Off The Slack
As I mentioned earlier I have been pretty slack with my riding recently. My mileage is less than a quarter of what it usually is for this time of year. Never the less I am going big this weekend. 4 laps for a total of 43 miles. Being an old Rev I could race Masters and only do 3 laps but that would not be very Big Ring now would it? I do wish it was one big loop as passing my car (and the cooler of beer) that many times will be hard to resist. I also wish my new Scalpel was here but really it wont make any difference given my fitness level. All I know is I have a lot of work to do if I am going to be ready to go for BC 7.
This all begs the question is racing the best training or is it like carrying your cross only to be nailed up on it later? What say you my 2 wheeled brethren?
One Response to “Off The Slack”
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I dunno if racing is the best training, but I know it’s part of the best training. Unless you race your body won’t accept the hardest training, it will reject it as unrealistic or whatever other excuse it can come up with. After a race your legs will crave the fitness and readiness that hard training brings.
Human bodies are lazy and pain averse. So if you make them race they realize that training is better than not, so then they pay attention and learn from intervals and other things they’d otherwise avoid or perform in the desultory manner of a 14 year old taking out the trash. When the body learns how bad a real race hurts then wants to train so it doesn’t hurt so bad.
Damn shame about how it never hurts less, but you do go faster. Legs are stupid and have short memories so we can trick them like that.