The end of the summer has left me struggling to keep up. Not just with riding bikes but with all the things. When I committed to starting this blog I knew it was going to be a challenge to keep it going consistently. That has proven to be very true lately. I’m not really naïve enough to think this is going to get easier as time goes on. I do expect to continue to try new ways to make it work out though. This was part of the reason that I did make this public when I did, accountability and creating some reasons to keep trying to figure it out. This applies not only to the writing aspect but also the bike riding.

There are a lot of ways to look at these things but the one that has stood out for me over the past year or two has been the “Four Burners Theory” where basically you have four burners that represent your time/life.

1. The first burner represents your family.
2. The second burner is your friends.
3. The third burner is your health.
4. The fourth burner is your work.

In order to be successful you have to turn one of them off, and to be really successful you have to turn off 2.

This is most often looked at from a work-life balance standpoint but the same thing applies when you’re looking at a hobby/passion such as cycling. There are a few ways to try and deal with this but we’re largely forced to choose, you can be unbalanced and really high performing in one area, or go with a more balanced life and not really reach that high performing mark in one area. I’m sure there are people that would argue this but it largely holds true.

I try to balance this out as much as possible. If you read the article about this the author puts forth a few ways to deal with this. These include outsourcing, embracing constraints, and the seasons of life. To be honest I/we really use a blend of these in our day to day lives. I don’t really have the option or the desire to “shut off” a burner but I do have to keep them all running at a lower power. In various seasons some will get turned up more but to keep them going near the levels I want I have constantly worked on embracing constraints and making my time more effective. Which is much harder than it sounds.

One of the ways I’ve tried to embrace constraints is by using the training plans that I’ve talked about before. Which works great for a while. I’ve also more recently dabbled in using power meters to try and help keep that training even more pointed. This is something I plan on giving its own post very soon. What I’ve learned though is that making things happen takes foresight and effort. A foresight and effort that really only you are interested in.

Monstercross!

I think I’m going to give Monstercross a go again this year. It’s an event I’ve come to really enjoy and just a great course. I haven’t officially registered yet but I’m close, once again I can’t decide if I want to ride a proper geared gravel bike or my singlespeed. I’m honestly just trying to figure out which would be more “fun”. For gravel racing I would lean towards the geared bike just because of the pavement and obvious advantages there. With that having been said I’ve raced the Warbird a few times and have really had pretty rough times with it and Southern Cross this year on the SS was a pretty good time.  So I don’t know, there is something about getting out there with the so called “proper equipment” that I’ve got some interest in again. I’m going to spend a little time on both bikes this week and see if one of them can persuade me.

Either way, I’m going to strap in those water bottles and get out there and have some fun.

Oh and the littlest dude turned 1 this week, so now both kids are over a year old. We had a gathering at the house over the weekend to celebrate. As it turns out a large number of our friends at the moment have kids in the 1-7 year old range. When you get a lot of kids in that age range together in one place it turns into a special scene. I’m glad that we had that gathering on a Saturday because I needed Sunday to try and decompress from all the action. At one point I found Lizzie painting herself and her friends in her bed. I thought we had put all the paint away but I guess we missed one.