There are many things I absolutely love about the off-season, but the thing that I cherish the most is the gift of time.
Of course, with time on one’s hands, it is helpful to have clear ideas about how to use it. Otherwise, it would be easy to squander ir or to just keep laying down the Big Miles right through the winter without the benefits that accrue to the athlete during the off-season.
Getting to a point where you can comfortably ride 100 miles in seven hours or less requires that you invest a great deal of your time on the bike. But there is an opportunity cost. I call them Frequent Rider Miles. They differ from frequent flier miles, because the points you earn racking miles on the road are not redeemed by you. They are cashed in by the people who support you – husbands, wives, and partners, children, friends – anyone who has given up time with you so that you can pursue your dream.
If you believe in the concept of the annual riding plan, then you may already have begun training for the big event ride of next summer. If you are periodizing your training, then you have actually reduced your total training hours and your mileage by as much as 50 percent at this point in the year.
So what are you going to do with your time?
This is a great time of year to work on your bike and to address your equipment issues. You can tend to the chores and projects around the house that have been accumulating.
Better still, you can let the ones who have earned those Frequent Rider miles cash them in. So what do they get? Anything they want, but mostly time with you. My wife and son redeemed some of their Frequent Rider miles last weekend. So, what did they want to do?
They wanted to ride the bikes into town for lunch. Imagine that: a ride around the lake with my family. There was no 6 am start. There were no Brevet cards. There was no map and no cyclocomputers. Just my family and our bicycles, out for a ride around the lake. Our only objective was soup and sandwiches and coffee.
They could have chose 100 other things to do last Saturday, and they chose to go for a bike ride. I returned the gift of time to the ones I love, and look what they gave back to me.
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One Response to
“Frequent Rider Miles: use them or lose them”
Alberto
November 15th, 2006 at 3:51 pmA nice, relaxing off-season post. I’ve been doing a bit of the same here in Spain (except I tried to true my wife’s wheel the other day and well, that didn’t work – back to the shop as they say.) Regarding riding with children I wonder what experiences you have on encouraging them to ride and to get them interested into the sport?
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I think that it is important to for every child to have their own bicycle. Even if they do not ride it much, it should be there for them as an outlet, something to do when they are bored, something to use to take them away when they need an escape.
Evan had a racing bike in high school. He is a natural on a bike, but he did not ride it much. When he did, he tore up the rode. But he never became a cyclist, and I did not force it – you can’t, really. Now that he is in college, he is showing renewed interest in bicycles and I think it is because he had positive experiences with them when he was younger. That red bike he is riding in this post is a Raleigh Grand Prix circa mid-1970′s. I found it on Craig’s list when searching for a bike for one my buddies who wants to break into the sport. It was too small for him, and when Evan found out, he expressed interest it for himself. The ride last Saturday was its shake-down cruise and he loved it. Now he is looking for fenders and a rack!
I do not know if I said this directly in the post, but my wife, like Evan, has always enjoyed a bike ride, but she has never been a roadie. In the past year we have been riding together and I have kept the routes scenic and flat and she is really enjoying it. This past weekend, we added some hills. She did well and felt great about herself, as did Evan.
I think the key for getting your loved ones into “your world” is to make it easy and fun, and to keep the training part out of it.
-dr