IN THE BALANCE : Notes drive a cyclist toward goal
Posted on Monday, January 2, 2006
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/Style/141416/
On Jan. 1, 2005, I pedaled my road bike 43. 5 miles.
A highlight of that day was a loop that combined Arkansas 157 and Arkansas 385, two White County roads I’d never ridden. I went through Judsonia before coming back to Searcy and made another loop down more familiar roads on the edge of town before heading home.
Later that day I rode my mountain bike 12. 8 miles around town with my then 8-year-old son.
It was a rainy day, but warm, and I felt good. It was also the first time I’d been on a bicycle in two weeks.
I know this stuff because I am reading it from the journal I began keeping on that day. I also know how long it took me to ride those 43. 5 miles, my average speed and how much I weighed.
Nope, I ain’t tellin’.
I didn’t really plan on keeping a journal. A journal has a kind of junior-high, girlie connotation that’s hard to shake, especially if you’re a creaky 37-year-old dude. But sometime toward the end of 2004, I decided that I needed to set some fitness goals for the coming year. Not “resolutions,” mind you, just a few modest goals.
They mostly focused on cycling events — organized 100-mile rides on the road bike, a mountain bike race or two and generally just trying to become a better rider.
So I started keeping track of my rides. I noted the date, weather conditions, the route, my average speed, my time and whatever else popped into my noggin. Some days I got poetic in my tiny, chicken-scratch handwriting about epic journeys down savage roads. Other days I kept it short and sweet, using my own shorthand language.
From July 7 th : “Griff. shortcut. 17. 7 avg. to Hig. Partial Searcy loop. 35 miles.”
“Griff.” is the community of Griffithville, “Hig.” is Higginson. I’m assuming it was wicked hot that day.
Back when I went to a gym fairly often, I would watch weightlifters and other gym-rat types jotting down information in little notebooks. I was too busy for such foolishness. How could writing stuff down help me, anyway ?
Well, now I know. I wish I’d been keeping a journal for years, and I can’t imagine now going without one. It gives me a record of every ride I did last year, and it shows me where I need to improve and, even better, how much I have improved. It’s a huge confidence boost to see that I have shaved minutes off, say, a certain road loop that once filled me with dread.
I write this stuff longhand, on the front and back of each page. I have just enough Luddite sensibility to avoid all the computer software and other high-tech gewgaws that promise to make my life easier by helping me keep track of the data from my rides.
I could go buy a little computer that will attach to my bike, keep track of everything from my heart rate to my pedaling cadence, download that stuff into my PC at the house and have it all stored on my hard drive.
But, at least for now, I don’t feel like it.
I’d rather keep track of it in my Top Flight 1 Subject Wide Rule Notebook with 70 sheets and the green cover. It also gives me a chance to improve my atrocious penmanship. I’m still working on that part.
But it’s a new year, you know ? There are loads of possibilities.
One of my most-read journal entries is from April 30, the day of the Hilly 100 near Batesville. It was a hideous day that found me on my stupid road bike for more than seven awful hours for 104 miles and up 8, 000 feet of steep, crooked Ozark mountains. It’s an amazing ride through stunning countryside, but I was hurting like Tara Reid in a dry county for most of the day.
I recorded the whole thing. I go on for a page in the journal, talking about how bad my back hurt, how awful I felt and how pitiful I rode. Looking back on it provides great motivation, because I know I will be more prepared when that ride comes up again this year. It’s tops on my list of new goals. And I’m gonna write it all down. Democrat-Gazette page designer Sean Clancy writes every other week about his attempts to balance parenting, fitness and work.
sclancy@arkansasonline. com