Simple Realizations

I had a nice ride on Saturday. About 60 miles solo, 3.5 hours, just zone 2. About an hour from the end, I was in very rough shape, but just cruised it in. I realized in the last hour that I hadn't ridden over 55 or so on the road this year, and that my foot didn't hurt now the way it had despite the longest ride of the year, the repeated layoffs, and what seems now like a healthy foot. I was surprised and relieved. I think too often we let an injury, a setback or a limiter define us and we use it to rationalize our limits or failings. It becomes the X factor in all our failures.

To overcome an injury, you have to move past it. Not just heal up, but let go of it mentally. The mind heals slower than the body, sometimes.

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Versus was showing a retrospective of Lance's greatest stages all day today. It really struck me how doping has decimated our sport. You see the leaders around Lance on any key stage, and the prime movers among the domestiques - it's all dopers. Vino, Ulrich, Basso, Heras, il Pirato, Hamilton, Floyd, Millar. It goes on and on. After watching a few episodes, it seemed to me like the could-have-been-greats of the last generation were cut down by doping the way wheat is cut down by a scythe. It's their own, and the team's, damned fault, but it doesn't make it easier to bear. Imagine if the baseball hall of fame had no players from a 20 year period. That would be weird, wouldn't it? We're stuck with a 20 year period of cycling that we just can't trust. It made me queasy. I'm going to watch the TdF, but I really can't get all breathless about it knowing it will likely be ground zero of whatever the latest doping scandal is.