Doubts

My doppelganger facing his own doubt during END-TOMBED

I decided to finally break in the fat bike yesterday and went out to put in a lap of the END-TOMBED course with the guy i'll be riding the arrowhead with, Grant Mehring.  The trails were covered in 3-4 inches of wet and sloppy snow - slick mud underneath.  Made for interesting and challenging riding.

The 10.7 mile lap - which was done in under 54 minutes by the fastest 'fat biker' during the race - took us a little over an hour**, albeit under much tougher conditions.  I wasn't so much worried about the time as i was by how easily Grant passed me or pulled ahead on the open sections of the course, and by the unexpected fatigue i experienced in my triceps and arms.  Ouch.  And that was only an hour.  If my arms begin cramping and my triceps misfiring, i may not be able to control my bike very well a quarter of the way into the race I'm training for, the Arrowhead 135. 

It will be interesting to see what the Arrowhead brings in terms of bodily destruction, and whether i'm able to cope with it and keep moving forward at a reasonable enough speed to meet the 24 hour mark.  But i've decided to maintain my confidence in the project and push away any and all doubts about my ability to succeed at the given task.  Because while i'm experienced enough to know that confidence is not a sufficient condition for success, I'm also experienced enough to know that it is a necessary one. 


**for those keeping track and wondering, hey - how can you ride for over an hour if you're only working out an hour each week?! Occasionally i will work out less than an hour on one week and slide the difference to the next week, allowing for a longer workout.  I've done this from the beginning (way back in 3 Hrs a week days) and plan to continue to do it with this new ultra-low volume schedule - my current plan is to do 60 minutes on week 1, 30 minutes on week 2, then 90 minutes on week on week 3, before repeating.