It’s a busy day, at the start of what will likely be a busy week, during a busy month; what better time to resurrect this blog? Four months ago when I paid the renewal fee on my hosting package and the domain name? Or New Year’s Day at the point when everyone is embarking on resolutions and I could have declared an intention to write every day? Things didn’t go so well last time I resolved to any form of blogging schedule, it’s best I avoid resolutions. I’ll simply have an intent to write regularly, to keep this site updated with whatever I like.
I have numerous ideas that have no place on my main website. They tend to arrive at inconvenient moments – when I’m out on the bike or about to fall asleep – and disappear before I reach a keyboard; brief moments of apparent inspiration that amount to nothing. A moment arrived earlier this afternoon, as I walked over the hill to buy tools to dismantle a futon I composed a clever first post in the back of my head. At some point during the dismantling of that futon or the loading of my car with numerous boxes the inspiration vanished. Instead I am stuck with this.
The plan: I will not write much, but I will write often; keeping things short in the hope this will keep me writing. I will draw ideas from anything that doesn’t belong on the sports blog – the books I read, the food I cook and wines I drink… There’s a rich vein of not-triathlon that forms the larger part of my life and I shall put it here.
Of course we’ve been here before…
Posted by Russ on 9-1-2012
I like bikes. I’ve wasted hours studying them, admiring frames that sit far outside my price range. Occasionally I fantasise about the lottery win that will never happen and the bike that won’t follow. If I had a spare five grand…
I love riding bikes. The best thing about a bike is the freedom to travel. A few spares, a little food in the back pocket and I’m gone for hours. Nineteen last week, exploring country lanes and enjoying early spring sunshine. Even Friday’s soaking when it felt like I’d freeze to death was fun. Well, at least when it was over.
I own one bike. A Look 565. In five years it’s travelled around the world, racing in everything from local sprints to World Championships. One bike to train on; one bike to race on. It may not be the best in transition, but it has served me well. Failures belong to my legs not my bike.
I would like more bikes. When I worked in London I could have had a new bike every year had I wanted. Then ride it for a few hours at the weekend. Any bike I wanted, but no time to ride. Whilst I like bikes, I love riding.
My bike is a tool, a means to do what I enjoyed. A single road bike is enough; I can train on it and I can race on it. Put the work in and performance follows. Perhaps a ‘better‘ bike would give better results, but the same money could fund weeks of good training. Exploring new roads and developing as a cyclist. If I had the money I’d use it to ride.
But I do have some money and I’m contemplating a new bike. Not a slick, light-weight time trial bike to gain me minutes in my races. For the cost of a few weeks in the Pyrenees I’m considering a mountain bike. A supplement to my existing ride rather than a replacement. A new tool that opens up new ways to train and places to explore.
It’s still not about the bike, it’s about the ride.
Posted by Russ on 24-3-2011
What an unimpressive beginning. A handfull of posts then silence for a fortnight. This was supposed to be a daily writing activity. Unfortunately its priority sits below everything else in my life; I’ve even cleaned my bike. I can’t place the blame on a busy life. When achieving a new high score in Solitaire is one of the week’s achievements there are time management issues. Training, work and a heavy dose of procrastination led to abandonment.
Dead blogs rank near the bottom of the Internet, marginally better than unused forums. Stumbling on a failed attempt to keep a blog active is depressing. I appreciate how hard it is. Getting beyond the ideas stage is as much of a challenge as the writing, sometimes more. I admit I’ve been a little over-sensitive in terms of content. Can a truly random site worry about content?
Bloggers rely on the belief that if you build it they will come. Write regularly and you’ll grow readership, that’s the theory. Of course the writing needs to be sufficiently engaging and interesting. Knock out dull daily posts and nobody will stay for long. Clearly there’s a balance between quantity and quality to find.
