Getting back in shape is a long project if you were very fit once and not at all fit now. Here are the steps I’ve used so far.
- Set a challenging goal. Mine is the Dirty Kanza in June 2017. The definition of challenging is that you are afraid that if you do not train right you will end up somewhere you really don’t want to be as a result of not meeting that goal — like stuck in the hot sun with an injury preventing a finish.
- Incremental small steps every week. My first week was about getting up and digging through stuff to find the right equipment for a ride every day minus two for rain and/or recovery.
- After six weeks of just rolling to roll, the real training begins. Do something to motivate the expected upward intensity. In my case that meant finding other people to ride with.
- The next steps take more planning, and start to require measurement of progress. Soon the computer and/or a watch will need to be used a bit like a whip and to track progress, but not just yet. There is still time for a few more “free” rides with the sunrise.
For step 3, I happened into some really nice strong riders in my new town by watching for people gathering in cycling clothes and speaking to them. Call it blessing, call it luck, call it good scouting, but find some people. These people were perfect. They were supposed to let me drop off the back and limp home when I expired before they did but they didn’t even do that. Knowing they are waiting at the top of that hill makes you keep pushing. They told me about other rides…and the ride was pure joy (pure joy definition: beautiful, involves just the right kind of pain that means your body will get stronger in recovery and not the wrong kind which means injury).
Seven weeks in I feel much better riding and in between rides already. I am enjoying being more fit, and looking forward to the rest of the rather daunting plan. Someday I hope to be able to keep up with my new friends.
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The Rio Olympics may be the athlete’s big event, but for those watching they can inspire a new beginning. As Katinka Hosszu of Hungary shows us what it its like to come back stronger than ever and smash a world record, we can dream. As Oksana Chusovitina competes for Uzbekistan in her 7th Olympics at age 41, we can say like her as we are given another day to wake up in the morning, “I can do more.”
One way to start is to envision your “dream” event, and then plan to get to it. I’m beginning with the end in mind: the Dirty Kanza. Looks like a nice ride in the country — on gravel roads and rolling hills. It appears you need to average 10.5 MPH for 19 hours to make the cut-off for the 200 mile event. Registration doesn’t open until January next year, so I’ll decide later what distance would match my likely fitness level but for now we’ll dream of the 200 mile event.
My first weeks of training appear laid back. The main drill is get up and do training at least 5 days of 7, forcing changes to schedule and priorities. The next drill is dietary — its easier to eat correctly if there is an end in mind. Diet has to be addressed in the early stages because later you have to eat to ride. On a bicycle, the goal is use to high rotations at low gears, bring speed back while building tendons and ligaments back to sporting condition.
Join me! Let’s get going.
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When I wrote Shadow of Denali I wondered if I should add a warning label at the point I jumped off the cliff. Soon after publishing it I got a tweet to the effect of “jump and plan how to land on the way down.” That is just not so not the whole story, if you want to reliably survive. Even in an fast moving world.
Even without a motor, this is The Target Posture
Here are ingredients:
- Preparation. In the case of jumping off the cliff that means years of strength and balance training. The whole point is nailing the landing. There will be tremendous forces in play and muscles and shocks do help. In an agile software development we call this part hiring the best staff. That means staff with skills that can use them while working with others.
- Observation. When doing something you haven’t done before it helps to watch others doing similar things to get an idea what needs to be done. When I saw others jump overhead I observed two critical things: speed at take off would be crucial to clear the cliff and land in the open and posture (they kept their front ends up, their bikes straight, their bodies centered but forward). This was not riding off a cliff. This was driving with everything you’ve got off a cliff. In software development this is called getting input in in the form of user stories as to what actually must be done.
- Estimation of cost. There will be wear and tear on the body and on the mechanical machine, each will get a limited number of high force maneuvers before requiring significant maintenance or replacement (need for replacement is not good news…the medical community only knows how to replace a remarkably small number of components).
- Support and protection. Prayer is great. But it is at God’s discretion to provide the angels. I strongly recommend an additional support plan with some human angels. An organized race. A person on belay. Whatever it takes.
- Commitment to plan. Plans will change, but with no plan, there is no strategy. The plan to jump was formulated before the race started, and the commitment was there at the point of departure. In agile software development, this is called committing to which of the backlog of user stories go into a sprint. By the way, this is the last point where you decide not to jump off an object so high there is no reasonable expectation of nailing the landing. Reject that part of a Thelma & Louise act.
- Commencement: At this point cross a point of no return and make adjustments to the plan on the way down.
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