A New Attitude and A Fresh Start

I've been letting my fitness situation get me down lately, and I normally don't do that. It's pretty unlike me to be anything but awesome, so I'm going to flip it and reverse it. I talked to two of my buddies today, Nick and OJ, and talks of suffer-fest riding has me poppin' wood. I have 8 days til my first Frederick trip of the new season and I am nowhere near in shape to handle 55 miles of climbing. When I went onto my homepage today (http://www.velonews.com) I saw an interview with American pro Tom Danielson. Most of it was fluff, but I did pick up this little nugget:

All the time in cycling, I think. Your brain can be your best friend or your enemy. If you can break it down to, ‘I must kill everyone,’ or ‘I must destroy,’ then you’re fine. But if you start thinking, ‘Do I really need to be doing this? It’s raining out. The road is slippery. People are crashing everywhere. It’s cold. My whole body hurts.’ That’s when it’s negative, and the desk job seems quite good. But if you can use your mind to make your body like a motorcycle — you just turn the throttle and go — if you can make it like that, you’re fine. That’s normally how it is in training, you take out the elements of stress and performance, and you enjoy it. That’s the key to racing.

This goes for any of the sports we do. It all boils down to attitude and how you approach it. If you're negative, then you're only setting yourself up for failure.

I'm headed back to New Jersey right now and have a 50 mile ride planned for tomorrow morning, and then hope to get in 100 miles of riding this weekend (Sat-Sun) when I'm back here. A little game of MANHUNT in Patapsco on Sunday should help with the final piece of mental recharge, and then Monday is a NEW day.

I am looking at December as being a big month, not from a volume or intensity standpoint, but for re-establishing good behavior and more importantly, a routine. December 1st is Monday, so I can start fresh with the new week. I'm feeling a little bit better about my foot right now, it hasn't hurt after Monday's run really and perhaps it's on the mend. My other little ailments are starting to go away after some much needed rest. I figure I might not be too off course, and while I don't want to do be overzealous, I feel like I can still get to where I wanted to be (mileage-wise) by the end of December.

I'm hoping you all keep me in check though and make sure I'm doing my shit. The good news is that I won't be trying to wile out on Mondays, which seem to be particularly aggressive these days with the group splitting at the end of the run.