I could tell you what an awesome ride I had yesterday and how snappy my legs felt but it seems out of place somehow.
I did have an interesting conversation with a Washtenaw County Sheriff deputy. Josh and I were riding two abreast on HRD and he pulled up behind us and told us to ride single file. I questioned him on it and we ended up talking it over. I told him I thought he might not have a correct understanding of the law regarding riding single file in Michigan. He told me that a rider cannot "impede" traffic and riding two abreast is "impeding". This was one of those golden moments when I was able to pull out my copy of the motor vehicle code and show it to the officer:
257.660(1) A person operating a bicycle or moped upon a roadway shall ride as near to the right side of the roadway as practical exercising due care when passing a standing vehicle or one proceeding in the same direction.
(2) A person riding a bicycle, motorcycle or moped upon a roadway shall not ride more than 2 abreast except on a path or part of a roadway set aside for the exclusive use of those vehicles.
The code allows for us to ride 2 abreast. We cannot ride more than two abreast unless we are on a special bike path or roadway set aside for us to ride on. Nothing in the code says we must ride single file to avoid impeding traffic. The officer was really cool and wrote down the section of the code and said he would research it further. His concern is for our safety. He says he sees cyclists doing some pretty nutty stuff out on HRD. We need to do our part and observe the motor vehicle code ourselves and not ride more than two abreast. When we do ride two abreast we need to squeeze ourselves together as far to the right as possible and when we are causing a multi-car backup by riding two abreast we need to be good ambassadors and move out of the way. Not because we have to but because it is the kind thing to do.
5 comments:
Darrell,
You CAN'T give up on cycling. For several reasons...#1) its in your blood, #2) You are a GREAT cyclist, and most important...to me at least is #3) You are my idol. I know it can get overpowering and take over, we all know that. But maybe its time to take it easy, take the family to dinner, spend some time with the Mrs. But whatever you do, please please...dont give up on cycling. I know i need you, and im sure that South Lyon and the AAVC need you too.
Thanks Zach! Just a bad day I guess. Thanks for the kind words of encouragement. I will hang in there. Tomorrow is a new day.
Hi Darrell,
I hear ya. Balance is the key, no matter a person's situation. Coming up with a training plan for someone with no responsibilitie is way easier than for someone with other important things in their life.
Here's something I've been thinking about for me that might help. I believe that a person's capacity to improve from year to year is a fixed amount. Training more than is necessary to achieve this fixed potential will not change this, and could even result in overtraining or negative impact to life balance.
The key then is to determine how much training is sufficient to achieve your goals (assuming that your goals are in line with what your body can achieve), and then resist the urge to do more.
Most training programs in the literature do not take this into account (though I do believe Friel says something about the recommended percentage increase in training volume from year to year). I think a good place to start is thinking about your goals for a particular year and look hard at your training plan to see if there are things that could be cut out or lessoned that will have a minimal impact to achieving your goals.
Balance is important. We all need our hobbies, without them, the balance thing gets screwed up as well. Consider long term goals in cycling as more important than the annual goals. For example, my long term goal is to win the National Championship in cyclocross in the 80-84 yr age group. I think I'm right on track.
Good luck,
Mark
Hey Darrell,
I guess part of figuring out how to train is also learning how to fit it in with everything else. And with anything new, making mistakes is part of the learning process. Cycling can be especially overwhelming given that it is such an endurance sport. It's tough to hold back when you want to get faster and you hear about the pros training 5+ hours a day. Sometimes I get down about only being able to swing about 7-8 hours per week. It would be great to have more time, but I'm only doing this for fun and not my livelihood. It also helps me to think of a guy I used to ride with in Chicago who has won multiple IL and WI state TT championships on about 8 hours of (very focussed) training a week.
As you said, balance is key. At the same time, selling off your bikes and leaving the sport isn't a balanced approach. There are lots of interesting people in the local cycling community, and you've contributed a lot to it through your riding and coaching. With more people like you around, there'd be more juniors in cycling and fewer kids sitting around watching TV and making themselves sick with junk food. I'm sure there's a happy middle road in there somewhere. It just might take a few tries to figure it out. Hope to see you on a ride soon.
David
I feel like that from time to time as well.
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