Don't Waste the Opportunity

I do 85% or more of my training inside. In fact, there are weeks when the only time I ride outside is in a race. Even then, I’ll warm up and warm down on the trainer. With family obligations, I need to be efficient with my time.

Knowing this, a buddy with a growing family asked how I manage to do this without going insane. How do I stay motivated in the basement when it’s nice outside. I’ve been thinking about this for a few weeks but it finally came through on Saturday night. Saturday night was the Newmark Crit. It’s a nice little race close to home. If you want the standard race report, check http://olympushomescycling.blogspot.com/2008/06/newmark-crit.html.

So I love racing my bike. But bike racing is not real family friendly for a time standpoint. A lot of people (the number keeps growing) have to make sacrifices so that I can train and race. Some of the sacrifices are pretty obvious, such as the Coach* changing extra diapers or trying to keep three year olds from running out on the course. Some are less obvious. Some I’ll never even know about.

What does this have to do with motivating me on my trainer at 5:00 am? Simple, if I blow off my workout, or bail out in a race, not only have I wasted my time (not a big deal) but I’ve wasted everyone else’s time and effort. That is a big deal. When my son asks me to not go ride my bike so we can read a book, how can I go ride and then waste the workout? (This happened last week. I almost cried. Coach saved the day.)

So on Saturday, it was really storming as I was getting ready to go to the race. Would the race still go on? Would it be raining and crappy? Would start times be delayed? If the family went with me, it was going to be a lot of work for the Coach.

As things went, we did race, a little late and a little wet. But as I started I realized that I need to make the most of this. Pick your cliché: “win or die trying”, “win one for the Gipper”, etc.

Just don’t waste the opportunity. A lot of work went into it. Very little of it was mine.


Thanks for reading,

Scott



*Coach – I’ll talk more about her in some later post.