch. Good afternoon snack.
The weather was looking favorable all day long for the first race of the season. Light breeze and the sun was peaking out after a couple rainy days over the weekend, a weekend filled with tearing up the yard and preparing to relandscape everything.
As the end of the work day approached I double-checked the weather and everything was "go" for race time.
Shutdown the computer and head out to the parking lot and it's absolutely gorgeous. Call home and see what's going on with the kiddos. Wife suggests that I maybe spend the night getting the yard closer to finished instead of racing.
All of those hours on the trainer this winter. Sweating on the rollers out in the garage as my breath froze. The upgrades to the bike over the winter. All of this wasn't done to prepare me to pull up lawn edging!?
I sit in the driver's seat in the parking lot and stew over the suggestion of getting work done on the house instead of paying $15 to add my first race of the year nerves to the Cat 4 peloton in Minnetonka.
Continuing to pull up overgrown layers, (yes, multiple) of landscape fabric or bumping elbows in the bottleneck on the backside of the OPUS loop.
Raking up piles of pine needles from the tree that I fell a week ago in the front yard or fighting for the 3rd lap prime for 5 points.
Inspecting and watering my sproutlet grass seed in the bare spots of the lawn from two weeks ago or sucking wind after an uphill sprint.
I pull out of the parking lot and turn right to head home. I wasn't happy with my decision the whole way home, but knew my wife was right.
Tyler Durden couldn't have been more right when he said that what you own ends up owning you. The house. The yard. The furniture. The toys in the basement. The baseball gloves and rollerblades in the garage.
Same with the bikes lined up on the hooks on the ceiling of my garage. And the one bolted into the trainer in the dank corner of the garage. And the one clamped to the roof of my wife's VW Beetle.
And the grill on my deck which made some delicious baked potatoes and grilled chicken when I got home. And the frying pan that spit out a pound of fried bacon which eventually made its way onto the loaded potatoes.
And my kids' smiling faces which didn't care that I bailed out on the race but instead wouldn't stop eating the bacon as it cooled on the plate on the counter before I could crumble it up for the potatoes.
I ended up getting an hour so done out in the yard and added to the pile of yard crap that needs to find its way to the dump. I was originally thinking about making it to the first road race tomorrow as well out in Durand, Wisconsin, but I'm going to get in a training ride at dawn then get muddy in the yard the whole day instead.
Despite what some say, our racing calendar is pretty thorough around here so there's plenty of opportunities for me to chase that Cat 3 dream this season.
Maybe next Tuesday.
Footnote: Oh, and I plan on working on this blog a bit more this year. I keep telling myself I'll write more when I race more, but that attitude obviously isn't working. Also, my neighbor, Death Rider, keeps reminding me how boring my life can seem to those that I don't see on a regular basis so I need to write about something to show him that I do more than hang out in my house and watch movies. I mean, look, I get outside and work in my yard too!
