gsteinb

I'm of the mind that nothing significant will ultimately happen. I think the idea that anything will happen to be folly. In light of that I find it hard to contort my life to train in the manner I'm used to. If I'm wrong, and something like a cycling season happens, then I'll consider us all lucky. I'll play catch up if I find myself motivated to do so. Mostly I'm looking to hide away from people.

Doge

Friday my wife and I were awakened ~5:00 AM by a bunch of cars outside the window lined up. We went back to sleep. Around 6:30 we heard someone like Dave Towle over a PA - it was Dave Towle. We looked out the window and there was a pack of cyclist staging for stage 2 of The Pikes Peak APEX 4 day MTB Stage race. As we started our run through Garden of the Gods, Dave was walking out. I've talked to Dave a few times and he is always willing to stop and chat. There was a little bit of conversation about current events and the popularity of MTB and gravel (this stage was really gravel). The shift from road to gravel, MTB, fondos and competitive rides has been posted about before this thread started, it seems to be happening faster.

The start is 100yards from my (CO) driveway.

cmh

I won't decide if I'll participate (or let my son participate) in races next spring or summer until the time comes, but, I'm telling myself that I will be racing to keep myself motivated to train a bit harder. To be fair, my 'training harder' to be ready to race next spring probably doesn't rise even close to the level of gsteinb training in the manner he's used to.

Psimet2001 

We finally recorded a new podcast last night and everyone was saying the same stuff - "I stopped all of my training and have been just riding the bike. It's been a blast and I am loving riding more than I ever did before. It's brought back my passion for riding."

gsteinb

I can see that. I might be of the same mind if pcad didn’t get killed. That soured me on riding outside.

Flatballer

That hurt, I had thought about him earlier today for some reason, but somehow forgot he had died. ****. For a split second it was like finding out again.

Psimet2001 

Yup. I get that.

ridethecliche

topflightpro

I've started looking at maybe getting a gravel bike so I can spend more time on roads without cars.

gsteinb

I'm building a 1X gravel Surly with a rear rack and milk crate for our travel trailer. I figure if nothing else I can use it to go buy ice from the campground stores.

ridethecliche

One of the reasons I want to buy a bike with wider tires is so I can hop onto the shoulder without worrying as much about debris if there are really sketchy sections.

I've been sticking to the kickr though, especially during the week when I'm busy and 30-45 mins of my ride would be junky anyway. I've also started driving closer to the spot I want to ride from so I don't have to deal with it as much.

I think it's silly to do it but I'd rather enjoy my ride. There's a place I can drive to for a really nice hill repeat loop with a section there and back I love. But that section is an hour out of a two hour ride. Driving 20 mins means id get two hours of good riding in.

Central jersey mang

gsteinb

I let anyone who would be impacted by me not racing next year know I'm pulling the plug on it. If I'm wrong and things are great I'm happy to regret the decision and play catch up. I just can't wrap my head around being on a training program, and eating the way I need to in order to be a fast skinny guy in an uphill world. In the meantime I'm having fun hiking (19 miles and 5 peaks today) and can't justify not packing up the trailer on a moment's notice to go camp somewhere. I know I won't do that if I'm fretting about training.

big john

That keeps happening. I don't know if it ever stops.

TMonk

I've certainly become more ambivalent on the road over the years. Even in races - I can't handle the nerves of the last few laps like I used to so I prefer to attack, lead out etc. Not that I'm doing a whole lot of leading out when we got LA Legion lining it out down here, but so it goes. I've also been getting more into TT/TTT.

I had planned on getting a smart trainer towards the EOY when my wife and I started family planning. When the pandemic hit, it was a no-brainer to accelerate the purchase. Not I'm about 50% indoor these days.

Cypress

The Oregon Bicycle Racing Association is already hinting at pulling the plug on next season. Most promoters and businesses are refusing to support any events at all because they are terrified of getting torched by the court of public opinion. Fun stuff.

Sad that a lot of people are willingly giving up their freedoms and lives over something that is obviously not what it is being advertised as.

If someone wants to give me an asterisk for the races I won this year, **** 'em. We raced in sold-out numbers while following state covid guidelines. We all had a blast. I couldn't give a **** about the opinion of someone that probably wears a mask while driving in their car by themselves.

gsteinb

On that note.

Cypress

Awww what’s the matter? Hole in the echo chamber?

ridethecliche

Nah, just a bit more firsthand knowledge than you.

Have fun being an internet tough guy in the P&R forum though.

Cypress

Internet tough guy? Your gaslighting is noted.

I’m not going to change how I live over this (within the confines of reason). Tugging at people’s heart strings and virtue signaling over some weird virus-related butterfly effect is BS.

I drive to work every day (never stopped working during this mess), and doing so is an order of magnitude more risky than the virus is proving to be. The things I do on a daily basis carry more risk than Covid, so pardon me for rolling my eyes at the knee-jerk reactions that race organizations are being socially manipulated into.

Flatballer

Lol.

Less than 40k people die in car crashes in an average year.

We're already at 200k+ and that's without counting excess mortality (probably around 300k by now), and with at least a lot of people taking precautions.

How you think that's somehow less risky is baffling.

And that's not even including the fact that the millions of people who don't die in car crashes usually don't end up with what are shaking out to be long term debilitating effects.

TMonk

gonna go ahead and close this for now...

TMonk

...annnnd, we're back!

ridethecliche

Meh, not worth it.

Doge

My 22 year old found he was sick yesterday. We were hoping it was COVID as that is the least likely to harm his profile. However a positive case would do nutty things to his squadron, because they are nutty.
Turns out it is not, so he'll be a bit sicker and a bit more at risk but should recover soon.

TMonk

It would be great if we could play nice in here and avoid overtly politicized statements and personal insults/attacks. Let's try to stick to discussions regarding the pandemic as it applies to racing please. Otherwise, there is a separate COVID and P&R sub forum.