how to proceed? on two wheels

Yesterday I shared this article with Sweetie:

http://www.cxmagazine.com/married-to-the-bike-column-lee-waldman#more-12746

Mostly I wanted to let her know there were other non-bikey spouses out there, and I thought it was a good essay for that. I especially liked the part -- and Sweetie did, too -- where NBS (non-bikey spouse) says to BCS (bike-crazed spouse) after watching him race cyclocross the first time, "That's just sick and wrong." We both laughed about that.

The rest of the day went by in a lovely manner. I mowed the lawn, we watched the rebroadcast of part of Ken Burns' Baseball, and in the evening we walked to the park for some live theatre and enjoyed dinner at a new pub in our neighborhood. Over dinner, the subject came around to bikes and racing. Sweetie asked me if I felt that upgrading my bike would be helpful. It was as if I had been given an opening on a silver platter, and so I responded that actually, my money and time would be better spent learning how to upgrade myself -- learning how to train properly -- and maybe that could mean finding a coach or a gym where I could learn how to do this. More importantly, racing is a hobby for me and I want to find someone who can help me not only how to train safely, but how to fit it into an already varied, interesting and busy life. Professional racers live, breathe eat and sleep this stuff, and while I am certainly enjoying my trip through Racingland a lot, I don't want it to become my entire life -- and neither does Sweetie.

So I will focus on the fun for the remainder of my short-track season, and in the two-month break between that and the start of cyclocross season I will begin to make inquiries and see what I can find out. It may be I can't afford either of these things but it's worth researching.

Today I will take the A-R out for a pre-ride of a route I'm leading a group ride along next weekend, a mellow and casual affair that will include stops at home edible gardens and a picnic lunch in a neighborhood park. My job today is to make sure the route I've laid out has no surprises, and to get a very rough idea of how long it will take to get to each planned stop along the way. The morning is cool, with cloud cover and a light breeze; it will warm up to the mid 70's this afternoon, making for a near-perfect morning for a ride.