Habits with Benefits

Eggs, Grits and Coffee.   I'm ready for anything.

As I age, the physical things get more difficult.  It happens so slowly, I really don’t notice.  Because I have been in competitive athletics for over fifty years, I’m used to training and being sore. The principle of putting effort into the bank now so it is there when you need it later, has become so ingrained in my head that I don’t even think to complain, even to myself.

I have grown to embrace the hard stuff and because I know it pays off later, I willingly accept it.  What is bizarre is that the hard work has created a Pavlovian response such that I actually enjoy the hard work. If asked, I would be glad do to the hard work even if I knew the fitness would never come.  Yeah, I’m afflicted.  The hard work has become a habit.

As the work gets harder and I even enjoy the hard work, I regularly forget that sooner or later the fitness comes.  With all these years of knowledge and the pattern of results coming after the hard work, it is stunning that I am actually surprised when it happens.

This year, like last year, it happened on a ride that was on a tight schedule.  The original plan was to go for a two or three hour ride, but a work meeting ran late and then later, so I had just over an hour. 

The first sensation is that my pedal stroke is smooth.  Instead of a push, push, push, left, right, left, it is just spin, spin, spin.  Then I ramp up the power and instead of the power starting to fade after ten or so seconds, it just keeps coming.   Then when I continue a longer push, my body doesn’t fight it. 

I watch my heart rate climb and instead of my body sending out alarms, it says, “Hells yeah.” “Hmmm,” I think to myself, “I can hold this for a while.”  I find myself surprised that the payoff has finally come.  I have learned that I don’t get to predict when the fitness comes, but when it does, I know it.