It's been 11 days...

I have a confession to make...
It has been 11 days since my last bicycle ride (road/mtb).

I really need to get back into the riding again - the weather is great and the company is superb. Anyone keen for night ride?

Feeling Demotivated and Tired

I know most of you feel like this, but man, it's tough to pull yourself out of bed in the morning when all you want to do is lie in bed and enjoy the warmth. It's a self fulfilling prophecy - if you don't do it, you won't improve! Afraid of failing? That's easy, don't try! I've gained another waist size and feel weaker than ever before. My muscles are stiff after sanding a cot for f&%@ sake!

WTF am I on a bout! Get off your ass and get out there. What's the worst that can happen? You actually enjoy it and find that the 10 hours you need to do a week to build a decent base is actually not that bad, even enjoyable, and what's more, easily achievable!

So what do you do? Here are a list of excuses, all true but none really matter because they are just excuses:

• My car is in for a service so I can't transport the bike.
• My MTB needs a service desperately
• My wife won't let me go ride at 4:30 in the morning
• I can't get out of bed

The reality of the list above is that I live in the Southern Suburbs, have a road bike and lights, an alarm and spare room to get dressed in unnoticed and quietly.

It really all boils down to the fact that I'm lazy AND if I don't try, I won't fail!

Quite frankly, that's not good enough! If you are like me let me know - we can start a support group!

At this point I would just like to thank the "Smooth Knobblies Cycle Club" who have welcomed me and my above mentioned baggage and try very hard to get me on the road from town, which in truth is an issue for the car being in hospital with breathing difficulties... I would also like to thank my wife for letting me wake her up at 4:30AM (GMT+2) at least twice a week and miss dinner on Wednesdays for the night rides.

Humbling/off pissing

I started mountain biking in April 2006 on my Dads mountain bike. I enjoyed it so much that I eventually bought the bike from him for R1 (thanks again Dad) and was hooked. the bike was a steel steed with shocking front suspension. I loved that bike and rode every weekend giving me the weeks in between to recover from the regular falls and lactic acid build up. I eventually upgraded the pedals to clipless, saw my a$$ more than once but got used to them and started riding better. I did the Argus Mountain bike Challenge back in 2007 as my first long race and really suffered!

I decided to make the investment and buy a faster, lighter, more bling, full suspension Merida Mission 3000D. Love this bike! I bought lights so I can ride in the dark and try to go for evening or morning rides at least twice a week.

Why am I telling you this? Well I was riding the Burger Mountain Bike Challenge over the weekend (31 July 2010) and am struggling through this race, dying on the uphills and managing to not fall off with exhaustion on the downhills. I knew I hadn't prepared myself enough and hadn't done enough training for this race but the one person I was focused on beating was a women in her early twenties on the same bike as my first bike and riding circles around me!

HOW FRUSTRATING IS THAT!

So what am I going to do about it?

I have no idea! Train more? Eat less? Use race nutrition better? Buy a better more expensive bike? definitely not! I had energy bars, Goo, enerjellys and a banana before I started.

Bottom line is it's not the bike or the nutrition or the gel or the goo or the gear. It all seems to come down the preparation you have or have not done. So you might be thinking "about time you realised that!" but to tell you the truth I ride quite often but I'm not riding right. I need to get a training regime and stick to it like a religious nut!

This is going to be my diary, my where, my why, my results check and I had better start improving else this is all for nothing!