Happy autumn solstice (I unplugged for five days so I’m a little late to the fall party). I tipped off a big (for me) 5-day, fourteen-hour bike block on Saturday, in celebration of autumn solstice. Even though I call it the autumn funk—as I love riding that summer wave and don’t look forward to our long, dark winters here in Montana, I always try and honor the passing of a season with reflection and gratitude, while welcoming a new season with optimism and hope. I logged some serious saddle time over the course of five days on the flat and drop bar mountain bikes, wrapping it up with a four-hour mountain bike ride flush with hill repeats (I’m a sucker for long, 20-30 minute sub-threshold repeats) to the tune of 50 miles (10 per lap).
As I traveled up and down the same 25-minute climb five times, I had a couple of elderly ladies (strong women who walked their butts off) ask me what I was training for. Honestly, I’ve trained for as long as I can remember—and while it’s fun to have a big event like the Breck Epic on the calendar, training for me has always been more about movement, mental health, adventure, feeling fit and strong. So, when they asked me, I just said, “Life.” I love to push myself and train hard. And I’m hopeful and optimistic that despite my many challenges (chronic migraine, ankylosing spondylitis, chronic tendinopathies, poorly shaped hips and a crazy rare clotting disorder) that I’m going to stay strong, lean, mean and sinewy deep into my later years.
For me riding, lifting, swimming, training, it’s multi-layered. It’s spiritual. It’s mental health. It’s a love for my body in movement. It’s feeling strong (mentally and physically). It’s pushing myself and learning my body’s capabilities. I love riding my bike and moving through water. And the way I now train, it’s about sustainability and consistency; it’s about building biological durability for the long haul. It’s less about a result and more about being able to do open water swims with my daughter, into my 70’s; it’s less about a finishing time and more about channeling my inner Pieter Muller (my 60 year old mate at the Breck Epic who CRUSHED it, but more importantly, had fun, felt good and was oh so strong).
So, why the 5x sub-threshold hill repeats at the end of a big five-day block? For the love of it I suppose.
There’s been many days and weeks when injuries have kept me from big rides. So, even though it hurt on that fifth day of a banging block, I chose to challenge myself in a big way (and when we can remind ourselves that we are indeed choosing to do these hard thing, it gives us agency and autonomy, which gives us strength). And I suppose I do it because I can. I’m grateful for my health and I’m grateful to be able to push myself—and I’m grateful to be able to do it in such wild and rugged places. I’m also grateful for the flexibility to do these big rides and saddle sessions when my daughter’s in school and wife’s at work, so I’m not missing family time (priority number one).
These rides and training blocks not only build biological durability for the long-haul, but I believe the fitness gains that come from these big efforts carry into the next season (even when we reduce the training load, as long as we keep moving), and by doing these big blocks, they give me more hope and belief for what I can do moving forward, while helping me to become even more resilient off the bike which is perhaps most important as a dad and mental performance coach doing work that challenges me while providing purpose and joy.
May the Winter/Snow Gods take a sleep and give us a long and peddally autumn.
WNbL, mwl