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Tis the season for New Years resolutions.  Actually, I am 19 days late for that.  By now, we all should have our list of "I will" and "I Will Nots", and hopefully you have not fallen off the band wagon on those items.  Each year at this time I tell myself that I need to "train".  I ride my bikes, but over the past few years I have not "trained".  

As most of you know, there is a huge difference between "training" and "riding".  I have not been training for some time.  Each summer I have lofty goals of being competitive in some coming race season.  I really enjoy the crits, the TT's, and would like to get into the mountain bike racing scene.  Cross is a blast, and love doing those, but when you don't train - the enjoyment of those events kind of slips away.  Cross is a different type of monster due to the environment taking place around the race.  First place or last place, your enjoyment level can be the same if you soak in all the happenings around you.  Road racing, without training, can be a real bummer.  Getting dropped in a crit or a cross race has an easy solution.  You can drop out, or just continue on and know the main field will be around shortly.  Road racing droppage leaves you dangling out in the wind by yourself.  20 miles from the finish.  Alone.  

Now the problem at hand is, "I gots ta train".  I have not had a bike computer on my bikes for the last few years.  I have sensors on a couple of them, but never put on the computer.  Not having a computer gives you quite the freedom when riding.  You don't worry about your average, your top speed, cadence, heart rate… All the things that could bring down your ride.  I did the Wisconsin Ironman a few years back with no computer on my TT bike with the thinking -  "Didn't train, so just go out and ride (and the fact that I didn't want to actually see how slow I was going)".

Oh yeah.  About that "no computer" freedom.  It pains me to hear about cyclists who are NOT training, but still keep their little bike log of every mile.  How they felt when they went out.  How much wind there was.  How many miles they logged.  Bucking that thinking is another reason for me leaving the computer at home.  Why can't you just go out and enjoy the ride.  Ride along a blacktop, and when you come to a corner, take it.  Just go with the flow.  That is the reason the past few years I have spent more time on my cross bike than my road bike.  On a ride, if I feel like taking a corner that turns onto gravel, I can take it.  Most of my rides last summer, were on a cross bike.  I had a great one hour loop that would take in the evening after work.  City streets to Lime Creek.  Main path and some single track, spilling out on the shoulder of Highway 65.  Ride past the poor 'ol "Outer Edge"', and turn on to B20.  Take that for a while and ride back south into town on gravel.  Do that on your Cervelo with skinny rubber!

This brings up a HUGE debate at our shop.  The self proclaiming of who rides more than others and what guys are posers.  What's the point?  I remember when I had a Harley.  It was the only motorized vehicle where someone would brag about how many miles someone was putting on it.  Do you ever go into to work on a Monday, and brag to your buddies about how many miles you put on your Astro that weekend?

Cyclists.  We have to brag about our miles.  And when we ride bikes with out computers - like a mountain bike on single track - some still find a way to "prove" that we are studlier than thou.  "Oh yeah… well I did this.  I did that"  And on and on.    A friendly bike mechanic (who will remain nameless) blew me away one day when he/she told me that they have customers that will have them program their bike computer to the mileage they had when the battery died.  "Let's see.  I had 6743.14 miles on my royal blue lazy-boy recumbent".  What is is crap?  It isn't a car, you wont take it to auction to let the wholesalers bid on it when you want to trade.  It isn't a boat.  No one is tracking how many hours you have on the damn thing.  GET OUT AND RIDE.

So I guess one of the points of this little ranting is what is the purpose of competition?  And when speaking of competition, I am referring to the unquantifiable "my bike computer has more miles than yours".  That isn't competition.  The only competition that matters is lining up next to another person, and doing the exact same thing, at the exact same time.  A Roller Derby brings up a  "Oh yeah…  Like that" kind of thought.  Maybe even a bike race.  That is a competition that qualifies as a comparison that can be validated.  If you get beat.  You got beat.  If you had a flat, and got beat.  You still got beat.  Now, if you come into work on a Tuesday and tell me that you rode 50 miles last night - naked, covered in honey, wearing a Darth Vader helmet, and taped razor blades to your pedals - and start to brag how no one rides as much as you.  I am going to take away your AMA union card and have the cycling gods spank you.

Unless your shrink tells you to log every move you make and to track when you have skitso breakdowns and yell at your cat for not taking the trash out…  Maybe you should leave the log book in the magazine rack of your bathroom.  You don't need to log each mile any more than logging who you talked to at the bar on Friday night, and how you felt about each conversation.

The recurring theme here is, get out and ride.  Keep it simple, keep it enjoyable, and keep it fun.  With that said.  Who's going to Rays Mountain Bike Park with us in three weeks?