Motivate Yourself for 2026 Thread

ebarker9 said:
-We're doing a Hawaii trip in April and I'm going to do the climb up Haleakala with an arbitrary goal of 5 hours. Climbing on the road is probably my biggest strength on a bike so I'm looking forward to it, but this is obviously a unique thing so we'll see how it goes.
-Continue getting faster and slightly lighter. I've been semi consistent on the TrainerRoad stuff for around 3 years and I'm up ~30W since I got back into it, but still down probably around 20W from my peak just over a decade ago. I was also something like 20lb lighter then, but I'm 5'11 and 45 years old and I don't really want to be 142lb at this point. My target is more in the 155lb range which I think is feasible and people won't be suspecting that I have a terminal illness at that weight.
-Hitting the Big Sugar/Little Sugar combo. I was supposed to do it this year with @Cassinonorth but some ridiculous health BS following a minor crash in July ruled me out.
-Hit up a few XC/endurance/maybe enduro events through the year
-Do a DH trip or two
-Spend more time doing trail building and maintenance
-Get out to a few more of the JORBA rides/events
-I set the same goal every year (but I really mean it this time!), which is to progress my technical riding. I've done a few riding clinics and continue to work on stuff, but there are areas where I am...not good. I struggle to keep momentum in some of the rockier stuff, avoid terrain and features within my ability level and have settled for rolling over jumps and going around drops for close to two decades at Mt Creek. It's not getting any better with age so it feels increasingly like now or never.
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It seems like a good time to update this. Winter training was far from perfect but watts are up by around 20 and weight is down 10-12lb.

Haleakala happened. The time was not great (I have a long list of excuses) but the overall experience was. There's also nothing better to convince you that you need to do more stretching than a 35 mile continuous descent in the drops.

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My wife ran the route starting at the same time. 35 miles and 10k feet in something like 8:20. She's registering it as a FKT and, as the first to document it, she'll have the record at least for a bit. I got to the top, rode down, then drove back up to pick her up. It was a long, crazy, amazing day. I also did the West Maui loop which is probably the best road ride I've ever done.

We have a little more vacation then it's mountain bike/downhill season and training for Mt Washington. Oh, and ordering some components for the Mt Washington bike which is definitely the best part.
 
ebarker9 said:
It seems like a good time to update this. Winter training was far from perfect but watts are up by around 20 and weight is down 10-12lb.

Haleakala happened. The time was not great (I have a long list of excuses) but the overall experience was. There's also nothing better to convince you that you need to do more stretching than a 35 mile continuous descent in the drops.

View attachment 280373

My wife ran the route starting at the same time. 35 miles and 10k feet in something like 8:20. She's registering it as a FKT and, as the first to document it, she'll have the record at least for a bit. I got to the top, rode down, then drove back up to pick her up. It was a long, crazy, amazing day. I also did the West Maui loop which is probably the best road ride I've ever done.

We have a little more vacation then it's mountain bike/downhill season and training for Mt Washington. Oh, and ordering some components for the Mt Washington bike which is definitely the best part.
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Super Duper, congrats! Are you still in Maui? Did you get a chance to ride the Hana Highway and visit the Black Sand Beach (Wai’anapanapa State Park) and Red Sand Beach?
 
ebarker9 said:
Oh, and ordering some components for the Mt Washington bike which is definitely the best part.
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This is one application for which the current wide-range gearing options are a genuine improvement over the “old days”.

I did Mt. Washington in 1999 and 2000. We all put mountain bike cranks on our road bikes for the event back then. 🙄
 
serviceguy said:
Super Duper, congrats! Are you still in Maui? Did you get a chance to ride the Hana Highway and visit the Black Sand Beach (Wai’anapanapa State Park) and Red Sand Beach?
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Flying back to Oahu today. Didn't get a chance to do either of those unfortunately. We had three full days plus the travel day on either end. We got to various beaches, saw some sea turtles, hiked to some waterfalls, the two rides and ate some great food.

ChrisG said:
This is one application for which the current wide-range gearing options are a genuine improvement over the “old days”.

I did Mt. Washington in 1999 and 2000. We all put mountain bike cranks on our road bikes for the event back then. 🙄
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Seems like I can run an 11 speed xt cassette with the long cage 11 speed ultegra di2 rear derailleur and will go to something like a 32 single front ring. I'm not worried about being under geared, lol.
 
ebarker9 said:
It seems like a good time to update this. Winter training was far from perfect but watts are up by around 20 and weight is down 10-12lb.

Haleakala happened. The time was not great (I have a long list of excuses) but the overall experience was. There's also nothing better to convince you that you need to do more stretching than a 35 mile continuous descent in the drops.

View attachment 280373

My wife ran the route starting at the same time. 35 miles and 10k feet in something like 8:20. She's registering it as a FKT and, as the first to document it, she'll have the record at least for a bit. I got to the top, rode down, then drove back up to pick her up. It was a long, crazy, amazing day. I also did the West Maui loop which is probably the best road ride I've ever done.

We have a little more vacation then it's mountain bike/downhill season and training for Mt Washington. Oh, and ordering some components for the Mt Washington bike which is definitely the best part.
Click to expand...

Dude that's awesome. What a great way to divide and concur a day full of physical achievement. Congrats to your wife!!
 
ebarker9 said:
It seems like a good time to update this. Winter training was far from perfect but watts are up by around 20 and weight is down 10-12lb.

Haleakala happened. The time was not great (I have a long list of excuses) but the overall experience was. There's also nothing better to convince you that you need to do more stretching than a 35 mile continuous descent in the drops.

View attachment 280373

My wife ran the route starting at the same time. 35 miles and 10k feet in something like 8:20. She's registering it as a FKT and, as the first to document it, she'll have the record at least for a bit. I got to the top, rode down, then drove back up to pick her up. It was a long, crazy, amazing day. I also did the West Maui loop which is probably the best road ride I've ever done.

We have a little more vacation then it's mountain bike/downhill season and training for Mt Washington. Oh, and ordering some components for the Mt Washington bike which is definitely the best part.
Click to expand...
Nice work! I always wanted to do that ride one day. Thats a hell of a climb! I rented a mtb from a shop in town and rode down from the top on all of these "secret" trails so I was told....god that was so cool.
 
UtahJoe said:
Nice work! I always wanted to do that ride one day. Thats a hell of a climb! I rented a mtb from a shop in town and rode down from the top on all of these "secret" trails so I was told....god that was so cool.
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Thanks! I didn't even look into mountain biking because I knew I'd go crazy trying to cram too much into a few days, but I can only imagine the riding would be incredible. Not sure I'll ever get back to Maui but that would absolutely be on the list if I did.
 
ebarker9 said:
It seems like a good time to update this. Winter training was far from perfect but watts are up by around 20 and weight is down 10-12lb.

Haleakala happened. The time was not great (I have a long list of excuses) but the overall experience was. There's also nothing better to convince you that you need to do more stretching than a 35 mile continuous descent in the drops.

View attachment 280373

My wife ran the route starting at the same time. 35 miles and 10k feet in something like 8:20. She's registering it as a FKT and, as the first to document it, she'll have the record at least for a bit. I got to the top, rode down, then drove back up to pick her up. It was a long, crazy, amazing day. I also did the West Maui loop which is probably the best road ride I've ever done.

We have a little more vacation then it's mountain bike/downhill season and training for Mt Washington. Oh, and ordering some components for the Mt Washington bike which is definitely the best part.
Click to expand...
totally incredible way to make it happen. and your wife running it too! wow also a great accomplishment! congrats.
 
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