If cycling and skiing are anything alike, my training for the might gain from pain.
I determine the value of my ski days by a single unmitigated factor — a badge of honor, if you will.
The shortstop can look to dirty britches.
The painter can look to stained overalls.
The guitarist can look to calloused fingertips.
Me on skis? I look to my ears for snow.
If I haven’t tumbled at least once during a day on the slopes, I know that I did not test myself — nary a risk. I drive home seated on my bone-dry backside ruing the failure to improve my skiing one smidgen.
I wonder if the same is true of cycling.
In over 700 miles of training since late February, I have yet to fall from my bike. Don’t get me wrong. There have been close calls, compliments of pigeons, daydreams and ignorance. Heck, I’ve thrice nearly fallen off the stationary bike at the gym (long story). However, I have yet to “take a header,” which I’m told is a phrase steeped in bicycle history (see ).
I’m getting to think that I need to turn up my RTR training to the tune of a scraped knee, black eye or maybe even a compression fracture in an elbow. Would I then know that I’m reaching my cycling potential?
Shoot, I don’t even know how to fall off my bike. Inline skaters seem to know how to fall. As do moshers. Martial artists, too.
What about (a former University of Colorado skier, I might add)? He must know how to fall. He won a stage of the 2003 Tour de France with a fractured collarbone. It was his first-ever stage victory in the crème de la crème of cycling events, just 17 days after suffering the boo-boo in a multi-bike crash.
Coincidence?
I hope so.
Mountain bike vs. road bike
That was the question last week. Since then, I’ve been outrageously fortunate to hear from Mike of Crested Butte on the subject.
Mike’s e-mail is encapsulated above, but the gist was quite simple: too late now, buster. He suggested choosing the MTB over the roadie for no other reason than waiting too terribly long to decide.
“It takes a body months to get used to the new position and feel comfortable with it,” said Mike, who added that he mostly rides a mountain bike, but also likes his “ Custom TI” for hitting the road until the trails dry. “That’s why it feels so foreign to you when you jump on those road bikes. You are asking for trouble if you jump over to a road bike at this point.”
Some say, “He who hesitates is lost.”
I like to think that “he” never prepared for a weeklong bike tour in the bosom of the Rocky Mountains — astride an MTB.
DenverPost.com sports producer Bryan Boyle is training for the — his first bike ride of any kind beyond the occasional wee-hour visit to a convenience market. His series runs each Tuesday on DenverPost.com until the late-June event, where he will file daily reports along the route from Grand Junction to Breckenridge.
To share any RTR-related experiences, fears, advice or yarns, send an e-mail to Bryan at bboyle@denverpost.com.
