Long Rides are Like a Nice Stretch

Yesterday I finally had the chance to get out for an extended period of time on my road bike. I didn't leave the house until 11 am and had no where to be afterwards and no where to go in between.
Such luxury! Like a nice looong comfy stretch. I rode a nice happy 50 mile loopty out to Danville Peets. Hung out at Peets with all the other cyclists for a while and back I went.
So now I guess I've started my base training. Which means I guess I need to decide what to do between now and next cross season. Which mtb races to do and maybe actually train? Train? Should I train?
I've been thinking about this a lot lately. New Years resolutions and such. But I'm not good at training.

I've tried to train with a heart rate monitor. I've tried to train with a power tap. I've tried to follow a training schedule. I hired a coach once for a road racing season. It all made me so cranky. I felt like my life was so heavily schedulized already; between working and having kids who play soccer and ballet and band and drama and homework and making dinners and oh yeah, morgan's training schedule.
I got irritable trying to stay on it; writing all my numbers down, days riding, time spent, miles logged, power produced, heart rate acheived, feelings felt.
So I train like I balance our checkbook. I know in general what's in there. What we've deposited so far, what I can take out, what bills to pay. Sometimes we have a little excess, sometimes we're a little short but I have a good feeling for where we are. But we could do a lot better if I kept better track, if I were more attentive, if I really worked hard at it. Just like if I trained.