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Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Motivation

Rain finally stopped a few days ago.

While it was raining, I was seriously (not really) thinking about getting some more versatility out of the mountain bike. This was an idea I found early on.

But after thinking it through and watching the video a couple of times to see how the mechanics of the whole thing worked, I realized that I might want something with a little more speed.



Ahh. Here we go. This guy seems like he's got the velocity I'm looking for. Tahoe Lake is fairly large after all. Seems like he's got a surfboard for floatation while stopped or slow speeds and then some sort of hydrofoil deal-e-o when it's time to hammer. I'd probably rename it "hyd-brofoil" since I'm in California and all.

Then, this morning, I stumbled onto this:
 
This changes EVERYTHING! Realizing that if I'm actually going to do this series I need to start training. After racing the bike for so many years I've grown sort of tired of the same ole' training regiment I've used in the past. It usually starts with base miles, then intervals, then still managing to suffer like a stuck pig in the first few races with a reward of missing the podium by a couple of spots. Searching for a different training program that's "outside the box", I came across this and realized that it might just be the thing I'm looking for and give me some motivation.  

 

Even though my family tree has some of my elders originally sprouting up in Germany, I do not understand the German language. I think, however, what the guy in the video is saying is: "don't be a sissy girly-man like the guy in the last video with a surfboard for floatation. Real men just hop off the dock and start hammering. You stop pedalling, you sink.... like a sissy girly-man. Sissy's sink. Real men that keep hammering stay a-float. Don't be a sissy." Yup. Pretty sure that's what he's saying.

This could be great training motivation. I rig my bike up with one of these, hop off a dock and pretend I'm Jan Ullrich for the next three hours. In fact, I think this is him on the west shore of Donner Lake training a couple of years ago.

I'm sure this will work. The motivation of not sinking is multi-faceted. First thing, if I can learn to make a face like this for an entire race, there's no way I'm finishing off the podium. Secondly, there's the obvious motivation of not sinking because the water is friggin' cold and will shrink up your "nether regions" at light speed. Then there's the fact that submerging the bike will require rebuilding all of the bearings, replacing of all the cables, water logging my foam grips and filling up my dinosaur horn with lake water.... and we can't have that now can we.
 
Yup. After many a year of racing the bike, I think I'm finally starting to figure it all out. It's all about motivation.

 

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