Focus Baby, Focus

It's also called determination and persistence. Once the old brain cells get in the right mindset, there's no stopping it. The mindset, in this case, is training for the Transylvania Epic. It takes a bit of determination to train to be ready for racing mountain bike for 7 days straight. Sometimes, though, you need a little encouragement from a friend. This weekend was a test. It was cold -- classic Pennsylvania December weather. The temps were about 32ish both Saturday and Sunday with flurries and wind making it feel something like 19. I had planned to road ride Saturday and head to the woods on Sunday. Of course, I wimped out on Saturday seeing snow on the ground, and the high temps for the day at 32. So I ended up on the trainer at 4:30 in the morning. It was totally unplanned. I woke up (my normal 3:30ish am), piddled around a little sipping coffee, then - on a whim - decided to get on the trainer without any food in my system and a salad the night before. Needless to say, I felt like shit the entire day and didn't realize until about 5:00 pm that I needed a mega dose of carbs. A nice dish of butternut squash with pecans and sucanat did the trick and by Sunday morning I felt great. While I was feeling bad on Saturday, I decided I'd wimp out on my trip to Michaux to ride in the cold. Well..... Miss D wasn't having anything to do with me bailing on her and I'm very, very thankful she talked me out of staying home. We rode for 3.5 hours yesterday on classic Michaux rocky trails and it was an awesome workout - even with flurries and temps no where above 32. I was on my worst rock bike (aluminum hard tail 29er), yet got through some interesting rocky trails without any issues. So I endured 6.5 hours of riding this weekend, thanks to Miss D. I told Rick, I think I'm ready for the first three days of the Transylvania Epic. What an incredible feeling to start feeling like I'm getting in shape again. There's nothing like the feeling of fitness.