Thursday, January 15, 2009

Why I Love Training

The first collegiate race is about two months away and I know everyone on the team is super stoked for racing, traveling, our kits, and hanging out together. But there is a lot of work to do before we're ready in March. The time for getting after training is (almost) upon us. Sometimes getting excited to spin till you puke can be difficult especially if it means you have to get on a trainer. So for those that are looking for some inspiration here are some reasons why I love training and am looking forward to it just as much as racing.

The Food: This one's a given. Food tastes better after you just burned off more calories than you could possibly consume in the next meal. I've eaten rice, beans, and cabbage more than a few times in the past week and long before the precious stuff emerges from the microwave I am salivating every time.

The Sleep: There's nothing better than being able to conk out at 8:30 and wake up twelve hours later refreshed and ready to do it all over again. Although this can be a problem if you literally black out the moment you hit the pillow leaving the light on and other important appliances (such as the stove top on high for boiling tea). Apparently the other night my sister came in to talk to me because she thought I was still awake because the light was on and I kicked her and yelled at her. I don’t remember any of it. Now she just comes in and turns the light off. Thanks Sam, I really appreciate that.

The Dreams: While dreams of flying or biking in exotic locations are generally more awesome I have had (believe it or not) some pretty fun trainer dreams as well. Last night Pink Floyd, Ayn Rand, Steve Prefontaine and I rode in my basement for about an hour. The conversations were incredible.

My Alcohol Tolerance: I have hardly started training and my alcohol handling abilities are at an all time low. On Monday night I got loopy after drinking one beer and it was a pale ale (Harp, imported lager beer, Ireland; 4.55% alcohol). Really, I’m the most affordable date around but before you start lining up fellas see “the sleep” above.

I’m Training Not Working Out: All of that may be fine and dandy but there is no greater motivation than your mindset. You see, from now until the end of April every time I break a sweat I’ll be training, not working out. Working out is what many girls do when they go to the gym or wear cute little outfits on the Kim Williams Trail. They want to do enough cardio (WTF?) and crunches to ensure that they've burned a sufficient amount of calories to allow themselves an extra rice wafer for dinner without guilt. What I do is different. It's called training. When working out one concentrates on how their butt is going to look in their jeans. However, when training I’m concerned with becoming so scary fast that no one will have the faintest clue what my butt looks like because I passed them a fifteen minutes ago. This is the kind of motivation that gets the pedals up and over time after time after time. I don't want to be hot or fit so much as I want to turn into a finely tuned cycling machine that resembles a supernatural creature more than a human.

I hope this helps but if you’re still not feeling “it” let me know and I’m sure I can come up with some more

Lindsy B Campbell

2 comments:

UM Cycling said...

more,and always more...

Shaun Radley said...

Your last paragraph sums it up for me.....I love it....keep up the good work.