Originally Posted by
gsteinb
I'm still a tubular guy. For what I do it just makes sense. For the money 202 tubulars are still the lightest reasonably priced option. And since I'm only doing hill climbs, and I own them there's really no reason to switch. The thing is my twin TCRs could be the last bikes I own. Or the next bike I buy could be the last. In my mid 50s racing is a season to season thing. Hell, it might be a week to week thing. I really thought I was done after I got Covid last February. I live in a destination hiking locale, and once I started to mend I was pretty content with long hikes. The problem was my body didn't really like it as a singular pursuit. I was doing usually 40 miles over three days. In August I hurt my knee. In October I started riding in earnest and my knee started to get better. The long descents didn't agree with me. So now I'm on the cusp on another racing season. Granted it'll be 3 or maybe a half dozen hill climbs.
This is a minor interest of mine though, and I really long to have a lifestyle where I'm exercising simply for health and fun, and not drawn to competition. It's hard wired in me.
There's great mountain biking here. But it just doesn't inspire me to do it. I could build a religion around just riding whiteface the four months a year that's possible. And maybe that'll end up being my retirement plan.
I've long been fascinated by this Edward Abbey quote:
“My own ambition, my deepest and truest ambition, is to find within myself someday, somehow, theability to do likewise, to do nothing - and find it enough.”
I'm not there. And I'm a guy who has devoted his life to meditative pursuits. I'm hoping I just continue to tip more and more in that direction, and an hour of exercise and traveling with my wife in the travel trailer will be enough. Maybe some birding again. I guess the 30-60 minutes I do of yoga a day and the three hours of silent meditation just isn't enough to wear away the competitive fires lol.
I don't remember if you ever knew Wayne or not. You have a lot in common with him. I remember you know Druber. Wayne and Druber were good frenemies. He's now 62 but was heavily racing through his 50's. Picked up a road national masters title in his early 50's. He started the buttonhole chamois cream company that I am now running. He moved out to Reno when the kids left college. Was working on some pursuit goal on the track with Curtis and the Texas Roadhouse crew but they gave up on that a few years back. Then he battled a lot of back issues and then hit the point where he had a procedure to try and solve it again and when he got back from the first ride he put the bike up and proceeded to sell every bike he had. He was always a rock climber, hiker, skier, etc. Now he's doing Kart racing and roller blading as well as immersing himself back again into skiing.
Super competitive but always trying to meditate and temper all of that and to keep his center. Fabulous guy and someone I consider part of my family. Sorry - just what you put out there seems eerily familiar. I respect the pursuit and believe I get it when it comes to the racing, etc. Respect.