The upside to Summer and Fall whizzing by so quickly is that ski season is here and I love ski season. The downside is that just this week I registered for two rides for next season, the first of which is in March and is WAY beyond my current fitness level. The other is the Death Ride which is not only way above my fitness level, but is a ride I’ve attempted twice and failed to complete both times.
I’m not sure why I keep doing this. I tend to agree to things and then later wonder what the heck I was thinking….I was looking through last years posts and found the one about BHAGs and that’s pretty much my plan for this year as well.
I’ve got a couple major rides scheduled and will attempt to fill in the empty spaces with either training rides or organized rides that will hopefully get me to the point where it’s not a full year of suffering one ride after another.
For the most part, the rides I do are pretty easy. I try to stay within my comfort zone and not really work too hard.(it’s pretty much my mantra in all aspects of my life) This year though, I’ve got 3 rides that concern me. The first is in March and thanks to our “friends” Bob and Leticia several of us have signed up for the Hells Gate Hundred. (funny, these are the same people that got us to do the Medocino Monster last year, why do I even listen to their ideas?)
The Hells Gate Hundred is in Death Valley, is 100 miles and has 8500ft of climbing…..yeah, I know….idiot!
After the Hell’s Gate Hundred we have the Sea Otter Classic in mid-April. This is actually a fun one and the only actual “race” I do. Like last year, I’ll do this on the single speed. Unlike last year, they have no Cat 3 Single Speed division this year, so I’m in the Cat 2 category which doesn’t really mean much. I’ll be getting my butt kicked in either category, the problem is that in Cat 2 the course is 20.2 miles instead of 13 or 14 miles that it was last year. The last big ride I have scheduled is the Death Ride in July. This ride just plain sucks and if I had actually finished one of the other two times I attempted it, I probably wouldn’t be doing it this year. Unfortunately, I didn’t finish and therefore am required to continue trying until I do.
The other challenge I’m having in thinking about next year is that my current level of fitness is probably the lowest it’s been, cycling-wise, in the past few years. I don’t think I’ve ridden my road bike more than 2-3 times since the Death Ride in July. I’ve been riding 1-2x per week most weeks, but it’s all been on the mt bike. The longest ride is probably the 40 miles we did in the rain in Lodi…I have been going to the gym though and doing some other stuff, but I’m definitely heading into winter this year in a very un-fit state….
Oh well, I guess since I've survived this long, it can't be that bad.....I mean afterall, what could possibly go wrong????
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