Too busy NOT to train

I feel as though I've been run over by a cement mixer this semester with my load of university work. This is due to having happened to have chosen subjects that are a) badly taught, b) have lots of work or c) are difficult. No semester in an electrical engineering degree is straightforward but this one for me has made life more difficult and hectic than I ever guessed. Every minute of the day must be spent wisely so that the rate of having assignments set doesn't greatly exceed the rate that I am completing them.

Well, most minutes.

Then I also have this bike. (Or three bikes). I have high goals this year to build myself at whatever races I enter, (as anyone reading my race reports knows well). But now it feels like I hardly have time to keep up with life‘s demands minus time training, so doesn‘t that mean that it needs to go?
No, it won't.

For me, the more hectic life gets, the more I NEED to spend time training, and often, the more productive the training is. This is due to me generally being much more time conscious so very methodical about how I plan my rides (etc) so I get the best quality out of the minimal quantity of time that I have.

Indeed, there are times that I get up and want to just lie in bed forever, but once I'm up and out, I feel a strange peace on the bike (or even running) that I just don't find anywhere else. And it's this type of peace - the satisfaction of pushing oneself combined with the feeling of solitude being out in the bush (when I ride off road) - that makes it possible for me to face the day and whatever lies before me.

I'm sure I'm anything but alone. I'm hoping this post will be read by both those who have experienced a hectic lifestyle yet have found getting out there and pushing themselves a way to help survive t and have found their performance both on and off the bike has improved, as well as those who have stopped riding due to having too little time to do so.

Although there are times when it is genuinely logistically impossible to ride, I think that most of the time we claim it is, it isn't. One of the adages that I have coined myself says “If you don't have time _make_ time." And that's what I have done to keep on the bike. Because I think that whether we notice it or not, for most of us, the busier we are, the more in need we are for a physical (or even mental) challenge.

Stop making excuses; go out and ride!