Coming into a new year I knew that I had work to do on the bike. Real world stress, an abbreviated 2021 race season, and poor training discipline all combined for my worst fitness in at least a decade. Catching COVID over the holidays did not help as my training was derailed for most of January.

But over the past few weeks I have finally started to find a bit of rhythm. Part of this has been drawing a line in the sand to prioritizing training. But an equal part has been a stretch of improved weather that has made it easier to swap indoor Zwift miles for outdoor team rides - an excellent trade and a great source of motivation.

This past week was the perfect example. Our coach (Jacob Fetty) assigned a tough sprint workout to kick start the week. It is the sort of workout that is not particularly enjoyable, nor especially effective, when done indoors. Thankfully, we had a big crew willing to hit Central Park well before sunrise, which made an early morning alarm followed by an hour plus of hard work on the bike much more palatable.

As I wrote in a Journal entry a few years ago:

Without our motley crew of racers I don't know if I would still be in the sport, jumping through the slightly absurd hoops involved with racing bikes in NYC. But thanks to my team and the memories from the season that just concluded I couldn't be more excited for the 2019 road season that looms just over the horizon.

The past few weeks have been a reminder that peer pressure can be a great motivator, especially when you’re able to ride with great people.