Why Cycle Wednesday:Fitness

Not a surprising topic for this edition of WCW, but considering it IS the second day of the new year - and hopefully some New Year's Resolutions are still intact - I figured it'd at least be timely, if not very original.

I hate exercise for its own sake.  But in cycling I've finally found something I can do to stay (or get) in shape and get a little fitness in my life.  The racing is all about keeping me focused and motivated to bike, but it's the bike itself that keeps me motivated to exercise.

So in the tradition of one of THE most popular New Year's Resolutions, I'll share what I'm doing to "exercise more."

In previous posts here and here, I reviewed various books and methods I've used for winter training.  I almost decided this year to either use those tools again - or combine them in some new way.

Then Mrs. Suitcase reminded me that she'd bought "Workouts in a Binder For Indoor Cycling"  Of course, I find this out, literally, on New Year's Eve after I'd already gotten all set up to just do something familiar from last year.  But I promised to check it out.

I'm glad I did.  It has a number of workouts that you do on your trainer that focus on different skills & aspects of your cycling.  But it's in how they're put together in a program that's especially helpful.  For somebody like me, that's been off the bike for a couple of months, there is a 5 week "preparation" training program that give you a little bit of everything then ramps you up slowly so that you can start on the 12 week "base building" program.

Now of course, that's 17 weeks - over four months(!) - and my first training races start in March.  A little over 2 months away.

I guess I should have started this program in early November.  About the same time I got off the bike. 

Ooops.

But one thing I learned last season is that the best laid plans often go awry.  And you have to set goals that are not only acheivable, but realistically take into account "real life" getting in the way (unless of course if you're a pro, in which case you probably aren't reading this anyway...).

The one constant - and a goal that meets these criteria - is exercise.  Maybe I don't get to every workout, maybe I don't race competitively as early in the season as I'd hoped, if at all.  But I'm ramping up responsibly and, most importantly, I'm doing SOMEthing to get my body moving.  Shooting for the goal of racing keeps me focused and motivated enough that I'll do at LEAST enough training to be able to check off "exercise more" in the new year.

I'm getting out there (ok, in my basement) and getting active.  And that's a great reason to cycle.