The doldrums

I may have mentioned before (but if I did, I can't find it, and I'm too lazy to spend more than 15 seconds looking) that this is my least favorite time of year. Actually, it started at Halloween, but we're still right in the midst of my least favorite season.

Here's why: the cycling season is over. Or at least pretty much over. By Halloween, it's too dark to ride after work. And night rides really only ever happen once a week. Unless you're racing 'cross, there's nothing left to train for, so motivation to ride until it hurts isn't really high either. Then there's the food. Junk food at Halloween. Good food at Thanksgiving. And of course, there are always the yummy treats that my lovely wife is making or that the neighbors are bringing by or that are being served at the holiday parties. Ski season hasn't gotten into full swing yet, so I'm left to eat crappy food and get fat. Not a formula for good health, mental or physical.

Once the snow is consistent enough that I can get up skiing a couple of times a week, I'll be fine. But until then, I'm stuck in a vicious cycle of being depressed because I'm not getting any exercise and trying to treat that depression by eating junk food. I feel very soft today.

If you're like me and most of the blogs you read are other cyclists, you've probably inferred that I'm not the only one going through this. A quick survey of the last week reveals that Dug is blogging about his man crush on James Bond; UTRider has nothing more to write about than his new phone; VH1 has posted about the Griswold family Christmas going down in the neighborhood (incidentally, I hope there was a drum roll and incantation of "Joy to the World" by the head of the household when display number 2 got lit up). Kris, meanwhile, is writing about movies I've never even heard of, cheese, and cookies. The only cyclist who doesn't appear to be losing fitness is 331 miles. But he's in Texas, where everything is bigger and the cycling season is backwards. And then there's Elden, who has finally confessed that his blog is really about mayonaise but hid this nugget in a story about exposing himself and urinating on the interior walls of his own house.

Hopefully it will hurry and snow, because I'm afraid if this keeps up I'm going to learn things I never wanted to know. Either that or I'll end up writing something that you'd put in that category.