Reignited

for those who don't know, i took a year off of racing my bike to basically do nothing. after suffering a non-riding knee injury near the end of the 2006 season, i lost a great deal of fitness while waiting for the damned thing to stop bothering me. i didn't get on the bike more than 10 times in 5 months after the injury, and though i was probably good to go after 2.5 months, the fire had already gone out by then. during that time, i ate some food and gained some weight. and when i say some, i mean +20lbs. i got really good at video games, though, so that was a plus.
long story short, i started riding again in march, got back into shape and by summer was probably faster on two wheels than i'd ever been before. even earned the nickname "the punisher" from the people i trained and rode with. i remember having the attitude that i was making up for whatever time i'd lost and wanted to start racing again before the season ended. that never happened, though. for several reasons - lack of confidence being the primary - i never did compete in 2007. other things - some small, some bigger than small - caused me to sort of taper off and begin to lose interest again. fortunately, i've managed to stay in decent shape. and though most of the people i spent 2007 riding with have stopped, i've kept the fire lit. ok, maybe it's been little more than a pilot light at times, but believe me when i say it does some good to simply get out there and pedal around for an hour or two a day whether you feel like it or not. just do something.
for whatever reason, though, i still fell into a big rut right around the end of the year and didn't ride much. i have a habit of blaming this yearly funk on the seasons, but it seems there's always something else behind it. this year i became totally inactive and got a little depressed for a while. i defintely had some things on my mind, and it all seemed a little hopeless. but i soon realized i couldn't do anything about any of the things that were bothering me. i guess i more or less decided to move forward for better or worse with the hope that things would just shake themselves out eventually. it was important for me to do this because once i realized i wasn't going to race in '07 i set a goal for myself to race all of 2008.
and guess what? here we are, funk-free and training at about 200% for the first race of the season.

i can't fail to mention that a lot of things were said or otherwise conveyed to me by several people during my funk-fest that played equal and significant parts in pulling me free of it. whatever was said and whoever said it - thanks.