What a great question. So cool to see people’s thoughts here. Helpful really. Here’s what I picked up
- my “scaffolding” matters. My early morning boot camp classes, early morning personal trainer sessions, weekly group rides (with the other “slow kids”, long rides on weekends…all worked together to keep me engaged and moving forward. When that went away, I tried to shift all that time to the bike…and it was a real struggle
- oddly, to get my volume in on the bike, I needed to find substitute ways to do the “gym” stuff. Took me a while but once I sorted a plan, things clicked again
- I have always liked group rides but only for about 15-20% of my volume. I rode 100% solo this year. That was fine but I missed my fellow bike nerds
- lacking “completion goal” events I had to come up with my own. I had several multi day road & gravel light touring (hotels not tents). All solo. It was fun to figure out all the pack, load, route stuff alone…and no one suffered for my screwups but me
- I’ve gotten a better understanding of how much intensity load I can carry during a week before I start thinking of finding a dumpster to light on fire and put the bike in it. I tolerate a bit more than I am typically willing to. That was nice to learn
- when I don’t do all the core stuff (because I’m not doing the “gym stuff” and no one is barking at me to do it) my hands hurt a bit when I’m on the bike more than a couple hours (shocking discovery I know)
- I ride almost as much for my mental well being as for my physical well-being; even if I don’t like that fact, wish it weren’t true, and am generally loathe to cop to it
- realizing that I’ll be waxed after spending ten hours on zoom meant I had to acknowledge that as fact and plan accordingly…even though I dislike that it’s true
- I’m glad to have been forced to do as much solo as I did but I do miss the events & my people. I work a little harder with them around
- TR kinda became the anchor around which I’d build my plan each week; two moderate intensity planned workouts & the rest outside
- my year was not a resounding success by comparison. But I didn’t abandon the effort and land on the couch with a crate of ho-hos either. I did ok, some things I was proud of, some things I figured out, some things I’d do differently…if I only knew what I know now when this started…
- I’m also keenly aware my goals are more modest than most folks here. I’m not competitive or hoping to be…cycling is the primary structural support in the pieces of scaffolding that makes my little world hum along with only slightly more grace than the truck in The Beverly Hillbillies