the tao of cycling: waning

Saturday, August 29, 2009

waning

synonyms for taper:
abate, bate, close, die away, die out, diminish, drain, dwindle (ooh I like that one), fade, lessen narrow, recede, reduce, rescind, subside, taper off, thin, thin out, wane, weaken, wind down.

I first heard the cycling-related expression "taper" two years ago. as you approach your event, you should begin tapering. you go google "cycling taper" and summarize the results for me, please.
everyone has a slightly (or hugely) different idea of how to taper.
and tapering for a time trial is different than tapering for a century, which is different than tapering for a 40K race which is different than for a crit.
and I have yet to find the perfect guidance for training for a 206 mile ride, let alone tapering for one.
this is when it would be great fun to have a coach.
some people do that: hire a coach.
my fear there, though, is that they would tell me what to do and when I did something different (like ate chocolate cake instead of broccoli) I would feel enormous guilt.
thus, I google and ask others and somehow create a game plan.
right now I am trying to formulate my game plan for the next 13 days.
it is all based on this tapering stage I'm now in, which I like to liken to the waning lunar stage.
I am like the waning moon: slowly changing and preparing for rebirth.

I just read some tapering advice this evening that suggests for the week before one's event one cuts their total miles by 2/3. since I've been averaging about 240 miles a week, that would mean I'd cut back to 80 for the week.
eek!
what would I do with all my spare time??
I'm not sure, but I'm thinking about giving it a shot.
this site suggests keeping intensity during intervals of the rides, but keeping the entire ride abbreviated.
that brought a smile to my face.
I think I can live with that.

but we'll see . . .

the sad thing is that it did not suggest that one stays in bed, or spends more time on the couch, or ~ saddest of all ~ that one eats more cookies in preparation for the event.
in fact, the terms "fresh vegetables" and "plants" keep cropping up in the dietary comments.
sigh.

I suppose if I want to truly follow the waning moon path, I shouldn't be increasing my girth, should I? I will do my best to limit those cookies and that yummy chocolate cake I had last night.
I'll keep you posted on my success.

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the Male Ego

The other day I was coming down a canyon in my drop bars (two years ago I would have said, 'what's a drop bar?'), working hard, when I came up on two guys who were also heading downhill but at a more leisurely pace. I passed them, said hello as I did so, and pulled back into the bike lane. a few minutes later they went flying past me, faces looking dead ahead, not a single bit of acknowledgment that I even existed on this planet let alone was involved in and enjoying the same sport they were.
I have to attribute this to the male ego. what else can it be? now I know we all have egos, myself included. and mine even shows its ridiculous little head once in a while, or perhaps more often. but the difference between mine and say, those of certain men on bicycles, is that I KNOW mine exists and I can LAUGH at mine. I know my ego was quite excited to pass those guys, and I could also smile because I knew if the men had really been working like I was, they would have kicked my butt down the hill.
I think I pissed them off.
and I'm sure I will be sharing with you much more of my thoughts about the male ego . . .

a little history

I was married, and I had a mountain bike which I rarely rode. we separated, I moved out, and four months later someone stole my bike. the next spring, 2005, I bought myself a new mountain bike. I rode occasionally, and in april 2006 I rode in my first century, the Cactus Hugger in St. George, Utah. I made it 54 miles on that mountain bike, and it took me about 6 hours. I think that included the rest stops where I prayed that someone would steal my bike again . . .
in june 2006 I started riding my mountain bike five mornings a week, a 45-55 minute loop that was intended to be all about exercise. and what I found was that I loved the quiet, peaceful morning full of bird chatter and barely breaking sunrises. by that fall I was hooked, and began considering the purchase of a road bike. I rode up emigration canyon for the first time that Labor Day of 2006, panting and plowing along on my trusty (heavy) bike, and a month later I was the proud owner of my own road bike: I had become a two-bike girl!
a 17-week-long "power camp" over the winter and a handful of new friends kept bicycling front and center in my life, and when spring of 2007 rolled around I was ready to hit the pavement. I rode my first century the end of april, when I again went to St. George and completed that Cactus Hugger. it took me about 7 hours, but this time I rode the entire 100 miles with about 9300 feet of vertical gain. woo hoo!
I started riding canyons around our area, emigration and millcreek, city creek, big cottonwood, little mountain and big mountain, and once--yes, only once--little cottonwood.
then in september of 2007, I rode from Logan, Utah, to Jackson, Wyoming, in the slightly infamous LOTOJA race. I rode, I did not race. and I completed the thing, crediting my good training buddies, the incredibly perfect weather, my support team, and an amazing convergence of all things positive in the universe.
I put in about 3500 miles last season, and as of today, july 19, 2008, I have about 1700 in, adding to it every day.
I have again signed on to ride the LOTOJA race, and my goal is to have just somewhere near as great a ride as I did last year. oh, and to have someone fun to talk with along the way as I got incredibly bored last year . . . star valley is still a nightmare scene in my biking memories . . .
and here is a picture of the machine that has helped me reclaim my life.