The R Word

Every good housewife knows that months containing the letter R are good for two things: oysters, and long zone 2 rides.  Well, I plan to live it up since we've only got one R month left, and for many of us cyclists, that other R-word has already started.  You know the word I mean, the one that gives you jitters and compels you to spend your whole paycheck on wheels.  

Goodbye delicious bivalves, hello anaerobic efforts...

I can't even say the word, not because it gives me jitters or an upset stomach, or any of that other stuff that means you actually care.  I just hate the R word.  I resent it so much that I want to quit.  Last year I gave it everything: all of my vacation time, resources, relationships, certain uses of my left arm, and a good chunk of my frontal lobe.  In return, the R word gave me a few good results, some badass-looking pictures from moments that I can't even remember, and some fitness that I proceeded to throw down the drain in October.  So the R word can screw off.  The problem is, exercise is important, and instead of quitting this whole cycling thing and switching to another liberal elite endurance sport that I will eventually resent just as much, I might as well continue to flounder along in the one for which I have accumulated all this fancy equipment.

Anyway, I guess I'll figure out what there is about the R word that I can still look forward to, since it's fast-approaching and I can't expect (nor do I want badly enough to try for) the same results as last year.  So here are some side effects of the R word that are undeniably awesome:

• Road trips with friends
• Coffee
• Rocking out to your warmup mixtape
• Chillaxing with your cooldown mixtape
• Recovery shakes 
• Strange tan lines that make you feel special in some misunderstood way
• Philly water ice (trust me there are more justifiable opportunities for consuming sugar if you R than if you don't R)

OK, hopefully those reasons are enough to keep me on the R word wagon, and if all else fails, I think my parents have a pair of my old rollerblades sitting in their basement.  Renewing UCI water ice license in 3, 2, 1...