Hours Upon Hours

One of the advantages to being unemployed is that I can now spend a ridiculous amount of time on the bike.

The disadvantages, of course, are numerous, although as long as I don’t spend too much time on the bike--meaning more than six or seven hours a day--I’m hoping to keep those disadvantages to a minimum by finding another fantastic job as soon as humanly possible.

And while I haven’t been unemployed long (was laid off last week, so it’s only been a few days, to be honest), the shift from an eight or nine-hour work day to a zero-hour work day means I can’t easily double the amount of weekday riding I had been doing. Now, instead of riding between sixty and ninety minutes a day during the week, I can now spend at least two hours a day riding, perhaps even three hours.

What all of this time one the bike is going to amount to, I have no idea. Stronger riding? It better amount to stronger riding although I’m still a bit ambivalent about the NYVelocity training program. I could be wrong, but I just get the feeling I’m not where I was mid-summer last year in terms of power. Riding around with my heart rate in either my endurance zone (134 to 146 BPM) or my tempo zone (147 to 154 BPM) for a few hours doesn’t make me feel as if I’m really making progress. Sure, I throw in a few sub-threshold (155 to 165 BPM) intervals here or there, but man, I just don’t know.

And the good thing about being an unemployed cyclist is that it doesn’t cost me anything to throw a leg over the bike and hit the road. Sure, there’s the cost of the food needed while out for a while--bananas, almonds, Clif Bars, muffins, etc.--but these are minimal costs. If these costs are going to have a serious effect one one’s bank account while unemployed, I think it’d be safe to say that the hours dedicated to riding should probably be spent on a job search.

Fortunately, I’m not in that position. Despite the current economic climate (a term I’ve come to loathe over the past several months), there are still jobs in the advertising industry and I can still afford to bring Clif Bars out on rides. Granted, there are less of them compared to this time a year ago, but they are out there, and finding one will only be a matter of time (hopefully less time than more time).

So how about that Tom Boonen taking his third Paris-Roubaix title? Granted, the guy did get a bit lucky when everyone behind him managed to crash, but god almighty, Boonen is one bad-ass motherf#cker. Hincapie is too, but that poor bastard can’t catch a break in that race. Would have been nice to see an American pull off the win, but to the victor go the spoils, no?