I’ve evolved as a blogger. I was far from the sweet spot when I started writing Trains, Travels. Quality low and quantity variable. When I attempted to improve one the other suffered; a surge in posting resulted in increasingly banal content. I actively discourage anyone from exploring the archives and reading my early post. Even I don’t go there…
Practice makes perfect, or at least adequate. I settled into a reasonable frequency and slowly quality increased. It wasn’t hard to read, but required at least a mild interest in me. That changed last year. Trains, Travels advanced and became a tool to express views on training. There was trouble on the quality versus quantity curve again.
Writing about myself was much easier than advising others. What applies to me may not apply to you. Why should a triathlete finding my blog pay any attention to what I say? Quality became critical, but at the same time quantity was needed to drive interest. It was a juggling act and I regularly dropped the balls. In time the battle for quality eased; two or three posts a week and reception was positive. I found my sweet spot.
The relationship between quality and quantity is entirely different for random thoughts. The point of this blog is to write whatever I want as often as possible. Purely self-indulgent, it’s about me not you. But I’m taking the same approach as on Trains, Travels: rejecting ideas that don’t make the grade. There is no grade. Think quantity and see what quality comes.
I promise more random rubbish. Tomorrow I’ll expand on a coffee shop conversation about choosing to ride cheap bikes more often.
Posted by Russ on 23-3-2011
I am not doing a very good job. I didn’t promise daily updates, but I aspired to it. The moment I became slightly busy that aspiration and this blog were put to one side. Well, enough!
Procrastinating about cycling this morning I realised it might provide content for a blog. Not the training blurb that fills the other one, but the random thoughts that pass through my head. A potential fringe benefit.
You may have heard of the term flow. The concept of being in the moment and focussed on the process at hand. There are books on the topic: what it is and why it is beneficial, but not how you achieve it. I’ve ridden many miles; hundreds of solitary hours spent pedalling. In that time I may have experienced flow for two or three hours total.
It does exist: I’ve had moments in races, but for those long training hours on my own I’m stuck with the thoughts in my head. Being a focussed athlete of course I keep those thoughts focussed too. What I’m doing and how I’m doing it… Or not. My mind shifts between the moment and the most trivial aspects of life. I’m certain a long ride or run is no time for serious thinking.
Exercise sucks the intelligence from you. I have been on heavy training camps and seen the distant stares… Nobody is home. There’s the potential for research here: put a group of athletes on exercise bikes for a few hours and administer intelligence tests throughout. Watch the IQs drop.
I have side tracked from the randomness that is supposed to be today’s theme. Once I stopped procrastinating and started cycling I had a fantastic two hour ride. Pushing the pace, finishing strong and still able to do more. Great! During that time you could classify my thoughts into two categories: ‘Ouch, this hurts; must not stop‘ and ‘God, I need a piss‘.
This is unfortunately representative of most rides. A lot of time thinking how hard it feels, but how I cannot stop. The rest, thanks to a bladder the size of a thimble, is spent debating which bushes will be my next port of call. There’s a conflict between these two instincts. Push harder, keep going, but it’s getting really uncomfortable and I am too old to wet myself (outside of races, it’s fair game there).
Not every ride is fast paced. When the pressure is off there’s more scope for mental activity. On more leisurely rides my thoughts can be divided into two categories: ‘what can I eat later?‘ and ‘God, I need a piss‘. I’ve explained the latter. It’s a plague to my training; I envy heavy sweaters and their ability to dispose of fluids via other means. We’ll save any further discussion of the many hedgerows I’ve used for another day.
Training or not food dominates my thoughts; as I finish breakfast I’m considering lunch. During training the question of whether the session justifies a treat takes centre stage. Do enough and that means I can eat more. Admittedly my idea of a treat might not match yours. A long, hard bike means I can have a bowl of porridge as a snack or fish fingers for dinner. I know how to live!
Blogging would be much easier if training was filled with interesting thoughts. It need not be solutions to world peace, famine or disease. I’d be happy with anything more profound than a craving for an apple. Today I rode hard to allow myself a couple of chocolate biscuits in the afternoon. Then I went to the gym just to be safe.
Posted by Russ on 5-3-2011
