My plan for January had been pretty simple. Do the FTP test on Zwift and get some training started. And enjoy skiing in Colorado. How January has gone so far hasn’t really followed my plan. After I did my FTP test and I was ready to start training but little things have thrown the plan.
I sometimes suffer from procrastination, and this was pretty much how the week after the FTP test went. I knew what I wanted to do but I kept finding other things to do instead. There was a trade show coming up that I was getting ready for and that took some of my time. But I think the truth is that I just lack bike riding motivation during the winter.
Colorado Skiing
During the winter I do a lot of skiing. I wanted to live in the mountains and working in the ski industry gave me that opportunity. I thought I could easily ski in the winter and ride in the summer. The reality is that the snow doesn’t melt off the trails until May or June some seasons and I wasn’t getting the riding in I hoped for.
Colorado City living
When I moved into Denver I enjoyed being able to ride outside during the winter. Some years the snowfall and temperature in Denver work together nicely and you can ride trails a lot. This year so far it’s been different. Not great for riding but it has been great for skiing. I’ve spent more time skiing this season than previous years at this point. And that has taken away from my riding time.
Traveling to the high country to ski is time consuming. To avoid traffic I have to leave early. There is always traffic on the way back. I end up spending about 12 hrs out for a day of skiing. And that is just to Loveland Ski Area, it would take longer to get to anything on the other side of the tunnel. When I get home I haven’t felt like hitting the trainer. So I hadn’t got on the bike after the FTP test. When I got back from the trade show I was feeling refocused. I was going to get back to riding and manage my time a bit better. I was going to use the ski days as rest days and make my time count. Then I immediately got sick.
I didn’t feel great for a couple of days after getting back. Just generally run down and out of sorts. I attributed this to coming back up to Colorado after a week at a lower altitude. But soon I was properly sick. I’ve started feeling better and I’m hoping to get back to riding in the next couple of days. At least I’m hoping not to vomit again in public!