Last week, I wrote that people wanting to be better at bike had three options to get more riding time in: they could commute, get up earlier or just be slower. Brian has chosen the first option (which he incorrectly identified as option two below—the lesson again—Brian does not listen to me), and he is going to try to incorporate a commute in his training regimen. This is good, commuting can add more bike time, it saves you money (after you purchase all the lights, bags and other things you will undoubtedly think are necessary for a ride to work) and it gives your coworkers a chance to sample your sweaty musk.

For me the key to maintaing fitness has always been to not stop riding. This is a tremendously obvious statement—it’s like saying chocolate is sweet or that Simon Cowell likes wearing a shirt with plunging neckline—but often I find that people simply stop riding, or don’t ride on a consistent basis. Brian and I are getting on in our years, and many older riders can lose motivation. Unlike younger (or delusional) riders who may have an opportunity at progressing in the sport; older riders are not going to turn professional. There’s no progressing past the racing that we do right now. This is the end of the line, as far as advancement goes. This thought can be a bit disheartening.

As older people, the temptation for Brian and I (well, probably more for me than Brian) is to find a comfortable cardigan, a nice chair to complain from and call it a life. I see my role in being a bossy coach is to find ways to keep someone riding their bike. For Brian this means a steady diet of contact and quasi-public harassment, as that’s what motivates him. (Seriously, I know what I’m doing here—I’ve been my own life coach for more than 3 years now.) Making Brian’s training public appeals to his sense of responsibility, and anyone who knows Brian knows that he’s a very responsible person, except when it comes to cleaning his bike. (See? Pow! Harassment!)

This week, I’ve been harassing Brian more and have encouraged him to make his training public on Strava. Which will hopefully also motivate him to stack up accomplishments—or it will motivate him to drive around in his car at 18 mph with the Strava App on his iphone activated—I may or may not have been tempted to do this in the past. Below is the transcript of our interactions.

December 13

Gatens On the rollers now. Closing in an hour. May go for 2. We’ll see. Watching ‘Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World’. It’s dreadful but I can’t seem to not watch it.

Ended up doing 1:15.

I’m running 5 miles in the AM (they’re calling for a balmy 23 degrees) so I wanted to save my legs a bit.

December 15

schmalz I probably should just keep writing these without you.

Gatens I’ve become your muse.

schmalz You are the Courtney Love to my Kurt Cobain.

Gatens I was thinking more like your Phineas to my Ferb, but that’s my parenting just coming out.

December 16

Gatens Option 2 taken

Woke up before my alarm this morning and I’m out the door to run six miles. I’d ride the rollers but it’s 53 degrees out the week before Christmas and turning down such nice weather is idiocy.

I’ve been working on the bike commute thing for awhile. Got everything in place but just need to pull the trigger. And it’s only ten miles. Barely worth the effort for 20 miles per day (but that is 100 miles per week).

Ride tomorrow am? Supposed to be nice.

schmalz Sometimes I look at the time stamp on your emails and I think you email me to show that you wake like a Mountain Dew-fueled farmer.

I think the commute thing is a solid choice, and it doesn’t have to be only ten miles, you can do the minimum distance in the morning, but you could also ride extra in the evening. You can always ride to your house, drop off your bag and do some "real" riding afterwards.

I would get some lights though, this column will be terribly un-compelling if I am coaching a dead person.

Tomorrow I shall be sleeping in, but perhaps a Sunday morning ride? But the weather for Sunday morning looks terribly cold also.

Gatens Let me work a bit more on the logistics. In order to bike commute I have to do the ride to gym, shower and then cover to mile to work, where I need to put my suit on. I should just begin to wear overalls and baseball caps at work. That would make the bike commute thing really is. And also shave my head. If any companies want me to test their lights for them and report back let me know.

I also guess the wintertime bike commuting will also callus my soul to the point where the pain of racing will almost be a relief.

Running update – You know that I have that little marathon in Boston to prepare for this coming April. I may have one other running ‘thing’ right around that time. The good news is that it’s not a marathon. The bad news is that it may be a smidge longer. Stay tuned. That being said, I’m completely prepared to focus 85% on the bike training this winter and let a combination of guts and stupidity carry me through the running stuff.

This weekend – I’ll probably ride tomorrow morning, but I’ll be on the rollers Sunday. No better way to watch the Giants than from the comfort of my basement. I roll smooth during the game, but do intervals during the commercials. The commercial timeframe is always the same so you don’t even need to look at your computer.

schmalz Can you start dumping al this activity on Strava? You can even enter your data manually (and lie!).

Gatens Running too?

schmalz Yup

Gatens Great. Another performance metric to publicize to the world. 

schmalz Just wait until the rides with no achievements in them start rolling in. It’s depressing.

Gatens Trillions of dollars and millions of man hours have helped civilization arrive at the point where my mediocrity can be quantified. That and LOLcats…

schmalz LOLcats is way out of our league.

Gatens Any loss of street cred if I commute on a mtb?

December 17

Gatens 45 minutes on the rollers. I was shooting for an hour but I have a Christmas Party to attend and heading over early as there’s a rumor of Kobe Beef sliders. 

schmalz You have my permission to sniff them.

December 18

Gatens I sniffed, sniffed and then gorged. So good. As if two hours on the rollers isn’t bad enough, doing so watching this Giants game is killing me. With several 3 minute intervals thrown in during the first hour.

schmalz That’s a good start, you’re going to need some consistent rides in the future, even if it’s just 30 minutes on the rollers. I would avoid running.

Gatens I can do that. I’m home the week between Christmas and New Year’s to get some bike time in.

December 19

Gatens 1 hr. fitness class. Bike friendly class today. Fair amount of intervals and mostly legs and core. I’m hitting it again tomorrow morning at 5 AM. It’s an early wake up call following tonight’s CYO game at 8 PM, but there’s no way around that.

I’ll be on the rollers Wednesday and Friday this week. I’d be up for a Christmas eve ride (early in the AM).

schmalz This is kind of a rest week for me, so a Christmas Eve ride isn’t necessary (it will keep the family happy that way also). Did you start a Strava page?

Gatens I haven’t done anything with strava yet. Will it enable me to track all my training? Bike, run, fit class?

schmalz Yes, you can enter the info manually if all else fails, not sure about the fit class though, might have to enter it under running

Gatens Check. I’ll do it tonight.