WWJD?

Often I have trouble motivating myself to work out in the morning. These past few weeks with the added workload and late nights mixed in with the crappy weather we've been having has made morning workouts even harder if not impossible.

Yesterday when Sherwood asked if anyone wanted to do an 8AM ride this morning, I looked at the forecast and saw rain. Sitting in lab at midnight I had convinced myself that this wasn't a good idea. Following a wet ride home I toiled with the idea. For some reason the letters WWJD kept running through my head.

WWJD?

No! Not this guy!

Then who you ask? What other J's do I know. Although typically I take this next guys advice, turns out this J is also not my guide.

J is none other than Jens Voigt. The workhorse of the peloton.

Jens is probably my favorite cyclist. So much so that my friend Amy was making fun of me for having a man crush because I was talking so much about him. He is in no way the most exciting to watch, however, if someone told me he was in a breakaway I would definitely tune in to see the outcome. He probably won't win, but you know he will be putting on the hurt.

One notable quote about Jens Voigt I remember reading from David Millar's Tour de France diary. It was a conversation between David Millar and Robbie McEwen.

Robbie McEwen, phenomenal sprinter

David Millar, time trialist

Quote from David Millar:

"I found myself next to Robbie McEwen for a minute in the bunch, we exchanged pleasantries and that obviously led to the weather, which was incredibly windy and storm like.

RM: "I bet there isn't one guy racing today who woke up and looked out the window and thought, YES, YOU BEAUTY!"

ME: "Yep, this is shit..."

We both pause.

RM laughing: "Well actually, Jens probably did."

Then we both start laughing and say at exactly the same time,

RM + ME: "YEAH, HE DOES THAT EVERY DAY!"

RM laughing: "Animal."

ME laughing: "Freak."

That had us chuckling for a few more minutes and says so much about the man, the machine that is Jens Voigt."

Awesome!

So whenever I am in question of whether to ride or not, I always have to ask myself, What Would Jens Do? The answer, Always ride!

In case you wanted to know how H.C. you are and needed a reference, I've snatched a rating system from Cyclocosm.com to evaluate my Jens Factor (FYI don't google the word Hardcore images without safesearch on... YIKES!)

Todays ride comes out to a big fat ZERO on the Jens factor. It wasn't windy and was warmer than 4*C. Clearly I need to HTFU. But at least I was out there. Matt pointed out that Jens would have ridden more than 18km but I take what I can get, I've got a day job.

If ever you need inspiration while out there riding, just remember these words from Jens himself. When asked what he says when his legs are burning, one quick reply is all that was needed.

Hopefully we will see more people out to tomorrows ride than last week.