The Count Down

It’s exactly one month until Christmas. That would give a lot of writers an automatic bit of “column fodder.” But that isn’t the Count Down I’m writing about. This is the time of year when I get very intent about next year.

Oddly, this is the time of year when all the other cyclists seem to migrate, along with the last of the songbirds, to somewhere else for the Winter. I stop seeing other riders while I am out there.

Consider this timeline:

• 15 days until the first Dawn Patrol
• 26 days until Winter begins
• 36 days until the Annual Penance 100+
• 53 days until the second Dawn Patrol
• 71 days until Mid-Winter
• 74 days until the third Dawn Patrol
• 95 days until the fourth Dawn Patrol
• 102 days until the last Dawn Patrol
• 108 days until Daylight Saving Time begins
• 116 days until Spring begins
• 120 days until the last Spin Class
• 207 days until Summer begins

Along the way to this we have twice weekly Spin Classes, Novice Road rides on the second Sunday of each month, Christmas Lights rides, Nights Under Lights Rides, Audax Tune Ups, the Annual Audax Ride, and any number of other daily and weekly markers. Each and every one of these is an opportunity to improve fitness, polish skills, make friends, ride with friends, and enjoy our world.

For some reason, the coming time of cold and dark is easier for me, if I count down to the warm times, if I have a calendar, and specific tasks. I know, rationally, that I can not affect the passage of the seasons, but there is that part which is comforted and reassured by the actions. It is as if, I do the things that will bring Spring, that will move the days along. Regardless, the training has begun in earnest, and the days, well filled, pass quickly.