Chapters

I finally got back out on the road bike today after a several day hiatus following last Thursday's group ride. Like an old sports car burning carbon out of its engine, the further along I went and the harder I hammered, the better I felt. Finally by the end of the ride, I was starting to feel "on form" and could accelerate, climb, and sprint like it was mid-season again. But alas, it is not mid-season...

Temperatures the past few days have been dipping down into the fifties and it is beginning to feel more and more like Fall. I broke out the tights and arm warmers to commute into work this morning and the lunch ride was in the midst of strong, slightly cool winds. Dont get me wrong, I love Fall. I love cool mornings and evenings, layering up in warm clothes, hot chocolate, pumpkin pie, family, hunting and camping, and of course the holidays. But this year the coming of Fall is bittersweet. It is a happy time because of all the things I love about this time of year PLUS my beautiful new child will be entering the world in October. And while I am overjoyed and excited for that event and to spend time with my family during the holidays, I am sad to see Summer and my racing season pass on. With the cooler temperatures comes a drop in intensity fueled by long term fatigue and a semi-depressive feeling of realizing my peak is over and I am back to pre-season fitness. Attacks are shorter and less vicious, I am pushing smaller gears in packs and on the hills, and have settled into a post/pre-season pace significantly slower than my mid-summer training pace.

While our Thursday rides have been ramping up in intensity, there are fewer email requests for other rides during the week. The pack on group rides feels a bit more sluggish, almost tired following non-stop weekends of racing for nearly five months. Our strengths seem to stay the same relative to one another. I am still referred to as "Contador" and can open gaps on the climbs, but our overall pace has slowed and in the flats/rolling hills I am more vulnerable to attacks as I am slower to recover. The cooler temperatures coupled with our fatigue seems to draw our legs to a slower cadence and longer, easier miles as we no longer need the race intensity. We are now building our "aerobic engines" and while we all know this is an integral part to our overall fitness next Spring, it signals the beginning of the most boring and monotonous portion of our yearly training programs. Base miles build your endurance and the overall time you can spend in the saddle, but they are usually spent on flatter "less exciting" routes than race workouts and will eventually end up being on the trainer during the dead of winter.

Fall is a time for recovery miles, long "leaf tours", and getting lost on that dirt road that you have been passing up all summer long. As cyclists we futilely try to hang on to the last remnants of summer, staying out late on the weekly Throwdown, utilizing every waning ray of warm sunshine to hit a trail, road, or path. Fall will come and go, followed by winter. We will be holed up inside our snuggly warm houses, putting miles and hours in on the trainer in dank basements, spare bedrooms, or garages. We will perform maintenance we have "put off all summer" and completely tear down and overhaul bikes, drivetrains, and wheelsets. Christmas will be a time for new equipment purchases and our families and significant others will shake their heads at our glee for a new set of wheels, cassette, or some other "thingamijig" they dont recognize. As the snow piles up outside, we will assemble our "race bike" with all of our newest gadgets. It will sit in our garage (or even living room...) for months in all of its insanely-fast racing glory, and will constantly be used as a conversation piece...no matter how many times your in-laws have heard about it. Until finally one day, when we are going completely off-the-wall-bananas-bonkers-crazy sitting and spinning on that infernal trainer for yet another training session...we will glance outside and realize that the pavement is once again calling our name. The snow will recede, the pavement/trails will dry off, and with the happiness of children eating ice cream for the first time we will hit the roads with a fervor built up from months of riding indoors. There will be group rides, early races, long days in the saddle as the earth warms back up and each of us struggles to return our slightly softer winter bodies back into finely tuned/cut race machines.

So Summer, while it seems at times in the midst of heat waves and midafternoon thunderstorms you and I were more enemies than friends, I will truly miss you. You carry with you friends and memories that will seem to grow faint during the darkness of winter, but I will fear not! For I will prepare earnestly and upon your return will emerge a stronger, more victorious rider than when we last met. Summer, I bid you ado and welcome in the Fall, the next chapter of this game we call Life!