12/8/08: Turning the Page

Having just turned 40 on the 1st, I’ve been looking for something profound to write. As if this magical, mythical milestone would somehow imbue me with wisdom beyond my years (BTW, this will never happen).

Maybe the revelation I’ve been waiting to have is this: For me at least, turning 40 last Monday held no meaning. It was just another day, just another birthday. On a positive note, my winter training is thus far going extremely well. My numbers are significantly higher than they were 2 winters ago heading into my best year of racing. At least I don’t FEEL any older.

I think you start being older once you start thinking you’re older. Once you admit to yourself that you’re probably over the hill, something clicks inside and the downward slope steepens. It’s as if all the ill-effects of training are held at bay behind some sort of dam. Admitting ‘I’m not what I used to be’ is akin to blowing a hole in the dam, allowing all those free radicals, lactate, and generally deleterious reactions from years of punishing the body to gush out and wash over us. Look at some pro athletes who call it quits. You see them a couple years later and it appears they have aged a decade or more. Like John Elway. I swear he’s pushing 60 by looking at him.

It’s not like ’40 is the new 30’ or any crap like that. Why does everything have to have some sort of catchy cliché attached to it? 40 is 40. Your age is what you make of it.

So, a year older, not a year wiser, hopefully a year faster.

Ride safe,
Nate