I signed up for the Seattle-to-Portland (STP) and the Ride from Seattle to Vancouver and Party (RSVP) on Monday the 10th of January. The STP is in early July and the RSVP is sometime in August. Both are planned two-day rides sponsored and organized by the Cascade Bicycle Club (www.cascade.org). I signed up for both last year but my plans were derailed at the last moment when I ended up with a reoccurrence of “THE BIG C”. That sort of thing happens but it really sucked. I typically yoyo around when it comes to weight and fitness, vacillating between two high and low scale readings while either going to the gym or going to the refrigerator has been my modus operandi for 70% of my life. But prior to the 2010 STP I was in probably the best shape I’d been in for a dozen years. You see, as I mentioned the STP is a two hundred mile two-day shindig but about a quarter of the hardier riders do it in one day. It was my goal and sole-purpose last year to do it in a day and I…got…so…close. While my cycling buddies were coasting into Portland I was two days postop. Instead of reminiscing about the event with my cohorts in crime I was shaking off the effects of a surgical laser procedure that was designed to remove some nasty bits of cancer from my tongue. If you would’ve asked me two weeks before the event if there were any possibility of me not riding I know my response would have been “none”…I mean, there wasn’t any chance I personally would’ve be the cause of my own demise! Pride -> fall -> lesson learned. To add insult to injury I needed two more surgeries before the medical aspects of my life started to improve. Of course while all this health-related garbage was going on my work situation was spinning apart while simultaneously imploding and exploding (bring on the melodrama!). Nothing like the stressors of life to make a person stop caring. Anyway, as I mentioned back at the beginning of this month, the year ended up with me feeling like Jabba the Hut.
Things are going good now. I weighed myself on Monday and I am down about 6 lbs. and I’ve been on the bike almost every day. Admittedly, Most of my rides have been under 5 miles — going back and forth to work. But I am ahead of the power curve when it comes to training and I am already feeling better. I guess my only concern is this: I got knocked out of my happy center and my passion and desire, no matter how strong, didn’t matter. What if it happens again? I realize that my apprehension isn’t based in any fact or reason but it still bugs me. It is like an annoying bug, buzzing at the back of my mind. “Bad things happen — and they will happen again.” I’m really hoping that this mental and emotional irritation will lessen and disappear as the event dates approach.
He says with confidence: “2011 will be the year of the BIG RIDES!”