At the very end of 2010, after ten years of living in Downtown Seattle, Tracy and I moved to Issaquah as part of an experiment. The City Mice became Mountain Mice:
http://tomsbicycleblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/mountain-mice.html
We’ve now been here a year, and we are staying. Issaquah is a spectacular base of operations for both road cycling and mountain biking:
http://tomsbicycleblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/eastern-horizons.html
I wasn’t focused on the raw numbers for 2011, but here they are: 8450 miles (quite a few less than I normally manage) and 532,284’ of climbing (over 500k for the fifth year in a row; not a goal, but maybe it should be). Quite a few of those feet of climbing were on the mountain bike, and I should apply a correction factor of about 2:1, because that’s about how much harder climbing on a mountain bike is than on a road bike.
During 2011 I counseled many athletes in my role as a cycling coach. Some were very fit and experienced people looking to take things to the next level, while others were simply trying to become athletes in their own eyes. I worked with a group of three women in their 50’s that were total cycling neophytes:
http://tomsbicycleblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/no-training-wheels-required.html
No, I wasn’t out saving the world, but it is incredibly rewarding to collaborate with people who are passionate about something and willing to work hard to improve. It’s a great feeling to help people achieve goals and to share in their sense of excitement and accomplishment.
To improve at anything, one must have both the proper physical and mental approach. I looked to my friend and local elite ultra-endurance cyclist Chris Ragsdale for some tips:
http://tomsbicycleblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/coachs-tip-mental-milestones.html
In May, I ran the second annual Cycle U Chelan Skills and Hills Cycling Camp, and we had 23 riders. Despite some uncooperative weather, the camp was a huge success:
http://tomsbicycleblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/attending-cycling-camp-can-be-great-way.html
2011 was a year during which I think I truly sensed my own mortality for the first time:
http://tomsbicycleblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/its-hell-getting-older.html
The major trigger for the visit to an Orthopedist concerned my right hip. For the last five+ years or so I have had some hip stiffness, but over the summer the stiffness got worse and I was sometimes in pain.
It’s hard to control all the variables and isolate what might have caused my hip to get worse. I took up mountain biking on a friend’s borrowed bike with a frame one size too large for me. I was riding a lot, and falling off a fair amount as a newbie. I sprained my right ankle jumping off of the MTB one day, and the right ankle sprain seemed to coincide with the right hip getting worse.
For the first time in my life, I had a doctor tell me that I had something that not only could not be 100% fixed, but that the best outcome I could hope for would be to “stabilize” the condition. Health-wise, I’ve been very fortunate, part by design, and I guess part by luck. I’ve never really been sick, I get a cold every three or four years, and I have had one minor arthroscopic surgery on my left shoulder.
To hear the doctor’s prognosis was rather shocking news, but I am happy to report that so far, Dr. Doom and Gloom’s forecast has not been accurate. My right hip is significantly better than it was in the summer.
Just as with the cause, it’s hard to isolate and analyze the variables that might be responsible for my hip feeling much better. Per the doctor’s recommendation I am taking glucosamine and I doing both stretching and strengthening exercises the PT showed me. I’m doing lower body work in the weight room. My new mountain bike fits me perfectly and I have gotten a hell of a lot better riding it.
I guess I could sprain my left ankle to see if my left hip developed pain. I could stop taking glucosamine and trade for a mountain bike that doesn’t fit me. Stopping my exercises would be easy to do. In any case, even if I do one of these things I still won’t know exactly how it would affect my hip because the other variables would still be intact. So I can’t take a chance; I’ll stay the course.
Perhaps the best adage of life is, “Don’t believe everything you hear.” I might add, “Or see, even with your own eyes, or read, even on the internet.” I intend to listen to my body even more closely than I already am. In fact, my body may be the only thing I wind up listening to. You damn well better believe everything you feel. From a friend in Northern California comes this very sad story:
http://bikecal.com/asp/columns-detail.asp?w=b&bRecNo=258
As always, my number one goal was to have fun on the bike(s), and I achieved that. I had a serious goal of becoming proficient on a mountain bike. Mission accomplished in my mind, but there is so much more to learn! Perhaps my lack of “discrete” goals for 2011 could be in part due to working with many people who had very defined goals. Now that I think about it, my major focus in 2011 was to help other people achieve their goals; I just didn’t realize it at the time. Or maybe I was choosing to live vicariously through others. Chris Ragsdale would be a great place to start:
http://tomsbicycleblog.blogspot.com/2011/09/chris-ragsdale-right-stuff.html
Looking back at all of the blog posts I wrote this year, I realized that I spent an inordinate amount of time dwelling on motivation (or lack of it), the absence of a competitive fire, and my general apathy towards riding really hard.
During the year, I came to realize that I was just not into riding hard on the road bike. Normally I challenge myself to set new PR’s on five local climbs as a way of convincing myself that I got another year smarter, but not older:
http://tomsbicycleblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/taking-care-of-business.html,
In 2011 I couldn’t mount the enthusiasm to even have a go at one climb. Not riding super hard meant that I never really got super fit, but I don’t know how fit I was or not because I lacked the motivation to find out. I struggled to figure out the reason for my lack of motivation (and competitive fire, normally itself a motivator):
http://tomsbicycleblog.blogspot.com/2011/09/hills-of-west-coast-catch-22.html
And I tried in vain to come up with sources of inspiration as well:
http://tomsbicycleblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/hills-of-west-coast-idolization-or.html
I searched for a higher meaning of competition and pride from a fellow Team HPC rider who happens to be a double Olympic gold medalist:
http://tomsbicycleblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/hills-of-west-coast-competitonand-pride.html
I thought maybe a solution (or at least explanation) could be derived from Tour de France actions:
http://tomsbicycleblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/hills-of-west-coast-tour-special.html
But then I remembered that these guys are likely aliens from another planet:
http://tomsbicycleblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/2011-chelan-century-approaching.html
One thing I knew for certain is that I couldn’t blame my inadequate or antiquated equipment:
http://tomsbicycleblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/metal-cowboys-its-not-about-bikeat-all.html
Finally, I looked to more esoteric explanations. It just couldn’t be me, could it?
http://tomsbicycleblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/hills-of-west-coast-fun-or-focus.html
I guess the bottom line for me in 2011 was just a general unsettled feeling, and a laissez faire attitude towards riding. I focused a lot of energy riding the mountain bike, and on coaching cyclists when I wasn’t riding. I had a blast doing so, and I have no feelings of remorse.
Tracy and I are getting married in March. We’re looking to build or buy a house in Issaquah. We’re digging in. And it’s no surprise that I’m thinking 2012 might be another great year on the bike as well.
