The things you learn.

I've not been riding a whole lot, as of late. This is due partly to motivation, partly to circumstance, and partly to focusing on other endeavors.

The focus of the last couple weekends has been outdoor play off the bike. While others were getting rained on during mountain bike rides, putting in 4-6 hour base mile days, and winning road races, I've been tromping about in the snow-covered back-country, attending winter SAR training, and riding fresh pow.

Funny thing about getting off the bike and doing other stuff, you find yourself outside of your comfort zone, and learning new and different lessons.

I've learned several lessons in the past few weeks, which you're undoubtedly (Ok, maybe not.) eager to hear about.

Lesson #1 This is the most important lesson learned, as of late.: If I'm going to blow off the bike to go play in the mountains on the weekends, then I should probably do something during the week besides sit in front of a computer all day. This weekend-warrior shit isn't cutting it. This was painfully evident during the long slog to the Summit of San Gorgonio, and back, last weekend. That hurt way more than it had any right to.

Lesson #2: Gear is important! It may have seemed like a good idea to stuff an extra pair of boots in my pack, along with a snowboard and various other winter-back-country gear, so that I could snowboard the vertical equivalent of a measly 2 Snow Summit runs, but while crunching up an icy slope at 11,000 ft I was having serious second thoughts about all the weight on my back. Time to get back-country appropriate gear, or do some serious work on addressing lesson #1. One small problem: back-country snowboard gear starts at "OMFG are you kidding me?!", and goes up from there.

Lesson #3: Some lessons are so thoroughly ingrained that they're nearly impossible to unlearn. This can be a problem when you're snuggled into a sleeping bag tucked into a bivy sack in your snow-shelter with kidneys about to explode, trying to convince your bladder that, "Really, it's ok to let loose into the pee bottle. Seriously! I need some frickin' sleep, and my bladder is about to explode, just go already!" I gotta wonder though, is potty-training a lesson you really wanna unlearn?

Lesson #4: Some days the mountains are calling your name, and you just gotta escape the usual 8-5.