The Cycling season is coming to a close. Let the fun begin.

Here we are at the end of September at least up here in lovely Montreal, I know some of you ride through the winter but I’m talking about the racing, recreational, touring kind of ride. In my case, racing is over and has been for the couple of weeks, I’ve been doing some of the bike workout like running, stair climbing not to mention the rock climbing I’m doing this weekend. This is one of my favourite times of the year, this is the time where I get to go out and play without any schedule, without my heart monitor or even thinking about how what I’m doing is going to help or impede my weekend race.

I once read an article written by an Olympic cycling coach, don’t ask me his name or where the article was written, but I do remember this coach saying that for a couple of months at the end of the season he encouraged his athletes to go out and have fun, cross train and most importantly leave the heart monitor at home and just have fun.  I think that for those of us who are competitive athletes, we need some down time. Let’s face it if we’re competing  in a sport being active is just part of who we are and part of our life style, it’s not like because the season is over we’re all going to stop moving and sit on the couch eating nachos and drinking beer. OK maybe some of us eat nachos and drink beer, but really what’s wrong with indulging in a couple Stella’s once in a while.

Most of us are going to go out and keep on moving, even keep cycling maybe do the end of season club rides. It’s always fun to go out with on club rides at this time of year, the club guys are all in great shape and for the most part they ride steadier the most racers, and they enjoy trying to out-race the racers. I enjoy the social nature of a club ride, I get to catch up with al my riding buddies who don’t race and trade road warrior stories from the summer.

Fall is here and it’s time to take off the heart monitor and leave the watt meter in the garage, go out and do some roller blading with your wife, have a seat on a terrace have a coffee in the sun and just let the stress from the season melt away. I don’t know about all of you but I need a break at this time of the year, if not I think I would find it hard to get back on trainer during the winter. This time away from the bike keeps me from overloading on cycling. Have a great off season and tune back in once every now and then to see what’s going on.