Preparing for Anything

It's 90 degrees. It's 20 degrees. The wind is blowing 40 mph. It's raining, cats, dogs and small frogs. It's like a sauna out there. It's like a freezer.

No matter what the conditions, what punches are thrown, it's good to work out in nature. If you wear the right clothes, you will be reasonably comfortable. And you will be training for whatever conditions you might find yourself in when you take your next kedging trip. That's the big reward for all this daily exertion, for riding bicycle intervals uphill against a 30 mph wind, as I did today.

Of course, you should hope for the best conditions when you take the trip that has captured your imagination, like bicycling up Beartooth Pass in Montana or riding around the rim of Crater Lake in Oregon. But ideal conditions are not guaranteed. And if you find yourself facing some elemental challenges on the kedging trip, if you have been diligent in your workouts, and not chickened out when the going gets tough, you can tell yourself you have faced this, and a lot worse, before, and lived to tell the tale.