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Sizing things up

Water getting low out at Pine View....

Meeting a struggle-head on is not always as easy as it sounds. The farther away you are from a task or situation, the easier it is to make it sound "doable".  And then the moment finally arrives and it is game time. In the end, you will never perform at "game time" any better than was done in practice. And since practice is where all the payment through pain and suffering happens, sometimes practice is what gets short changed. Meeting the struggle head-on begins with practice - developing one's character.  And character - well, that's another story. That often said it is what you do when nobody else is looking which defines true character. However, faced with the hard facts of a situation that may be harder than expected can lead to self-doubt - maybe even cowardice. A strong word, but true. Living to fight another day may not be cowardice, but make it a habit and there are no more battles to fight before you can change the character. At some point, you must meet it and remedy the matter - to your favor.

Not a cheat-code for everything

When panic sets in, it is human nature to find a quick and easy solution - a cheat-code perhaps. Cycling is no different, in fact very much like everything else in life. The bicycle industry is constantly having to reinvent themselves to stay relevant. Sure bike tech has improved, but in some areas, not as much as they'd have you think. Frame geometry, tire width, wheel sets - they all have seen major changes over the years. Perhaps the most notable changes for road bikes in the past five years have been disc brakes and electronic shifters. Those are legit, but not necessarily obsoleting the previous tech. Disc and calipers are more expensive to purchase and maintain. Performance wise they do stop better in adverse conditions, but they typically won't make you faster. I've caught myself in that vey situation, making changes to offset losses in other areas. I've tried slightly shorter crank-arms, cleat positions - even wider tires. That seems to be the latest - wider tires with lower pressures. The past 8 years or so I've been rolling on 25mm wide versus the 23mm. I've recently been rolling on 28mm, which is as large as my bike can take. The tires are a bit taller as well, which reduces my gearing by a little bit. Is it faster? Dunno. What I do know is the tire itself has a huge impact on everything. The trainers I use are a heavy and robust all season that I know a couple guys have used during LOTOJA. The rolling resistance is much worse than the higher end tires I use, that just dont last as long. At the end of the day you do everything needed to be successful, but paying your dues doesn't change a thing. If you don't make those payments, expectations should be in line with that result.

Don't mention yesterday

For fear of screwing up my "plans", with less than three weeks to go, I won't mention anything about yesterday - only to say it was a disaster. My initial inclination is that I'm a coward. My hope is that I'm more methodical about the situation at hand and can build on a bad situation. We are approaching critical mass and there is no room for error. That said, I can clearly see a pathway to success, but it is very specific and can bare no margin. In short, I can't chicken out and have to accept the suffering that comes with this commitment. With this in mind, updates will be a bit more frequent between now and packet pickup. Milestones have to be met. Stick around and see how it goes.....

Farther Down the Line

Lyle is a wordsmith of sorts. He can tell a story - as well he should being an A&M alum. He tells the story of a young cowboy that almost makes it to the buzzer, but gives up. "one hand around the other"...."letting the pickup man come in". Making that grab that says I've had enough - come and get me. "He sure drew a bad one" - "one nobody could ride", the consul that tries to make a bad situation seem more than anyone could handle. "Better luck next time" as if a next time always comes through, but we know eventually they all come to an end. At the end of the day, this is really about all of us, and especially myself. We never really know how close we are to the buzzer when we put one hand around the other - only until we ride it out. "Push will always come to shove, in that midnight rodeo".

Lets hear it for that young cowboy......

Click here for Lyle Lovett "Farther Down the Line"

Ride HARD!