On Saturday morning I went for an eight mile “run”. I probably walked half of it, yet I still could barely walk for a couple of days.
I’ve been ignoring the need to train a great deal for swimming. Swimming is painful due to my shoulder arthritis.
I’ve made the decision to not compete in the triathlon. Actually, I won’t be competing in anything. I’m also not going to attempt to race the Tour Divide in 2015 as I initially intended.
The problem, is training. Training isn’t fun. Training hurts. I don’t want to hurt. It’s just not worth it. I want to ride my bike and have a good time.
I had been formulating my decision all weekend. I really didn’t want to talk about it. I was ashamed. I was angry with myself. I posted on BikeForums about it with the subject “I’m a quitter“. I actually got some really good feedback from the other members.
Quitting would be sitting on your sofa and eating cheese puffs. You’ve just refined your goals.
That made me feel better. I do still want to ride, and I want to ride a huge number of miles. I want to lose more weight, and stay fit. I want to go on a tour.
Life’s too short to do things you hate. Go out and ride, tour, randonnee, ride around the neighborhood….whatever. Do what you enjoy.
+1 on what everyone else said. Do what makes you happy. You’re still exercising and improving yourself by riding recreationally instead of training to race. I don’t blame you one bit for not wanting to do that stuff anymore. I tried it during the first half of 1993 for mountain bike racing. It was mostly fun at first and I did pretty well, but when it came time to upgrade from the Beginner class the fun was over. It became the kind of sufferfest I DON’T like, and not worth it to me. I’d rather suffer on my own terms.
I mentioned that Kent Peterson was my inspiration for attempting the Tour Divide in 2015.
The thing to realize is that Kent is a mutant. I mean that in the nicest way possible; I’ve ridden with him and he’s a really nice guy, great advocate for cycling, etc. But he’s in a class above most when it comes to riding.
He’s one of those guys that can survive on little to no sleep. He can fuel himself on garbage. No, really… we’re talking about a guy whose personal slogan is “Not A Nutritional Role Model”. He’s done a 1200k fueled on little more than Payday bars and Starbucks. He can ride for hundreds of miles on trail mix and peanut M&M’s. He won the Raid Californie-Oregon (1200k from SF to PDX, fixies only) then rode the additional 200 miles back to Seattle so he could go to work. By his own admission, he doesn’t beleive in “training” either. When you ride 12,000/year you really don’t need to do anything additional as training.
Most of us, with the right training, could finish a race like the Tour Divide or a 1200k brevet. Some people, like Kent, Vinnie M (over 40,000k RUSA distance last year), and Mark T (4x 1200k events last year) just have a different natural ability for the sport, and structured training doesn’t play much into their routines.I’m of the attitude that if it’s not fun anymore, then why do it?
I know I don’t need the approval of others to make these decisions, but it did make me feel more comfortable with it after the fact. I’ve disappointed at least two people by doing this, but I want to ride a bike not run and swim also.