Originally posted at my old blog geekcyclist.blogspot.com

It has been a very strange year for me so far. It has left me wondering; am I still a cyclist if I have only ridden 3 or 4 times so far this year?

For the last several years much of my identity has been tied to cycling. I promote cycling to work, provide ‘maintenance’ services for all the kids in my neighborhood, and usually ride several thousand miles a year.

This year I have even had a hard time making it to spinning classes more than once or twice a week. Admittedly, there are a number of factors that play into my lack of cycling:

• At work we went nearly 6 months down a developer on my team. My particular skill set meant much of the additional work fell to me.
• Between Mrs. GeekCyclist’s work schedule and the school/activity schedule of the boys it seems like I have to be in more places at more times than before.
• About a month ago I took on coaching the local high school’s freshman basketball team for the spring season.

I am going to try and rectify that over the next two weeks. First, our commuter club is doing tune-ups on Friday, and working on bikes always gets me in the mood to ride. The reason we are doing the tune-ups is that next week is Cycle Salt Lake Week as part of National Bike Month. We have a couple of bike tours and a ride to work with the mayor. I always get motivated during bike week/month.

Finally, I recently got around to signing up for the MS-150. I will post more on that later, including a link so that all my friends who have stuck by the blog while I have ‘gone quiet’ can support me while I ride. Signing up means organized training rides, and a need to get back in shape.

So, maybe I can still call myself a cyclist.