so this weekend is my first mountain bike race in a very, very, very long time. not to mention, i think i’ve only raced cross country one time at a training night race ten or eleven years ago. and i’m doing it on my singlespeed.

so i’m pretty stoked that i’m doing this, excited to get out there and push myself a bit. but this week has been very frustrating. it’s a low volume, easy week for me and i’m just not getting my rides done. on Wednesday I forgot to bring my shoes with me to work, which meant that the only ride i managed was a gentle cruise in my work shoes to get lunch. yes, i did pick the lunch place farthest away, but still. George had a rough day, so i didn’t want to throw him to the wolves after work. so no ride.

Yesterday, I brought my shoes. Had my bike and had a great little ride ready to go in my head. Heck, I only needed an hour at the most. It was super-dooper windy outside, gusts of up to 50 mph and i generally prefer to work through the morning and ride in the afternoon once i hit the wall. by the time i hit the wall and was ready to ride, it was starting to rain. No worries, i ride in crap weather all the time. But i couldn’t get myself to get out there and by the time i was ready to just make it happen - it was raining with a seriousness that i haven’t seen in a long time. so no ride yesterday either.

today i have to ride. after all, it’s been my perseverence to do all these rides that has allowed me to reach this level of not-sucking-so-much. so i can’t let it slide now. even the little rides need to happen, or i’ll go back to being out of shape and slow.

i have my bike. and my shoes. my calendar isn’t looking too terrible, except for a 4pm departure from work to visit my sport/chiro guy for some work on the arm. maybe i can get my ride in at lunchtime? If no, then I’ll do it after the chiro and before the family ice cream bike ride. but it will get done today.