Happy Winter Solstice

There have been some big bumps in the road in my life lately. In addition to these bumps, I also struggle with every Michigan winter. With shorter days and colder temps, it is harder and harder for me to get on my bike. I know the options out there for getting outside, but in short, I really miss those warm summer days that I can hop on my bike and just ride. There is no place on earth I would rather be than in Traverse City in the summer. But the winter, another story. Snow came kind of early and lots of it, and I have had some downright shitty days and weeks.

Indoor Torture Chamber

After a few months of introspection, taking a break from training, racing, blogging, and just communicating with most people in general, I can say that these were only bumps and not blocks in my road. We just celebrated the longest night of the year and now we are graced with the gift of a bit more sunlight every day. And likewise, every day gets a little bit easier for me. 

Recently I dusted off my bike, and started doing some Sufferfest training videos that I downloaded a few years ago but didn't ever really use. I have a great new set up to train indoors, and started exploring what these videos were all about.

Initially I thought, well, it will be a start but it won't *really* be training. Until I did the video, "Local Hero". Yeah. I was wrong. Let's just say this is what I looked like before the workout....

And after 1.5 hours of suffering later:

Yikes! As I was warming up I looked at the video status bar and noticed that it said 1:27:00 left. I thought, well, ok, that is long for a cycling video but probably just a bunch of easy stuff. It is a good thing I didn't know what was coming, as I may not have stuck to it. After warming up it had me do three 6 minute pyramids, with the intensity going up for three minutes and then down again for three. Then I did 5 three minute hard efforts simulating crit racing. This brought me to about an hour, and I thought the rest should be a piece of cake. Wrong again, as I then had to do 4 two minute sprint efforts. 

So yeah, it was hard. I did suffer. A lot. But I had fun. It felt great to get my heart rate back up again. My quads were screaming but I could feel my legs waking back up. I had some great music to listen to while I was pedaling. I was watching the snow come down outside my window and saw how beautiful winter can be. 

I ran across this saying yesterday...

Yesterday is history.

Tomorrow is the future.

Today is your life. Live it. 

Here's to brighter days ahead and living every moment in the meantime.