Training Is Not Fun

I wrote about a recent adventure I had while training for the Crusher In The Tushar race:  http://utahmountainclimbing.blogspot.com/2011/07/crusher-in-tusher.html I've thought a a lot about long hilly bike rides during the last month or so as I've ramped up my "Crusher" training. I've come to realize that I don't enjoy most of the tough hill climbs, I rarely ever do. It's hard, painful, hot and did I mention hard. I recall about 6 years ago driving up Provo and South Fork Canyon looking at the cyclists that were sweating their way up those canyons on their bikes in the July heat and honestly wondering why they did it. It didn't look fun, it didn't look like they were enjoying themselves. I said to my wife, "why would you even want to do that, it looks awful?" Fast forward to today and I can tell you why those suckers sweat and grind their way to the top of the hill. You get a supreme sense of satisfaction from completing a tough ride, especially if it involves a big climb. Time after time I push myself on my rides, especially my favorite Provo Canyon/South Fork time trial. I push as hard as I can, yet feel myself moving in slow motion as I finally reach out and touch the gate to the Girl Scouts camp that marks the end of the road. Sometimes my heart is beating so hard that I have to have to sit down and put my head between my legs to keep my lunch down. Not fun. But I feel stronger and tougher because of it and that 30 seconds I took off my personal record feels like my own gold medal.

Despite all this feel good I get from training I tend to slack off the training when it gets hard. During cyclocross season the training is all about hard intervals and hard intervals suck. They suck even more because they're done in my basement on the trainer in front of a movie that I'm bored of and isn't doing anything to take my mind off the pain. Because of this, it's easy to say that tonight is just a bad night and my legs aren't feeling it. I cut the workout short, take a shower and sit down to a nice bowl of ice cream. Probably the best thing that training for the Crusher has taught me is to keep pushing. If I stopped every time the road got steep on the Alpine Loop it would take me forever to complete those training rides. Quiting was not an option, I had to get in the miles or get crushed by The Crusher. So I learned that when it got steep and my legs felt limp that I had to push harder and dig a little deeper. Sure it hurt, but I gained a little extra heart in the process. Giving up 2/3 of the way through a 45 mile ride through the mountains isn't really an option. Turning around and heading back down means I'd then have to ride 30 miles back home in the heat of the afternoon sun.

One of my favorite parts of completing a really hard training ride or race is the silent satisfaction that I get when I go back to work on Mon. and know that I'm that much tougher than everyone else that went out for 18 holes or sat on their couch watching a football game. I have nothing against golf or tv watching, I'll probably take it up when I'm 60 and I have to slow down a bit. But for now I'll relish the grit and mud that I clean off my teeth after a hard 'cross race and feel just a little bit tougher than you.