I will admit it… I am behind.

Spring has sprung and I am very behind.

I am behind on where I wanted to be on the bike this time of year.  I am behind on my training.  I am behind on preparing for the riding season.

I’m just … behind.

It happens to all of us, I think, at one point or another.  Winter is, well, winter.  Cold, dark, dreary, cold. Did I say cold?  And while some of us still try to get out and ride in the winter months (hello, cyclocross and mountain biking and very short road rides), life sometimes gets in the way.  In my case, it was the perennial respiratory infection that hits every February like a Valentine’s gift from the world’s worst ex.  It stuck around… forever.  And right when I thought that was over, I did something profoundly silly and bought a house.

I was supposed to be training for races.

I was supposed to be riding these extra pounds off in preparation for a new race schedule, a new team, and a very busy six weeks between April 1, the first race of the New Jersey Time Trial Cup series, and mid-May when the schedule settled from every weekend to every few weeks.

This was going to be my year.  My fifth year of being on a bike and my first year of serious racing.

What am I doing instead?  Mowing my (new) lawn.  Installing a garage door opener.  Drinking beer and learning about baseball (I’m in Orioles territory now). Staring at mountains of boxes wondering when I am going to find my favorite cast iron frying pan.

What am I not doing?  Riding my bike.

I am behind, my friends.  Very behind in my grand plan for 2017.

But, just as winter sometimes intervenes and makes us slow down and be off the bike longer than we would like, life steps in and sometimes changes our plans.  And just as Spring has begun to arrive and beautiful days are motivating us to get outside, changing our habits and our mindsets, my grand plan for 2017, too, has changed.

I’ll be back on the bike this week and this year will be more of a training year and a “race when I want to race” year.  And I’m okay with that… I’m okay with starting over.  With changing my plans. With acknowledging that life sometimes throws us a curve ball.  And that’s the lesson that these last few beautiful Spring days have taught me – starting anew can be a challenge, but it can also be the biggest blessing in disguise you can hope to receive.

Because it’s never too late to change your plans and it’s never too late to get back on the bike.

Spring has sprung and I am not ready at all.  But I’ll get there.