Giro d’ Ben

One of the things I’ve always appreciated about reading blogs is the motivation and inspiration that can be found.  Whether it’s a local friend or a professional cyclist, we can learn and gleam from others experiences while searching for inspiration to challenge ourselves.  Even though racing has been, and hopefully will continue to be an outlet for goals, challenges, and adventures, I’ve been finding more inspiration in personal challenges in the mountains, be it on a bike, on skis, or by foot.  There’s plenty of crossover to be a jack at either and master of neither, but as life becomes clearer and priorities shift, I find myself wanting to utilize the freedom I have to the maximum.

Last fall I was cruising through some of my favorite blogs which includes a blog by cyclist Phil Gaimon- www.philthethrill.net.  He is one of the interesting personalities of the professional road scene while also being introspective and very humorous with the written word.  Phil has managed to work his way up from living off of a couple hundred bucks a month chasing the dream of being a pro cyclist to making it big with the largest Protour team from the U.S.- Garmin-Sharp.  When Phil got news he had been picked up by a dream team, he was instructed to create his own race against himself to prepare and load his body with a faux-grand tour effort (http://velonews.competitor.com/2013/10/news/phil-gaimon-journal-the-tour-de-phil_304861).  I was kind of intrigued and inspired by the concept, but it was fall and it was cold and I was kind of burnt out on riding.  Not to mention I have some time conflicts like a real job for example.

This spring has been slightly frustrating in transitioning from skis to the bike while still keeping a (blind) eye to the Rut.  After finally hitting a stride on the ski mountaineering circuit and winning the battle over negative thoughts, I find myself back down in the culvert with feeling behind the ball on the bike with competitive season rapidly approaching.  Even though I know this is how I feel every season, I still battle with convincing myself that I’m right where I need to be, and fitness and economy will come around if I play my cards right.

So in an attempt to jump start the “foundation building”, I decided to dedicate this week to the Giro (Italian for Tour) d’Ben.  The goal was to see if my sea legs could respond after overloading them for a solid week by doing a fairly ridiculous amount of pedal strokes for still working full time.  Weather has sucked, motivation has wavered, but it’s been a success so far because I can rightly say that as I sit here blogging from the work chair, my legs feel swollen and even though I just ate, I’m still hungry.  So far over 20 hours of time dedication I’ve ridden 240 miles (mix of road and mountain( and climbed around 17,000′ and managed to eek in a couple hours of running, lifting, and yoga on top of that; not to mention, I’ve still got the sabbath tomorrow.  And yeah, I’m feeling pretty fatigued.  I haven’t ridden hard for the most part, and haven’t really slept all that great thanks in part to work and late plane arrivals, but as the week comes to a close tomorrow and Stage 5 is on tap, I’m feeling a little bit of accomplishment along with a heap of fatigue.  Half of my rides have been in the pouring rain, cold, and all this makes my right knee really pissed.  Not gonna lie, I think I might take next week for some recovery.  Except for one problem… it appears as though the sun may shine, and my buddy Erich is hatching a serious overnight peak bagging/ski adventure in the park this week and I’d probably be a fool to not take part in that.

Giro d’Ben- Will it make a difference?  Hard to say… Have I done more damage than good?  Don’t know…. Has it been fun?  Maybe 25%… Am I glad I’ve pushed through?  Yes.  Am I glad I’m not a pro roadie who does that for a living?  Most certainly!  Will I do it again?  Absolutely, though to keep suit, I’ll probably set the goal to double it!  New boundaries is what it’s all about.

Hope y’all have a great week and find your own Giro d’You in some aspect of life.

Cheers!