The Happy Hour Cyclist

by Kyle Funk

It’s almost November and while most of my cycling buddies are right in the thick of cross season I sometimes struggle with a major lack of motivation. The days are getting shorter and the air is cooler. The couch looks better than ever and I begin to develop visions of Italian hoagies, porters and IPA. I lie around for weeks and go out for a ride here and there. The hair on the legs slowly grows back and eventually, I get to a place where I feel terrible and start complaining to my wife. (Which I’m sure she loves to hear.)

A lack of exercise combined with cravings for hoagies and beer don’t sit well together. So what can one do when faced with such obstacles? Stop complaining; get off your ass and exercise!

I find that writing down some goals and creating a training plan helps me get through the winter months of riding the trainer and the rollers. I’m new to the racing scene and don’t have a good grasp on the annual races, so I usually plan to peak for the Livestrong Challenge down in Philly. With a date set sometime in August I can at least get something down on paper and edit it as more info becomes available for upcoming races. The training plan will officially begin in January so during the months of October, November and December I typically just try and maintain my personal fitness.

I’ll usually avoid any kind of set schedule and exercise at least 4 days per week when I can. Over the past few weeks I’ve gone to the gym once a week and mainly focused on my legs with leg presses, leg extensions, leg curls and step-ups to get myself acclimated again to weightlifting. At home the exercise has consisted of a couple of trainer rides (mainly endurance type workouts with some spin-ups) with at least one day of getting out on the road for a good 2 to 3 hours which usually includes some good climbs of at least 2 miles or so.  I throw in some good P90X core workouts and that’s about it. If you haven’t tried P90X yet, I highly recommend it! The core and ab ripper portion of that workout are awesome. It’s one of those cry for mommy workouts that gives you a warm fuzzy feeling.

So with all that being said and the thousands of calories burned it clearly justifies the visions of hoagies and beer becoming a reality.  It’s 5 o’clock somewhere, isn’t it?

Kyle is a simple man in his early 30’s, married with a young son.  He has always been an athlete, and over the past few years has developed a passion for cycling which has led to more of a focus on overall health and well being.  In addition to cycling and all the healthy stuff, Kyle also enjoys hanging with the guys, college football and drinking beer.