Goodbye for now, my Dear…

I made it a point this summer to be as free as I can and one way to achieve freedom was to ride the crap out of my bike… and that I did.

This week marks the unofficial “end” of my cycling season for 2014 because I’m leaving for Asia next Saturday, until mid-November, where, to my dismay, I will have to use my legs for the entirety of the time (instead of my two wheels). I’m sure I’ll be back on the saddle for the remainder of the year for short and hard rides, commutes and chasing the sun whenever I can but I don’t foresee time for anymore “epic” rides. The sun rises too late, sets too early and since I’ll be crunching at work and the holidays will be upon us when I get back, I’ll have no time to ride long distances during the week. Time to start being a responsible adult again.

Time spent on a bicycle is priceless.

Ever since I got back from my seven week escape in Europe, all I’ve been doing is having the time of my life, out dancing with my friends, drinking lots of coffee, eating lots of cake and of course, riding my bike. I rode 4500 kilometers this past summer with tons of long, epic and fun rides— just the way I like it. Every week, as I progressed on my bike and learned more about my body and proper nutrition (for endurance cycling), I fell in love with the sport even more.

Can I say this summer was perfection?

After 65,000 meters of climbing mountains this summer, my arch-nemesis: my IT-Band, finally caught up with me. As we were doing a slow recovery ride to Deep Cove for lunch yesterday, my left knee started hurting again, but I must say, I did really well taking care of my body this summer. The discomfort showed up at the right time— right as I am about to take 3 weeks off the bike and gym. This year, I cut down my lifting sessions, did almost zero full-body high intensity interval training, stopped doing the my weekly Grouse Grinds that I’ve been doing every summer the past three years …and spent the majority of the time on two wheels. The past couple of weeks, I started incorporating more heavy lifting and leg days because I’ve been doing less riding due to the weather and random festivities and I suspect that’s the main culprit. And the fact that I have not been stretching and rolling as much as I should. And I totally ignored the RMT’s recommendation of getting work done for my super tight quads and hip-flexors. Uh, no thanks. I am annoyingly ticklish and I may end up kicking them in the face if they touch my legs! I swear I will get my stretching game back on…

I feel quite sad about leaving my bikes at home while I go seek adventures on the other side of the world but I know I will live in the moment and have the time of my life while I’m there.

Goodbye for now, my dear…