Perseverance

The conditions were perfect and set for a 4:00 ride on Saturday with some friends.  I had done some work on my bike earlier in the week to get it prepared for the weekend, and it seemed perfect and ready to roll.  We set off at 11:30 into blistering headwind and an ice-like snow.  The plan was to head out for 2:00 straight into the wind and then flip around and take the tailwind home.  All was well until about 1:20 into the ride, and then I ran into a problem.  If you look closely at the picture below you can se what my issue was.

If you can't quite make out the problem I'll break it down for you- my chain broke.  It just snapped right at one of the links.  Thankfully, I was able to avoid any injury when this happened.  But my ride was over as we were traveling without a chain tool.

Now my goal for the day was 4:00.  With my chain incident, my ensuing pick from the park and a work commitment later in the day, there was no chance that I could get back outside and finish the time.  So my options were three:

1) Ride the stationary trainer at night for 2:40 so I would total the day out at 4:00
2) Flip Saturday and Sunday's training.  Saturday = 4:00 & Sunday = 1:30.
3) Forget about the plan/goal for the day and just accept 1:20 of ride time.

In a recent comment I was asked about my motivation and where does it come from?  There are a lot of areas and ways that I use to motivate myself, and the one I drew upon yesterday/today was my love of setting goals and accomplishing them.  I receive a tremendous amount of satisfaction when I set up a training goal and then work hard to achieve it.  Knowing that about myself there were really only 2 options above that would have worked for me, either #1 or #2.

I choose #2.  I looked at the forecast and Sunday looked like it was going to be similar to Saturday. So late Saturday night I prepared my gear, fixed my bike, packed a chain tool and readied everything so I could head out Sunday when I was done seeing clients.

This time the preparation and the execution worked perfectly.  And it actually turned into a great ride because the snow started falling heavily about an hour into the ride, and I love riding in the snow.  All totaled up, it snowed about 3" in the 4:10 of ride time for the day.

-Jason

Late Night Training

Everyone I know and associate with has a very busy life.  Jobs, kids, social activities and even daily errands suck up most of our time.  And more often than not I have people tell me that their busy lives leave them with too little time to exercise.  To that I say,"make the time!"  There are always plenty of obligations and commitments to keep us from doing one thing or another, but I have yet to meet the person who could not carve an opening into their schedule to fit something in that they wanted to do.  My schedule was particularly busy yesterday.  What that meant was that I was going to have to start and finish my workout later in the evening.  Later was/is starting at 9:15 and finishing up at 11:15.  I didn't think twice about doing it, and I didn't hesitate when I needed to start.  I set aside the time, made a workout plan and executed it.  It was as simple as that, and I would suggest that it could be the same for everyone else too.  Know what you need, make the time and crush your workout.

-Jason

The Elements

I think I can speak for most when I state that last winter was brutal.  Cold, snow-filled and long.  It just didn't give up, and it made training outside very tough.  This year, however, has been great.  We have had very few really cold days, very few snow falls, and even fewer days with the combination of both.  This past Saturday we got a blast of Winter which brought us that bit of both.  We woke up with a fresh 2.5"-3.0" inches of snow and the thermometer pegged at 11F degrees.  It was going to get better though.  The forecast called for the temperature to peak at about 28F degrees.  I messaged a bunch of friends to see who was going to be on board with my planned 5-hour ride and I received 2 firm "Yeses" and a bunch of "No Ways."  The three of us who were committed braved the elements and headed out into what turned out to be a great day and a great ride.  While the temperature never got above 25F degrees, there was plenty of warmth due to full sunlight and zero wind. We rode through Proud Lake, Island Lake State Park, Kensington Metro Park and all around Milford.  It was a fantastic ride and I am happy that I didn't let the elements stop us from reaching our ride goals.

-Jason