Time just keeps moving forward, despite the fact that I need it to slow down for myriad reasons.
It not only continues relentlessly, but it seems to speed up when I least expect it.
I set a goal this year for riding mileage. It wasn’t way out there and if I commuted to work part time, rode to the group rides regularly and squeezed in a bit of road riding it would be well within reason and easily achievable. Our trip to California in January had me way ahead of schedule right out of the gate.
The set training plan for BC Bike Race kept me way ahead of schedule up until July.
With 5.5 months left in 2016 I had completed more than 70 per cent of my goal and the weather was looking good.
Easy, Right? Then a bunch of tasks popped up on the priority list well above riding. It appeared my life was getting complicated.
Kids’ schedules are tough on parents’ schedules.
Working at a bike shop in late summer and early fall is hard on free time. Record rain falls are hard on motivation, but, all the while, I had it in my head that I was well past the half way mark and I could still hit the goal.
With two and a half months left I was 900 km away and got myself back in gear. After a couple big weeks on the bikes it was looking good again, but then time sped up. I don’t even remember what happened, so we’ll just call it “life.”
So I am writing this on Dec. 20, winter officially arrives later today, but the snow hit hard two weeks ago.
I am 233 km away from my goal and the trails are unrideable, the roads aren’t much better and I work retail at Christmas so free time is less than plentiful.
It’s now, when time is so tight, that I remember all the days I found a reason to shortcut my rides.
Riding home with that spare hour and instead of hitting a few more trails, I would head home as quickly as possible because I had a chore.
Instead of stretching out the group ride a bit, we would head back to the shop for a beer.
Instead of riding the long way to work from Rhyley’s school in the mornings, I would take the shortest route because it was cold. Wow, cold?
Did I just actually admit that? In hindsight, these were never reasons, they were bad excuses, all of them.
Now, over 11 days, I have to force in 233 km of riding.
All those times I shortened a ride instead of squeezing in a few more pedal strokes would have added up to more than 233 km, but instead, I went from way ahead to way behind.
Time just keeps moving, life just keeps happening, and excuses, well, are just excuses.
I heard a great quote this year. “You can have results, or you can have excuses…but you can’t have both.”
Gonna be a tough 11 days, but no more excuses, time to try harder!
I’m James Durand and I’m Goin’ Ridin’…