Ready / Not Ready

3 weeks until Pantani.  At this point, you're probably either ready or you're not.

Ready, like riding 100 gravel miles in 20 degree weather at Gravelocity, is a pretty obvious state of being.  I've never done that route, mind you, but my understanding is that it makes Pantani look like Square Dance night at the Elks lodge.  Point being that when you're ready, you know.

Or alternatively, you're not ready, like...

Say anything.  Drink everything.  

There's very little middle ground actually.  Thinking you're maybe ready, just maybe, though not being quite sure, I can assure you, is the same as not being ready.  A few intervals between now and Feb 11th won't really help.

And, it's time we face it, ready sucks anyway.  Ready is a ton of work.  And ready is fragile - like when you get sick, or break a chain, or burn out, or get called into work, or any number of other things - and ready becomes not ready in an instant.

The upside of not ready, though inconvenient when it comes to actually climbing brokenback 3 hours into Pantani, is that it is actually a wonderfully freeing sense of self.  Everything except for brokenback comes easier when you're simply not ready and you know it.  For example, when faced with the decision of whether or not to drink that Bud Lite that sat in your car for 6 months after a near-riot broke out at Pantani2017 when a faulty tap rendered all of the real beer worthless, the answer is an enthusiastic, why the hell not?

In the world we live in today, where truth is now measured on a curve, and the concept of "fact" is a thing that people used to do but don't anymore, being ready doesn't matter anymore.

Take Pantani Course Record holder, B-slow, who, when pressed for advice that he'd give Average Joe Pantani Racer 3 weeks from glory, could come up with nothing.  NOTHING.

Similarly, Marky Mark, like the Yoda of questionable beer selection (only with better grammar), when pressed on the question of whether Bud Lite ferments if you leave it in the sun for too long, did not know.

These men are professionals.  Craftsmen.  Guys who should reasonably be able to answer basic questions about their trades.  And yet...being and nothingness.  That's why I'm stepping in here to set the record straight.

Fake Newsflash: Bud Lite Ferments.  (I don't actually know if that's true.)
But as a metaphor for fitness, it's spot on.
And we drink it anyway, don't we?

Look it up, up, up.