I've allowed my self to get a bit caught up over the last few years in what's know in sports physiology as purposeful training. In short, this consists in regulating the ways in which one rides a bicycle in order to influence a remote outcome, whether that be race results or some arbitrarily defined notion of fitness. Championed by veteran cyclists and the novice-attuned press alike, the training paradigm's appeal lies in the fact that it provides an overarching narrative to what cyclists do. No longer an ambling hobbyist, the trained cyclist is invested with a sense of purpose and identity. Rides are no longer ridden for any intrinsic quality but rather for reasons external to them. They become means to an end.
Adopting such a program is what leads otherwise lucid, sociable people to purchase expensive power-metering equipment or to start "riding" indoors, a practice with which I am resentfully familiar. On top of this insanity, when you spend half your time unable to ride due to injury, illness and the vagaries of life, (as has been my case for the last few years) you begin to ask yourself: "To what end?" For me there was no answer, or at least none that would justify doing interval training by myself, in the cold. At some point, the difference between 10th and 20th doesn't matter and you have to check your ego at the door. I decide training wasn't for me.
That said, while I was enjoying some time off the bike* and looking forward to a season of riding with naive enthusiasm I got an idea. I'm not sure whether I'm still clinging to some kind of structure or if the appeal is entirely in its absurdity, but i decided to ride my track bike a thousand miles.
Like a lot of things cycling, there's little to no evidence that riding a thousand miles fixed is the best way to do something (in this case, prepare for the racing season) or even that it's actually beneficial. Still, tradition dies hard (as it turns out, a lot of European athletes are mistrustful of science) and this one's been around for awhile. Though the rationale behind it is unclear as far as I can tell, most proponents will mention the elusive quality of souplesse, while others claim it "trains the blood". In any case, it looks like I'm gonna be riding my fixed gear a lot in the coming weeks, at least until I get bored or something.
*weight gaining not weight training, bro