Life Gets in the Way

That's the title of a song.

Is it ironic that we become so busy trying to make life happen that it often gets in its own way? I had plans of how I would train for my cycling tour and map out my progress on my blog. Each week, I'd post my mileage schedule from the America By Bicycle Century Challenge & Endurance Training Guide, and each day, I'd post the cycling stats from my ride. On my "off days", I'd be ready to blog about some arbitrary subject that was vaguely relevant to my life. I was pretty consistent for the first few weeks. My improvement was even apparently obvious to the other cyclist who regularly joins me and my cycling coach in Brooklyn on Sunday mornings.

And then life got in my way.

Job #1, job #2, weather, springtime allergies, sleep-deprivation. And my six-day cycling schedule began to suffer. I made it through 65 miles last Saturday, and have another 65 coming up on May 15. Despite working in a lounge from 9pm to 5am on the weekend, my Saturday and Sunday rides have remained remarkably uninhibited.

But what do you do when life gets in the way? I suppose that a well-adjusted individual goes with the flow, rolls with the punches, keeps calm and carries on. However, I am banking on 50 days in my life where I hope life just lets me live ... from the seat of my bicycle with my next pedal stroke being my only care and the sights to be seen being my only desire. I'll be at the whim of the wind, weather and the hill index.

America By Bicycle's tour and rider kits claim that your worst day on your bicycle will be better than your best day in the office. I'm paying them over six grand to show me that they are right.