I’ve had a couple experiences that has led me to think about how important training is and what exactly makes an athlete perform at his/her best. I’m not comparing athletes to each other, each of us has what we were dealt, just what one person does to be at optimal form. And I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m not sure that training is the answer.

I know I’ve been riding bikes at a pretty high level since puberty. And I am one of the few guys that has really never taken any time off. So, I’m not the norm in athletics. But, I’m not sure that has anything to do with my observations.

Okay, here is the deal. I’ve been riding, at least feel like, I’ve been riding pretty good so far this year. I’ve got normal issues, but in general, I’m pretty happy with how it is going. I’ve been riding more miles than I have in recent history and it seems to be paying off, so far. But I was wondering if it really is the miles or something else.

On Tuesday, Bill and I went out for a 4 hour ride. It was pretty hot for the first 3 hours, I felt like I was falling apart, then a front came through and it got downright cold. I went from feeling shitty to pretty great in just a matter of minutes. Obviously the cold air was “better” for me than the hot temperature.

When I got home, I felt good about the day. Missed the front, good mileage, life was pretty good. I’ve been using a foam roller and stretching some before and after riding this year. I haven’t done any sit-ups or pushups for maybe a month and a half. I knew Wednesday was supposed to be crummy, so I thought it would be a good time to get back into the routine. I usually do somewhere around 25 pushups and 50-75 sit-ups, depending on how much I struggle to get to those numbers.

I start doing pushups and blow through 25 and keep going. I got to 50 and thought I should stop because I’d be sore the next day. I easily could have done another 25, maybe 50. Then the same thing with the sit-ups. I get to 50 effortlessly. So I keep going and stopped at 100, just because of the soreness issue. I’m not sure how many I could have done, but my stomach muscle wasn’t fatiguing the least.

I definitely wasn’t trained for doing either of those exercises. If anything, I should have been bad and should have woken up yesterday sore. But I didn’t feel a thing.

Four winters ago I spent 2 full months off my bike. For 60 days I only rode 3 miles once, just to get somewhere. So, I was as untrained for cycling as I’ve been in 40 years. Plus, I’d been spending somewhere between 12-18 hours a day doing hard, manual labor. I went down to Austin to start up riding again in the beginning of February. I rode for two weeks, maybe 600-700 miles.

I flew out to the East coast to ride with this group of guys, but they had thrown themselves, or really, the wind had thrown them on the ground and two of them broke their collarbones, so I was there for nothing. It was super windy and I put my bike together at the hotel and thought I’d go out for a ride, try to find some sheltered road.

The temperature was in the lower 50’s and I started out against a super strong cross headwind. I kept looking down at my computer and it said I was going over 20 mph. And I felt awesome. I started riding a little harder, but nothing crazy hard and kept it at around 23-24 mph. This was riding into a 35 mph wind. I rode 27.5 miles out and decided I’d better turn around before it got dark. I was flying back. Coasting over 30, pedalling easy at 35. I had to put on my wind jacket because I was getting cold from the lack of exertion and was still going a little less than 40 without hardly trying. When I got back to the hotel, I had a 26 mph average speed for the ride. The fastest training ride I’d ever done and I wasn’t close to blown. Maybe the best day I’ve ever had on a bike. And I’d ridden two weeks out of the previous 8.

I have no explanation for the two examples above. I, of course, think a certain amount of training and the ability to learn how to do a sport efficiently, is very important. But after you get to that level, I think it is having good blood or something that makes an individual perform at their best. I think that when everything is chemically correct in one’s body, that is the time you can have those extraordinary experiences. And I don’t think that you can train that, I think that it just happens. And hopefully it happens when it is important to you.

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Sort of doing a do-over of last weekend. Saturday the Springfling Criterium in Lawrence and then the final race of the Perry Road Races. I was really happy with the way the races and riding went last weekend. It was near perfect training. I sort of looked around for a bigger race this weekend, but decided to stay home. The weather was supposed to be great, but today they really downgraded the forecast. It was going to be in the 70’s both days and now it is going to be 70 on Saturday, but maybe some rain in the afternoon. The criterium is at 4 pm.

Then Sunday the high is supposed to be 40 with rain/sleet in the afternoon. That kind of puts a bad spin on getting big miles riding to and from the races both days. I had counted on getting at least 80 miles each day, but now am a little worried about that.

I am going to look for something better next weekend. I was sort of planning on doing the 2nd race of the US Cup, in LA, the MTB series, but didn’t get my shit together and the temperatures were supposed to be in the 90’s. I’m not racing another MTB race that hot at this time of the season. I don’t know what the deal is, but I don’t do well with that as of now. I think I was maybe lucky a couple weeks ago with all the flats. It might of destroyed me if I’d done the whole race at pace.

Catherine called yesterday and said she was coming back to Topeka for the weekend. She was supposed to come back next weekend, but I guess something came up at work, so she moved it up a week. That will be nice. I had to mess with her cross bike to make it road raceable. I put a 53 ring on it, a front derailleur, rebuilt her bottom bracket and rear hub and checked it over. It weights just a bit over 16 lbs. with Reynolds 46 carbon wheels. Pretty nice. I’m not sure what she is planning on doing, racewise, but her bike is ready to race.

I only rode 30 miles yesterday. I’d hoped to ride twice that far, but got caught up with bike work and then ran out of time. Hopefully, the weather will hold, at least for today, and I’ll get in a big mileage day today.

I’m more interested in tomorrow’s race. I won last week, so if I ride well, I’ll win the series overall, which would be nice. Today is another points race criterium. I think I’ll just try to do some sprints. I need to work on that some. My shoulder I had surgery on is still weak, so I’m a little slower than normal. That isn’t something I’m comfortable with. I hate to race bikes and know if it came down to a field sprint I’d not be in contention. Too many races end that way nowadays.

Okay, news from Europe, Trudi smashed her computer somehow. She was driving from Venice to Belgium, stopped at a hotel in France, and when she opened her computer, the screen was destroyed. She is super bummed. I’m trying to figure out a way to get her a computer. Maybe someone from another US team is flying over there soon and could take her a new one. I meant to look as if there is an Apple Store, that could do repairs, in Brussels. She is there another month, so that would be a long time to be “out of touch”. If anyone out there has any ideas, feel free to let me know.

The pasture burning has truly started.

Catherine’s Reynold’s hub parts.

The garden is coming up. I’m not sure if this is lettuce or spinach.

Shadows in the ditch on the club ride.