Off-Season stuff

It is officially my off-season time right now, as it has been for the last month or so since my last race late August. However, I caught myself recently still treating this as during the summer season and have eventually worn myself out. I started feeling depressed and seriously unmotivated to do any riding a week or two ago and didn't know what to do. I had to actually FORCE myself to get out for rides anymore. When it used to take me like 5 minutes to get dressed and be out on the road, it was taking me more than 30 minutes to get dressed and get out on the road because of the lack of motivation.

Having figuring this out and my body's desire to get me to STOP! and slow down, I've decided this Monday will be my last ride for the rest of this month. I haven't been out since last Friday up until yesterday, and then I went out for a big group ride today (a 2:30 ride that took over 3 hours because of regrouping and breaks). Tomorrow I'm off because of family and officiating a soccer tournament, and then Monday I hope to get out with my best friend for a slow ride. After that, the bike stays home while I go back to school on Tuesday. Hopefully the last 15 days or so of the month will be long and short enough to work mentally and physically for me. And what luck, November 1st is a Saturday so I can do a good first-day-back ride!

My off-bike training will consist of some lifting and weightroom cardio, and I'm considering getting a set of rollerblades because my good friend, Joe, at school rollerblades a lot and I would like to get back into that (last time I rollerbladed would be no less than 10 years ago. Besides, rollerblading works the back and core muscles (for balance and posture) as well as the legs, so it would definitely supplement my cycling.

Kind of off topic, today was another veloswap at the velodrome in T-town. It's like a flea market style, where bike vendors and personal vendors come to sell stuff. Bike shops will go to get rid of their overstocks of older model bikes, accessories, clothes, etc. while personal vendors come to get rid of junk piled up in their garage. I went to help out with my good friend Kim who had a table set up for her personal stuff, and to help out my club team that had a table set up for baked goods, several bikes (all but one was sold, I might be buying the Fuji Track Pro that was not sold yet), and several other stuff. When I went walking around, my Air Products Track program coach Jorge had a table set up for his club team, and he had for sale two San Marco saddles for sale, brand new for $30 (later research shows MRSP between 60 and 80). Because he knows me, he dropped it down to $25 for me. I think I got a good deal on this. Then later on I was looking at shoes and bought a pair of Nike Shoes for $60, half off of the original $120 deal. So for about $200 work of stuff, I've paid $85! I'm going to put the saddle on the bike if I get time to tomorrow, and try it out and adjust it until it feels right. Then for the test on Monday when I go riding. I figured that if I don't like the saddle I could always sell it on eBay for the same price, or hopefully a bit of a profit.

Now, I must go to sleep since tomorrow I go out for breakfast with part of the family... Good night!

(when you get a chance, go to http://fcskim.blogspot.com and congratulate Kim for winning Nationals in the team and individual pursuits in Colorado)