The Calm before the Storm

This week between the holidays is always an "off" week. Those of us working have about half staff. The staff that does show up is blurry-eyed (from lack of sleep or excess of alcohol .. or both) and unmotivated. The upside is that traffic is noticeably lighter and the parking garage at work might actually have an open spot. Sweet.

While "calm before the storm" does apply to this time of year for us boring accountants, I was actually referring to it in the cycling/racing sense. By now, teams have solidified their rosters for the coming year, have finished the begging drive - I mean the sponsorship drive, and are finalizing clothing and equipment orders. All that's left now is the (gasp) training. This week is sporatic with teammates traveling for the holidays, making nice with relatives that will not see them for at least 8 months once we start racing. Ah, but they know the storm is coming, they've been through this before.

This calm is weird for us. Yeah, we've all been doing base miles and we've all reminded each other that ITS DECEMBER, no need to hammer. But January brings a whole new game. I mean, racing starts in February, doesn't it ? The madness begins this month - the dedicated long hours in the saddle, dabbling in some intervals, planning the race schedule and trying to jockey vacation days to get the best bang for the buck. Just typing about is exciting !

The New Years Day ride at Hains Point is always a great way to kick things off. I look forward to it because, lets face it, other than your teammates/close friends, you probably haven't seen many of your fellow competitors since September. Has it been that long ? I run into random people there every year - some of whom I only see once a year at this ride. Everyone is happy to be on their bikes and happy to see each other.

I only go to HP for a few laps to socialize - I do understand that some actually do a "century" at the Point. I am not so sure you could pay me to spend that much time going in circles. But hey, who am I to say? There are plenty of people that think we're crazy to dress up like some lycra-clad michelin man to go for 4 hour rides in 28degree weather. One man's crazy is another man's dedication. Go figure.