The Law of averages

It didn't take long to realize that 2023 was almost over. It seems like the second half of the year flew by. It was yesterday that it was Thanksgiving but then Christmas got here and now we are already pushing 2024. Wow.

So what happened this year?

A lot.

In usual fashion, my life was a roller coaster. Highs and Lows. Mostly highs thankfully. But I want to save the best for last, so lets look at a few of the low points.

LOWS:

Broken bike at LJ100. 

Sad day for sure. This was shaping up to be a close call as to whether I would make the cutoff or not, but a broken rear triangle punched the clock on that decision. Done and dusted. Long walk out of the woods to wait for a rescue.

GIANT.......

No need to beat this drum any longer. Just remember that I will never buy another bike from them, and I am in the market....

2nd Job 

This is a low just because it is such a time suck. Sure I get paid to watch hockey, but it takes me away from home.

Bike miles 2nd half of year....

Down. The bike thing hit me pretty hard and had me in a bad mood. I let it sink my miles for many months.

Ok, enough.....lets see some highs. :)

HIGHS:

I have a gorgeous girlfriend and amazing family and friends. Thank you guys for being who you are and for lifting me up when I need it most! Love you fam!

Health

While I still have a few derogatory marks on my medical chart I am healthier overall than I was in 2022. Not only am I down over 35 pounds, but my average weight is about 21 pounds less than last year. Also, My average weight is the lowest it has been since I started tracking in 2019. All big wins.

Overall I have learned a lot this year. But there is always room for improvement, especially on the mental side of things. I have learned that I let things start to cascade and pile up onto the next thing. Then a small thing can cause the catastrophic failure and mental breakdown. I have to compartmentalize all of the stressors and keep them where they belong in their respective areas. This way when McDonalds tells me "we don't have tea" it won't be a verbal assault on the clueless cashier trying to take my order. Yes, this happened. I was struggling that day. I just stopped to get Chris and I a tea and the girl states "we don't have tea" so which I responded "since when?" and she quite rudely states "we are just out right now" and I not politely ripped back "then fucking say that next time" and drove off. Yes, poor customer service....but did she actually deserve it? Yes and no. If her customer service was better and she had said "Sorry, we are currently out" I would have understood. But maybe my outburst will help her understand that customer service is important.

Where was I.....blacked out for a second.

That is what I am talking about though, the stress adds up. And unfortunately I let it get to me. Jay had to witness it on our ride at Warnaar too. Bike over shifted for the 2nd time, ramming the chain in behind the cassette and wheel. The bike took a little trip into the woods. Stress from work was boiling at the surface and the bike sent me over the edge. Need to make sure that the stressors are are separated and responded to appropriately. 

Registration for Lumberjack 100 is Saturday. I am going to sign up with pure faith that I will be able to sort out a mountain bike for 2024. I have the bike picked out and I have a plan, just need to get the funds aligned. Should know more about the income adjustment on January 15th. 2024 is setting up to another good year. Focus on being positive and continuing to grow. Come along for the ride.

And as always....keep moving forward.

That was rough....

 This past weekend it was fairly warm out, so I decided to load up a bike and head out to ride.  But first, lets go back a few weeks.

I started the Ride Your Way Lean program again. This type of a structured workout works very well on the trainer. In Zwift you can make custom workouts. If you follow me you probably see a RYWL Week 1 as a Strava title. This is a structured workout from the program. It was developed by Selene Yeager. There is a lot of good info in the book, but the workouts are easy to set up. And the book is written in basic English, so its easy to understand and follow.

Basically there are 3 bigger rides and a recovery ride during the week. Then the weekends are 90 minutes plus. That is why I decided to ride outside last weekend. The workouts are different types of intervals. But not the full out max intervals that will kill someone that hasn't been riding. They are basically a bump harder for a duration and then a rest. Then a regular ride in the middle with a bit harder interval set on the third. Then Friday is a 30 min spin. I wish I had done that last week because my legs paid the price on Saturday.

I am now in Week 3. I have 207 miles for December. This is fairly steep considering I have hardly any miles since June and the incident with the bike at LJ100. You can see the RYWL events that are blue and the single ride outside that is red.

And about that outside ride. I geared up and headed out. Temps were not bad but the wind was chilly. I met Jay and his buddy Josh down at Warnaar trails at Meyer Broadway Park in Three Rivers. We headed out and I figured out fairly quickly that I wasn't going to have a good day. My legs felt like concrete. I was just trying to spin and ramp up the hills. With the guys right behind me I felt terrible for barely getting to the top of a climb. Then I shifted and the chain over-ran the stop and popped off, jamming into the wheel. Fought that off and continued on. Then it happened again a mile or so later. At this point I was very frustrated with how I was feeling and how the bike was working. Both my own fault. I told the guys to go ahead, but they were willing to hang out and ride with me still.

 We forged ahead and the trail got super soft. There are some new areas that I wasn't aware of and they were super soggy. The tick in warmer temps must have pushed the water to the surface. This limited my day to a single lap, which was fine. Thankfully we were on Fat bikes and not doing any cookie cutter lines, but it was too wet for us to be out there. Had we known we would have passed.

Still, I got out and rode. It was a bit rough with the fatbike at Warnaar, but I survived. Was awesome to see Jay and catch up with him for a while. While I know my attitude wasn't the best I was still doing what I could. What I could do was better than sitting on the couch.

Work stress has been growing and I think that came to a head on this ride. Need to continue to develop that mental awareness. I know it now, but didn't really know it was bothering as me much on that day. So I learn, I grow, I move forward. 

Back on Whole30 again to restart the system before Hawaii. OH that's right, Christine and I got to Hawaii in January. There are some major things there that I plan to do and I will surely post pics and videos about it all.

Until then.....stay warm....stay safe....and as always....keep moving forward.