Missed again

Resistance versus cadence, again.

CONCLUSIONS. High-resistance interval training produces a major enhancement in endurance power of athletes in the competitive season. See entire article here.

This is the time of year that defines an athlete. Anyone can get excited about going for a ride on a sunny, 75-degree day in the spring or summer. It takes quite a bit more dedication to bundle up and head out the door on a cold Saturday or Sunday morning in November/December/January. And when the weather keeps you indoors, it requires a similar level of dedication to sequester yourself in some corner of your home, garage, or basement to ride the trainer. You don’t call people who train through the winter “enthusiasts” or “casual exercisers”. You’re a runner, a cyclist, a triathlete. You’re an athlete - Chris Carmichael. 

Sometimes it works, other times it don't.

But we keep trying. Trying to get to right. We make mistakes, errors of commission that perpetuate the adage about one steep back for two forward. There is a process and a time and a place. For everything. 

If we can persevere, hang in there and do what must be done along that path, we will, some day, one glorious afternoon, see ourselves where we want to be. 

I have found that it helps to be faithful to the present moment in that chase. To bring every tool in my kit for the delicate overhaul. Adjusting the mind-set to the present instead of reliving the pain of the past or fearing the challenge of the future. It is about now.

The challenge of the now. And we came for the challenge. We accept the load. It is not always fair. Certainly it isn't easy. The greater the challenge the greater the rewards. YOU WANT IT EASY?

I thought not. 

Let us embrace the reality of the hard. Life is hard. Success takes guts. One must work at it. Practice it. In a Sisysphusian like, relentless charge. Up the mountain. 

I am humbled by the fact that Felix Mendelssohn composed this stunning string symphony when he was 13. I tried this morning to juxtapose he at 13, a child prodigy, with my current plight to be my best at 60. 

I am not sure if I succeeded. It was clear in my mind. If he could compose a glorious concerto for strings before his fourteenth birthday, surely I could hammer out a set of intervals for 90 minutes. 

Sometimes it works. With fallen leaves atop cobblestones, we dig in for joyous indoor intervals.