Soft

Cycling, particularly if you do it a lot, is one of those things that requires a reasonable degree of mental toughness. Physical toughness helps, but it's the mental toughness that gets you through. Particularly if you commute to work that way - I know that no matter what the weather is like, I have to get up, saddle up and venture out into whatever nature has delivered that day. Fierce heat, strong winds, bucketing rain, lightning, hail, freezing cold, mist and fog. I've seen it all.

If you are only cycling for training, you can give those off days a rest. Looks a bit wet? Stay at home and put a tour de france DVD in and relax on the couch. Driving to work? Well, you might get a bit damp whilst running to the car in the rain, but once you are there, life is peachy in your little coccoon.

Cars are too nice these days. We've forgotton what it is like to have cars that are leaky, draughty, lack air conditioning and break down at the first sign of rain. We used to experience at least a bit of the weather inside the car, as one window had to be wound down partly to let in fresh air to defog the windscreen. Now, I press a button and the windscreen is blown clear in a few seconds.

We've gotten soft. A trek across country used to be hard work, as it was done without air conditioning. Now, you'd just about die getting out of the car to change a flat - the difference between the inside and outside of the car being so great.

But I digress. I was aiming for 150km this week, but only made 140. Even then, I was lucky to make that, as I was going soft on Friday. I was on my way home, and was feeling a bit off. My legs felt very brittle and stringy, like a muscle was about to give up and pop. I thought about it and decided to take the short way home.

Then I got onto the flat, and started feeling better, so I decided to extend out to a different intersection which would add a few k's to the trip. By the time I got to that intersection, I was cooking, so I decided to push on for the Iron Cove Bridge, with the intention of bailing into a side street before I got there and going home a back way.

By the time I made the Iron cove Bridge, I had warmed up and was cooking. Yes, I still had some nasty hills to do, but nothing troubled me.

I'm just glad I was able to convince myself to do "one more block, one more block", and by the time I had done a few more blocks in succession, I was ok.

I think part of my problem is that I do 8 short rides per week. They add up to a reasonable distance, but going back and forth 4 days a week necessitates short rides. Going in is 14km and coming back is anywhere up to 25, depending on where I go. Given that it takes me 12km to warm up, I am doing 4 rides with stone cold legs for most of the distance. I am essentially doing lots of little "sprints". I hesitate to call them a proper sprint, as I'm really not going that fast, but I guess the pace is faster than it would be for say a constant 160km ride. I have good speed over short distances, and I can hold my own for 25km no sweat, but I don't think I have a lot of endurance. I am not going out and doing even a 40km ride in one go, let alone 80km. Those things build endurance, and they allow one to think about pace. I don't have to think about pacing much coming home - I simply push as hard as I can, limiting myself only with the thought that (a), I have to get home without a lift, and (b), I have to get up in the morning and do it again.

Interesting.