Winding Down.
As I approach the impending life change facing me over the next year, I am forced to confront how the parts of my world that I sometimes took for granted will be impacted. When it comes to recreation (which my world centers around), this impact will be most pronounced.
This will probably be my last season coaching Mighty Mites full time. I may fill in as I can, but I won't likely be able to commit to a full season, since I have no idea how many days I will actually be in town for or otherwise occupied. The low man on the totem pole takes whatever is thrown at him if he wants to stay employed, and there will be a few years where I'm in that position. The real downside of this is that I won't be on the hill with the kids, and the time I spend with my daughter in this manner won't be as frequent. She would have only had one more year with the program anyway, and I don't think she's interested in being a serious ski racer. Instead, whenever we can, we'll ski together in a less structured way. Maybe I'll be a bad parent and occasionally pull her out of school on a powder day. This actually sounds rather pleasant now that I think about it.
I probably won't race as regularly as I once did. This might not be a bad thing, given my irresistible attraction to high-speed crashes and debilitating injuries. I will probably give up on targeting races altogether, not knowing if I will be around for a given event. Instead, I'll race when I can and not place too much importance on any one race. Wait... that almost sounds like a reasonable approach for a rapidly-aging, no-talent underwear racer. Certainly sounds like a lot less personal-goals to fail at and therefore less stress to deal with. Win (Not likely)? Great. Get dropped (more likely)? Great. Have fun? Great. Maybe putting things in a healthy perspective isn't all that bad of an idea. I'm not sure I can do it, but it will be fun to try.
I won't be able to train on the bike as regularly. Barring injury or illness, I haven't had more than a few days in a row off the bike in well over a decade. There are almost assuredly going to be stretches where pedaling a bike will be impossible, so I will have to find other ways to maintain some sort of fitness. Other activities that may involve more than two or three muscles and will lead to a broader overall fitness. Crap, that might not be a bad thing either. As long as those activities keep me reasonably healthy, I'll probably be better off in the long run in terms of bone health as well, and won't pay attention to osteoporosis drug commercials quite as much.
Change isn't something I always look forward to. I get in a comfortable rut that I can sustain, until something knocks me out of it. Then I fight like hell to get back into my cozy ditch where I'm happy. This time I'm going to have to settle into something different, and different is scary until you sit down and think about it. Change can shake you out of your routine and open up new possibilities- some bad, some good. As someone who loves seeing what's around the next corner, this isn't a bad thing. Maybe I'll move on to new pursuits that better conform to my new reality. Maybe my activities will stay the same, dove-tailed into my resource constraints and perhaps enhanced by their new context.
The unknown can be scary or really cool. I guess I'll figure out which one it is when I get there.
This will probably be my last season coaching Mighty Mites full time. I may fill in as I can, but I won't likely be able to commit to a full season, since I have no idea how many days I will actually be in town for or otherwise occupied. The low man on the totem pole takes whatever is thrown at him if he wants to stay employed, and there will be a few years where I'm in that position. The real downside of this is that I won't be on the hill with the kids, and the time I spend with my daughter in this manner won't be as frequent. She would have only had one more year with the program anyway, and I don't think she's interested in being a serious ski racer. Instead, whenever we can, we'll ski together in a less structured way. Maybe I'll be a bad parent and occasionally pull her out of school on a powder day. This actually sounds rather pleasant now that I think about it.
I probably won't race as regularly as I once did. This might not be a bad thing, given my irresistible attraction to high-speed crashes and debilitating injuries. I will probably give up on targeting races altogether, not knowing if I will be around for a given event. Instead, I'll race when I can and not place too much importance on any one race. Wait... that almost sounds like a reasonable approach for a rapidly-aging, no-talent underwear racer. Certainly sounds like a lot less personal-goals to fail at and therefore less stress to deal with. Win (Not likely)? Great. Get dropped (more likely)? Great. Have fun? Great. Maybe putting things in a healthy perspective isn't all that bad of an idea. I'm not sure I can do it, but it will be fun to try.
I won't be able to train on the bike as regularly. Barring injury or illness, I haven't had more than a few days in a row off the bike in well over a decade. There are almost assuredly going to be stretches where pedaling a bike will be impossible, so I will have to find other ways to maintain some sort of fitness. Other activities that may involve more than two or three muscles and will lead to a broader overall fitness. Crap, that might not be a bad thing either. As long as those activities keep me reasonably healthy, I'll probably be better off in the long run in terms of bone health as well, and won't pay attention to osteoporosis drug commercials quite as much.
Change isn't something I always look forward to. I get in a comfortable rut that I can sustain, until something knocks me out of it. Then I fight like hell to get back into my cozy ditch where I'm happy. This time I'm going to have to settle into something different, and different is scary until you sit down and think about it. Change can shake you out of your routine and open up new possibilities- some bad, some good. As someone who loves seeing what's around the next corner, this isn't a bad thing. Maybe I'll move on to new pursuits that better conform to my new reality. Maybe my activities will stay the same, dove-tailed into my resource constraints and perhaps enhanced by their new context.
The unknown can be scary or really cool. I guess I'll figure out which one it is when I get there.
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