Pacing, restraint, planning, no-small-goals ...

This blog is called the `Training Blog' for a reason.  I'm fortunate to be associated with a group of cyclists known as the Big Dogs Ultra Cycling, who, in turn, are part of the Ultra Midwest, LLC.  Ultramidwest Link.

If you've gone to the websites above you'll note a member log of daily mileage, etc.  You'll see names of some of the worlds most accomplished and motivated cyclists.  At the Ultra Midwest website you'll note the impressive series of endurance and racing events organized and directed by Joe Jamison and Dave Parker (and many, many volunteers). 

Many of us Big Dogs are `aspirational.'  That is, we aspire to accomplish our best results while we balance life's other demands and passions.  Many of us are `inspirational.'  That is, we've individually accomplished exceptional cycling feats.  And then the majority of us keep a healthy discipline of doing our best to stay fit and use Joe and Dave's Ultra Midwest events as goals and benchmarks. 

Ultracycling is an addiction.  Certainly there are articles and psychological profiles that describe the `driven' commonalities of ultracyclists.  As a psychologist the best I can come up with is `they're very different, one from another; and they're very similar in that they are kind of crazy.' 

I am ramping up my training now that the weather has broken and returned home today after a windy 40 miles in 2 hours and 40 minutes.  Entering my home my wife said "And how was it?"  I was aware of a sense of grave mischief in my response, with a restrained intense smile "Very, very real!" 

And I think that that sense of `real' is the source of our driven motivation to ride for hour after hour, in all sorts of weather, alone most of the time, aware of fatigue, pain, and myriad other perfectly good reasons to stop! 

All day and every day, just beneath my focus on work, finances and family, there is that smoldering consciousness of the bike, the road, training.   These are anchors around which I allocate my energy, my daily chronology.  Everything becomes linear as I move the pieces of the `plan' for this or that cycling event and challenge. 

• Three months and counting before I can ride the bike out my front door and into mountains, deserts and plateaus. 
• Three months and counting before I can schedule a typical training day as being 60 miles and 6,000 feet of climbing. 
• Three months and counting before the `Training Blog' spawns a `Performance Blog.'