Return From Hiatus

It's hard to believe that my last blog post was over six weeks ago. It wasn't planned...it just sort of happened...per usual! I even got a ride in 3 weeks ago but couldn't get myself to post about it.

So what's been going on in my life since early February? Essentially, I got sucked into the dreaded winter funk...a place I tend to visit each winter but was hoping to avoid this year. Couldn't do it. Despite the snow and lack of riding, January was a good month...even as I found my motivation waning. But in February, laziness took total hold and motivation was lost. It didn't help that near the end of January I suffered a pinched nerve, followed by a 2-week head cold in early February and most recently a bout of the flu. Add to that the stress of dealing with the most severe slow-down I've ever been through at work and you clearly have a good recipe for winter funk!

When I last posted I called out my need for an 8 week training plan to transition to the riding season at a certain fitness level. Sadly, 6 weeks later and that plan has yet to materialize. However, all was not completely lost as we made good progress on the bath remodel project.

Ride Stats (21Feb09 Ride)

Bike: Fixie
Distance: 17.5 miles
Time: about 75 minutes
Average Speed: approx. 14.0 mph
Next scheduled ride: Sunday, 22Feb09 (never happened)
Temperature at start: 38 F
Temperature at end: 35 F
Gear: the winter stuff

So in the final analysis, with Winter finally behind us (I hope I don't regret saying that), I accomplished a whopping total of 2 rides this 2009 winter season. To me that's a HUGE disappointment given my mindset at the end of 2008. On the other hand, riding in the cold in general was a first for me...something I never thought I could motivate myself to do. I guess I can only wonder what might have been accomplished had the winter been warm and snow-less. For example, simply doubling my meager December ride stats (5 rides for 82.2 miles) over the last two months would have been a HUGE success in my book.