I definitely get what Ted is saying about putting yourself in a prison with objective goals.
My big goal this year was to do my first SR series. I did a 200-300-400k last year. All I needed was to add a 600. Easy, right? I wound up calling it quits on the 400k last weekend with about 100 miles to go. I'd already endured an extremely difficult 300k, followed by a week in Washington DC with 80 8th graders in which we probably walked 50 miles, then a mild bout of the flu acquired from the aforementioned kids, and then another cold that arrived the day before the 400k set out. I was tired when I started, and I knew it. I pushed too hard over the first 60 miles trying to stay with a group and out of the wind, and then pushed through another 80 windy, hot, hilly miles alone as cramps and body aches set in, none of which seemed to respond to any amount of calories or fluids. By the time I got to a nice park bench next to a stream in Marysvale, UT, I knew I had a choice: I could call it quits and find a ride back to the start, or I could sleep for a few hours, stock up on water and food, and ride through the night in the hopes of getting to the finish by the 8am deadline. The latter was certainly possible, and I think, had I been trying to qualify for something, I could have done it, but it would have meant blowing up Sunday at home, and probably Monday at school, a day when I was supposed to be helping our 8th graders get ready for graduation. Even after calling it quits I had to duck out of a Monday afternoon assembly for fear of snoring through a student drama performance. I fell asleep with my head on my desk like a tired child for the last half hour of school until the sound of kids outside woke me up. All of which is to say that the thing I constantly struggle with is balancing my rather grandiose cycling ambitions with the reality of being a teacher, a husband, and a dad. I suppose a lot of us probably do. I hope to do an SR series someday, probably next year, but for now I'm letting that goal go and doing a final 300k safe in the knowledge that I'll only be away from home for one night instead of two. For the rest of the summer the goal is combining as much cycling and fishing as possible while also civilizing the rather savage (but amazing!) Jack Russell terrier we adopted a few weeks ago. Brady in SLC On Wed, Jun 5, 2024 at 12:47 PM Ted Durant <teddur...@gmail.com> wrote: > I am a numbers guy to a fault. Having suffered some over-training issues > in 2020, I spent 2021 and 2022 trying to be a bit less gung-ho about being > on the bike every day. Going into 2023, I had a goals discussion with the > guy I ride with a lot (an actuary ... very hard core numbers guy). We've > done SR's and an R-12 together, so lots of km's under our wheels. In our > conversation we talked about the prison we can put ourselves in with > objective goals. At some point it can become all about meeting the goals, > rather than enjoying the experiences that those goals represent. I'm not > saying it happens to everyone, and I'm not saying it even happened to us, > though my friend did a solo 200km ride on a -10 degree (Farenheit) January > 31st to earn his R-12. He's glad he did it and achieved his goal, but he > couldn't say he enjoyed that last ride. So, at the end of the conversation > I formulated my goals for 2023: Ride a lot. Enjoy all of it. At the end of > the year I felt I had achieved those goals. I accumulated 8,555 kms on 176 > rides, which seems like a pretty large number, and I honestly enjoyed all > of it. So, I'm committed to those same goals for 2024. > > I also have a running "ride your age" (in miles) streak going with my > step-sister, who's just a couple of years behind me. She lives on Cape Cod > and her birthday is in early January. My birthday is in November, so we > both face weather challenges that are more significant than the distance, > at this point. We aren't too persnickety about it happening right on the > birthday. > > In the back of my mind I wonder about doing a 1200k in my age (in hours). > > Ted Durant > Milwaukee WI USA > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to a topic in the > Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. > To unsubscribe from this topic, visit > https://groups.google.com/d/topic/rbw-owners-bunch/gHQ9mLW43sU/unsubscribe > . > To unsubscribe from this group and all its topics, send an email to > rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/56067a8b-702a-49b7-8ce0-2bcc6aabf8a6n%40googlegroups.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/56067a8b-702a-49b7-8ce0-2bcc6aabf8a6n%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. 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