Motivation.

With the change of seasons comes a change of activities. I haven't been on my bike for over a week now, one reason being the weather has been awful and the other reason is I am now lacking in motivation. I did ride over 3300 kms this year which was 900 more than last year.
Motivation for me this year was to improve on my time and placing from last years Centurion race. I really enjoy going out for rides but preparing for a race helps me to focus on the task at hand. When I mountainbiked a lot it was the same because I did a fair amount of racing for a while so all rides led to the goal of better fitness for better results.
I don't think there are many rides left in me this year due to the fact that there is nothing to work towards now. A rest is always good but at the same time it's a bit of a drag that my biking fitness level is sure to drop over the winter. To stay relatively fit in the coming months my activities will include hiking up Blue, snowshoeing, downhill skiing and snowboarding and to keep some bike fitness there is a good chance I will go to some spin classes. My friends Brian and Sue went to spin classses this year and the improvement in their bike fitness was impressive so it can only benefit me as well. I will be also be curling but that will be more for fun than fitness.
My one other goal is to keep my weight down. This year I dropped almost 10 pounds which makes a big difference when you are doing a tough climb. Think of the effort it takes to carry a 10 pound sack of potatoes around and then relate that to lugging that weight on your back climbing a hill. It's worth it to keep that weight off so I can start next season with a good base fitness. My motivation next year will be to crack the top 10 in my age category in the Centurion. It will be difficult to do as I was 17'th out of 97 this year and to gain the top 10 I would have had to knock another 5-6 minutes off my time. It won't be easy but goals easily reached aren't much to celebrate are they.