Bike Math

Sunday's anticipation to grind out a three plus hours of a training ride was destroyed by mother nature. I received a text from Rider 1 that said "Is it just me or is it really snowing?". My reply was "Poo to you with knobs on Mother Nature".

A thought immediately ran threw my pin size head that some lucky bastards yesterday just turned the styles at Mason Lake in the first of three consecutive races on Saturdays . I (no self pity here) am stuck in snowy Spokane. Sure I could have traveled over there and race but as we all know if you have a family and value them then you know bike math. Love of family + love of cycling = x hours of time in the saddle.

The key to this equation is actual saddle time to the rider is not equal to the sum of the saddle time perceived by the family. For example, any time spent on the phone talking to a fellow cyclist about the training ride you just finished five minutes ago counts as saddle time. There are many more but due to the fact that even blogging about cycling counts as saddle time I won't list them all. Here are just a few to help you get the picture. Feel free to add to the list by commenting to this blog.

These are not listed in time value order.
-Traveling to and from a race
-The race itself
-Visiting your favorite bike shop
-Reading Cycle Sport on the toilet
-Watching the first, second and third same day coverage of the Tour
-Working on your bike
-Talking about your bike
-Talking about Riders 1 and 3' s bikes
-Walking with your wife at Spokane's First Night and looking in the window of Two Wheel Transit
-Doing your laundry which happens to be next to "the bike room" and your family happens to hear the sound of a Campy freewheel spinning in your bike stand
-Screaming during marital relations "53-11"

This is nothing new to those who have been riding for years but to you newbies please use bike math to help shorten the learning curve of balancing family and riding.

Rubber side down.

Rider 2