NRSS

I've gotta be honest here, folks. I hate the off-season. Well, OK. Maybe I don't hate hate it. As race season comes to a close, and then for the first few weeks, the off-season is great. I get to relax on the couch. Eat just about anything I want. Drink as much beer as my liver can handle (and then some). I get to sleep in on the weekends, and can let some of my bike cleanliness and maintenance fall by the wayside.

Then 2 weeks of laziness turns into 3. 3 into 4. 4 into....well, a whole lot more than I'd like to admit. See, I get caught up in something that I like to call "NRSS," or "Not Race Season Syndrome." It's that feeling you get when you know that you can skip a ride here or there, because it's the off-season, and that you'll make up for it eventually. You sit on the couch, and start counting the weeks until the first race of the season. Obviously you count weeks, because if you counted months, then it'd seem like race season is coming up quicker than you'd like (which it is). So, you count weeks, so that you can be lazier, longer.

I sit here now, with 4 weeks until my first real race of the season. And man, I gotta tell ya, the weeks of the off-season flew by. Flew. By. But that's NRSS for ya. You get so caught up in not racing, that the thought of getting up off of the couch to go train just sounds so...exhausting. Like, you know you should. But man, does it sound like a dumb idea.

Know what helps me? Looking at photos like this:

And one's like this:

And do ya know why? Because I know that in a few short weeks, I'll be toeing the line again with a bunch of guys who are gonna go out there and crush it. With guys who's sole purpose is to make everyone suffer. And man, I'll tell ya. That not only sounds terrifying, but it makes me want to get out there and race.

I think about looking around the peloton, cranking out the watts, watching for moves, keeping an eye on the pace, looking out for hazards, and judging my own efforts. Just thinking about it makes my heart rate pick up. Like, as potentially unprepared for race season as I am, it gets me excited. Then, suddenly, I'm eager to race and to train again.

But, ya know, what if I'm looking at this NRSS thing all wrong? What if, instead of NRSS being indicative of laziness caused by knowing you don't need to race soon, NRSS is what makes you want to race, even when you know that racing season is weeks, or even months, away? I'm not gonna lie. I've been watching race videos on YouTube. Stuff like this:

And this:

Every time I watch one of these, it makes me long for race season. I can feel adrenaline in my system, and I get restless. Like my legs and my body know what they need to do. They can see it happening on the screen. So why aren't they out there doing it, too? We should be. We need to be. It'll happen soon.

So, what do you guys think? Is NRSS more about what causes you to be lazy, and not care about training? Or is it all about that feeling you get when it's the off-season, and you want to race? Let me know what you guys think in the comments. Keep the rubber side up, and your skin off the ground.