Having spent the past year chasing threshold power numbers, cycling has become a wee bit of a chore of late, a little stale, a little mind-numbing. Same old, same old. Because time is precious these days, the routine has been the same for the past 12 or 13 months; either jump on the trainer, dial up 340w and sit there for as along as possible, or, if the weather is conducive (we've had an amazing fall), suit up, and ride hard for the window that you have available. Hopefully, when you get back and shove everything to the side to download your Garmin, you'll see a big, fat IF number and a weighty TSS to boot. That routine gets old in a hurry towards the end of a season.
With an amazing streak of weather, I've turned my focus on enjoyment. Screw power, forget HR. Get out
there and enjoy the sunshine, camaraderie, the views from high above, and the wind in your face. I think I've climbed Cypress more in September and October than I have all year (20 times in the last two months!). I'm amazed at the consistency too. Riding by feel at a fairly sedate pace - without any data whatsoever -, times range from 34 to 37 minutes - I'll take that!
With the dip in temperature, Cypress is a no go, so what to do? My brain can't take a session on the trainer just yet, not at the moment, not this early. I'm thinking TRAIL RUNNING! Back in the day, I would run for hours. The constant undulations, uneven footing, and stride variety engaged your mind, the seconds would turn to minutes, the minutes to hours, and 3 or 4 hours would slip by without noticing. I remember the freedom I felt gliding up and down the trails, feet happily dancing around, over and on top of any rocks. I need to feel that again!
It's been a while since I last updated my blog. With a 3 year old tearing the house up, it seems like there's always so much to do, yet so little time to do it! Let's wind the clock a bit. From the off-season, where I delved back into trail running, literally starting from zero (I haven't ran in.....a decade?), and with the magic of reasonably good aerobic - but not run specific - fitness, I started. Off I went. The first run-walk was a 3 hour adventure through the enchanted forest, way up above the British Properties. I felt suspiciously good, so I piled on the speed. Why walk when you can run, right? And then I threw in heaps of elevation, but, being compulsive and competitive against myself (a dangerous combination), I kept the speed up. And that's where it all went to pot. I ran up Cypress on a weekly basis, no base run fitness and promptly fractured my ankle. Ding dong, I should have known. With running over, I hit the gym instead. Meh, it's closer than driving all that way to the trailhead anyway, and there's no mud at the gym....
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From there, an annual visit to Maui, logging a few sun-soaked kilometers amid blue skies and swinging palm trees. I'm always surprised at the number of Vancouverites visiting Maui in any one year; almost every ride had me bumping into another familiar cyclist escaping the greyness of Vancouver. Spending a few weeks on that magical island had me at the desk, frantically working the numbers trying to figure out how I can possibly spend the winter months doing nothing but eating bananas and coconuts and riding my bike. Alas, I'm still making the numbers work in my favour. Rest assured, the moment I can lever my meager net worth for a regular, extended stay, my bags will be packed.
Back in Vancouver, the good folks at MEC arrange a phone interview between myself and neo-pro and all around great gal, Alison Jackson. Walking us through their vision of the 2015 cycling campaign, we answered a variety of personal, soul-searching questions about what cycling means to us, and how that might differ from one rider to another. The overarching theme of the campaign was "Start lines are everywhere." I immediately understood their take; regardless of your ability, your destination, or the confines of a particular route or group, each ride has it's own destination. How will you react to an attack? Are you driving the train, or just a passenger on the bus? What a great concept.
A few days after our initial discussion, we gathered for a quick photo shoot and some voice-over work and....the collective geniuses over at MEC, and the ultra-talented Matt Dennison, created an incredible video to kickstart MEC's 2015 cycling season!
Roll on, 2015, roll on!
