bumps in the road

For a number of reasons, I'm taking a complete rest day today -- I was up before 4:00 this morning; I went for nerve blocks which means it's hard to lift my shoulder, so I don't feel like fighting it; on the drive back from the pain clinic we listened to yesterday's Europe1 Tour de France podcast, and I mentioned to the Tech Guy that I was waiting for the penny to drop with the Saunier Duval team, and sure enough, got home to the nasty news.

Some days, you just have to know when to take it easy.  Fortunately, tomorrow I get to start plying, as I've got two spindlefuls ready to go. 

If you need to rethink your goal, if you need to change it, or move in a different direction with it, well, nows as good a time as any to do it.  Yes, it's allowed -- it's called race strategy.

:-)

I think what's got me a little bothered is that I know I'm not going to finish all the spinning before the Tour is over, which is crazy, because finishing it all was never my goal -- getting a good start on it, and spinning at a reasonable pace *was* the point, but it's not as easily measurable as spinning X amount of fibre.

But I have discovered something about my spinning -- for a year now, I've been trying to force myself into a routine of spinning a little every morning.  And I've finally come to the conclusion that I hate spinning in the morning -- I much prefer to sit down in the afternoon, after I come home from the gym, before I need to think about putting dinner on, and spin then.  I get more done, and I'm happier with the spinning, when I spin in the afternoon.

I'll leave you with the one picture I have of Tour cyclists -- I was living in Lyon in 2003 when the Tour arrived and departed from that city, and although I have lots of photos of the publicity caravan, I've got only this one of the cyclists, leaving Lyon on a Saturday morning:

(I can't believe that's the only photo I've got -- I've seen at least three arrivals, I can't believe I never took pictures!)

Comments

[Kelly]

I've changed my race strategy too. I'm no longer obsessing over the huge pile of natural corriedale, but I'm spinning all the colourful stuff that I have - because thats what I want to do. If it doesn't make you happy, then why bother?

[Dianna]

I have also had to change my race strategy -- some days it's no spinning as work has gotten in the way - then I get a couple of hours to spin at one time. So, I'm AVERAGING one hour a day instead of spinning one hour each day. Seems ok - I'm realizing if I actually "had the time" I'd spin more than one hour a day; I get in the groove and that hour flies by!

[Laura]

Really? I can change my strategy if necessary?

So far I'm on track - barely - but if health issues get in the way, am I allowed to change the quantity of top that I complete and still be a success?

If so, that will be a tremendous relief!

As it is, I have just six ounces left to go. If nothing disasterous happens in the next week, I'm a-gonna make it.

[katherine]

@Laura -- yes, absolutely. Tour riders change strategy all the time. And for some, having a terrible tour might mean just being happy getting to the end of three weeks.

The whole point of this exercise is just to set people off in a new direction, or to jump-start something new. Of course, it's always fabulous to set a specific goal and reach it, but sometimes life gets in the way, and we really do have to re-assess and re-evaluate.

Sometimes we have to re-define our successes too -- can we be just as happy at the job we did, even if we didn't spin quite as much as we'd hoped or planned to? I think that's possible...