HTFU

I was facing down a 2 1/2 hour training ride, and I had a choice: ride inside on the trainer, or outside in a steady, cold rain.

I have to tell you, I'm not one of those people that can ride inside while watching a movie. Movies that are 2 1/2 hours long tend to bore me even when I'm not using them as a mental distraction. And there's something about riding my bike on a trainer for so long that doesn't appeal to my ass.

The indoor option was becoming less and less attractive.

But, outside, the rain wasn't becoming any less determined. I knew I couldn't wait for it to let up. It wasn't going to let up.

A cyclocross teammate introduced me to the term HTFU (Harden the F**k Up). It's delivered in response to an expressed aversion to less-than-ideal riding conditions. As I was looking out the front door, watching the rain not stopping, it was all I could think of, until it became my mantra. Something in my brain switched to autopilot, and I stopped thinking about how unpleasant it looked outside. I got my rain gear.

I look forward to hard interval training, and hill climbs, and spin-ups. I don't have the same enthusiasm for HTFU training, but I know it's working. It's getting easier for me to stop thinking about what I have to do, and just do it.

I'll need this kind of determination for winter snow bike rides, for Barry Roubaix, for whatever crap Mother Nature has in store for me this year at the Spring Century in Death Valley (that bitch as always full of surprises).

Except for my numb hands* and cold feet**, the ride really wasn't all that miserable. In fact, it was 2 1/2 hours of solitude that I couldn't have found anywhere else.

I have another long ride planned for tomorrow. I hope it rains.


*I've since learned that nitrile gloves inside my lobster claw mittens solve this problem.
** Shoe covers, duh!