This Is All New To Me.

Up into now, I've charged into spring. Freed from the trainer and primed by months of compact, focused workouts, I usually get my best results from April to June. Then everyone else traditionally eclipses me as their form peaks (and mine crashes) before crushing me in the Tour of Anchorage.
 
That's my pattern, despite the efforts of people like Janice Tower to extend my peak, uninspiring condition through an entire season. I always chalked it up to being more of a cold weather, Classics kind of rider, but the honest truth is I never had the discipline to stick with the plan once the weather got nice. While everyone else is getting faster, I'm out back, burying my form in a deep, dark hole I dug for it.
 
This year I'm rolling into the season with nothing. I think people thought I was kidding when I said my fitness was trashed. Then they saw the Moose Run results and went, "oh." Yeah, I'm starting from a place I haven't been in a very long time. Even when I broke my collarbone, I still could ride the trainer and sustain something. When I got to Mississippi in the fall and was released onto the roads, I wasn't at the bottom floor. I am now.
 
Now I have to figure out how to pull a Uma Thurman in Kill Bill: Vol. 2 and claw my way out of the fitness grave. It's all new to me, and the way forward is not completely clear to me. Structure? Base miles? Intervals? Chuck it all and just have fun riding the bike?
 
At least it's something new.

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