It seems to be that time of year. The time of year when I’ve been going hard from the excitement of being able to ride trails again, but it’s catching up to me, and that excitement is starting to wear off. Last year I made it up to the whiskey before the inevitable ‘burnout’, this year was a little longer. I suspect the Big Dummy had something to do with that. Either way, motivation is starting to wane. Dave posted a similar train of thought a little while back.

I can sympathize Dave.

Fortunately, this ain’t my first rodeo. I’ve learned that this comes and goes, and I’ve learned to deal with it. Sometimes I do go ahead and take a break, sometimes it’s just a matter of mixing up the routine. The same trails get stale, the same roads seem endless. Something different is in order.

So, with this in mind (and the ominous prospect of riding the KMC this weekend without some long miles under my belt in the last couple weeks) saturday I set out to ride the flagstaff loop trail. I’ve ridden it a couple times before, but not yet this year. It’s a really fun trail, not a ton of elevation gain, but some good change of scenery and some nice technical sections. It’s also about a 40 mile round trip door-to-door for me, which can be done in a little over 3 hours.

I rode, I enjoyed, I felt a little better, but motivation was still low sunday and yesterday.

I knew as I spun home from work today on the fixie that today was going to be a turning point. A shock to the system was in order to try to raise some sort of active excitement about a ride.

This goal has taken different forms in the past. Sometimes it’s intervals on the road bike. Sometimes it involves a trip up Elden with a romp down a downhill trail I have no business being on. But today, the desire for change manifested itself in the form of the green machine of death that was between my legs on the way to and from work. A set of freshly installed small block 8s and the need for the ultimate in two-wheeled simplicity on a ride meant there was only one option: take the fixie out. I came home from my commute, swapped the messenger bag for the camelbak and headed out to do some damage.

I’ve found that trying to do something that seems a little ridiculous, and possibly a bit out of reach is a great way to motivate me.

Hence, about 16 miles and 2700 feet of climbing later, I ended up at the green cabins on waterline road. I took the fixie up schultz pass road and then continued the 9 miles up waterline. I’ve done that ride at least a dozen times on the gunnar, but never even thought of it on the fixie.

My legs, hands, elbows, butt, knees, and neck are all thanking me.

In the end, the goal was achieved: I had a blast. It was a challenge, and it was what I needed. I’m sure it will have some sort of detrimental effect on my performance this weekend at the KMC, because I went HARD.

In the end, it doesn’t matter, because I’m going to bed tonight feeling satisfied that I had a super-fun ride today. A good ride today makes me look forward to a good ride tomorrow, and that cycle of looking forward to the next time the wheels start spinning is what keeps me going.

Today ended up just shy of 50 miles on the fixie (14 miles of commuting plus 32 after work), and tomorrow will be the daily commute plus a mere 30 minutes of pain on the road bike (wednesday night crits!). I think I’m back on the horse.