Bronte T. Dog and training...

My most consistent training partner turned 4 a couple months ago... Since I've been racing, I've been riding with Bronte (which says a lot as to how new the racing scene is for me), but it's been tougher and tougher to train together...

Yesterday, to wrap-up a medium intensity, medium-high duration day (with a couple 1min power spin-ups thrown-in for good measure) we went for what was supposed to be an e2, 10mile mtbike cruise in the Fells under sunny skies nearing their end. Halfway through the ride, it was apparent that Bronte the Dog has either slowed in her adulthood or I'm at a point in training that we're not compatible anymore. Long stretches of fireroad in the Fells isn't a help to Bronte either. The sun had gone below the ridge and I began to get pretty cold... It's a damn shame. Bronte is an awesome dog and loves to run - but I simply can't afford to ride 10miles at HRM 80-100 with racing (and thus training) goals set where they are.

The good news is that Bronte is still a great riding partner for especially technical rides as our AVS is under 10mph for those. The trails up and around 128 on the North Shore are perfect for it - but with training intensifying those rides are becoming less common in exchange for the necessary road work. It makes me ask myself again, "why am I racing?" It's such a simple question, but a complicated answer as the desire to race and to better one's previous times seems to bubble-up from within... it permeates my thoughts and drives me to put a saddle-sore butt in the saddle again and again and again - and to wonder if that particular session was enough. Enough for what? Enough to win... and it never is, so I push on.

That being said, I promise myself that I'll take the time to stop and smell the proverbial roses and get-out for some nice long technical rides with my favorite, most deserving, and reliable training partner.