Something about the holiday season makes me innately aware
that its time to start ‘real’ training again. I don’t know exactly what it is;
maybe eggnog or Christmas cookies act as some sort of subconscious signal. Or
maybe I’ve just been away from big bike hours and sore legs long enough to have
forgotten what riding 4-6hrs a day really means… and for some reason I start
believing it’s a good idea again. I know some who might argue that I am
impossibly obstinate. And I haven’t even gone south yet…
Regardless I find myself back in pop-tarts and gas-station-mocha-cappuccino
season again. Those become two essential staples in my diet. Its beginning to
be that time of year where I really can’t eat enough in the day to replenish
what I burn, and I cant sleep enough to completely recover from my efforts.
It’s a special time where I find myself laying on the floor a lot, usually
staring at the ceiling, and when I do make it to the couch or bed my legs ache.
Conversations can be tough because coherent thoughts and sentences become
illusory.
I had a phenomenal December, during which I continued to
rack up the hours nordorking, snow-biking and touring. I spent a weekend in Bellingham for my cousin Mari's wedding, and as great as it was to be with my family together celebrating something so special, I would be lying if I wasn't scheming about how to spend more time exploring the Galibrath MTB Park the whole time. For the first time I
decided to stay in Bozeman for the holidays, and my parents instead came to
visit me. We had five days to ski and dine as we wanted, and I think we did a
pretty good job for ourselves. I loved being able to show them around in this
winter playground (wait why do I live and train here?!), with stable, cold,
powdery snow and fresh tracks to be had both in the backcountry and on the
nordic trails. They ended up having to take off Christmas day in attempt to
catch my sister back in Washington for a dinner and work the following day. I
joined Keegan and family for Christmas dinner and just enjoyed the hell out of
it. I think it was the best holiday week I can remember.
We followed that up with a New Years to rival all up in
Cooke City, MT renting out the Woody Creek Cabin. Eight of us found ourselves
in what are some of the most brilliant mountains in North America skiing cold,
dry powder under blue skies. We made it until 10:30 New Years Eve, but it was
midnight somewhere, and having the gas to properly welcome in 2013 the
following day seemed more important than staying awake. Had we eight bottles of
champagne instead of four, this might have been a different story…
Those three days of stupefaction kicked off a week (and
closed a training block) that by Saturday had turned me into a terrifying,
spandex-clad cyclist highschooling pop-tarts and gas station ‘high rev’ coffee in
a Belgrade parking lot. So I’ve got that going for me… There’s plenty more of
that to look forward to in the coming weeks and months. But I’ve also got
Corrine moving back to town sometime this week, and I get to go to Switzerland
in five days time, and I only have to stay for four days! So there are lots of
good thing coming up too. I’m pretty excited for what I foresee myself being
part of in the near future… even the parts where I’m bonking… somehow.
