Keeping It Fun

I came across this video (kudos to these guys for having some fun out there) yesterday while doing some research for work (honest! I was!) It instantly reminded me of about 35 years ago when I would take my Schwinn Sting-Ray into the woods behind our house in CT with the other kids in my neighborhood. Now, I know they say mountain biking originated in Marin but heck, we didn't need no stinkin' fancy rides - we had our Huffy's and department store specials. My Sting-Ray was probably the nicest bike on the block.

Anyway, it became a Neighborhood Badge of Honor to be able to ride the trail from the "Big Kids" tree house on the top of the hill, down the hill, through the swampy fern section and over the last fallen tree at the end by the "Little Kids" (us) fort without touching down. Getting over the tree didn't scare me as much as going down the hill - a lot of speed was necessary to get through the swampy fern section without tipping over and suffering the "Wrath of Mom" for returning home covered in and reeking of swamp muck.

I think I spent an entire month one summer just doing that trail over and over and over and over.... I never got bored but how could I? One day Jimmy H. took a nasty fall, knocked out his tooth and blood was everywhere. Bobby B. ended up falling in leaves, getting a tick on the top of his head and needing to get part of his head shaved to have it removed. In retrospect, they probably should have given him a total buzz cut but instead he had a bald spot right smack in the middle. Much ridicule ensued until it grew back. Once we all successfully mastered the trail, we started hauling more obstacles out there, large branches, pieces of plywood, and flattened metal garbage cans which added sound effects to our ride. Bike heaven!

So I was remembering all that this morning as I headed out on my bike. The workout of the day was meticulously written out in block print and taped to my stem next to my HRM:

10 EASY (61-72%)
10 LIGHT (73-80%)
SMALL RING SPRINT
53 x 15 SPRINT
2 FREE FORM SPRINTS
5 x 1 min @100
62 min total

Now, while that may be fun for some, it isn't particularly for me. And while it was a great workout and I'm glad I did it, it didn't have me doing a happy dance when it was finished. I definitely need to figure out how to mix more fun in there and keep reminding myself that those kind of workouts may not make for a fun morning but will certainly make races more FUN as I RIP legs off the other racers. ;-)