Wired

Today my calf muscles are quite sore. Sore enough, in fact, that I decided it would be better not to ski. So I did an hour recovery ride on the trainer - even though it was sunny outside. Kinda sucked not being able to exercise outdoors when it was sunny today, but I did go walking around in the market area with my sister later, and that made up for it. The reason why I'm sore is that I've done quite the training the past few days... interval ride Tuesday, skate skiing Wednesday, strength with Jess on Thursday (where I could feel all of the leg work from skiing kicking in as she kicked my butt with a hard leg workout), and a 90 minute trainer ride on Friday. Then the kicker - Saturday morning I got up and did this class at the gym called skip circuit. I was really excited to do it because it's a circuit training class where you do 1.5 mins of skipping, then head to a station for 1.5 mins to do things like: squats, push-ups, crunches, tricep dips, etc. Then back to 1.5 mins of skipping, over and over for an hour. I used to do this workout every week about 2 years ago when I was still just on the cusp of getting seriously into cycling. I wasn't training on the bike the way I do today, and I used to vary my workouts a lot more. While my body wasn't maybe as fit as it is today, it was used to doing a wider range of activities. This time, 2 years later, with a body that is quite well-adapted to its sport of choice, that skip circuit class kicked my butt, and kicked it hard! I LOVED IT! Yes, slightly masochistic I guess - but I'm learning that taking pleasure in such pain is part of sport. This is something that I need to learn when I'm actually on the road in the summer if I want to be faster and stronger. And it's particularly true when climbing hills because that's usually when you really feel pain. I guess that's why the vast majority of road races are won in the mountains - not only do you have to push through the pain physically, but I think mentally pushing through it is the hardest part. I have a long way to go when it comes to developing my 'mental fitness' on the bike, so that I don't give in when I feel that way. I went to see an Imax movie last night called Wired to Win, which addressed just that topic. The crew followed a team during a recent Tour de France and they showed how your brain learns new skills, overcomes pain, and how (or rather where) to find the motivation to keep going. This was doubly cool for me as I love cycling so much, and I just recently finished studying the brain and the nervous system for an exam so it was all fresh in my mind.