NO REST FOR THE WICKED RACHEL GUTISH

ride or lift weights, while my Dad — the absolute saint that he is — uses this time to do most of the mechanical work. Then we drive back to the house (or cabin, or shed, or camper, or parking spot for the van) we’ve rented for the month. We eat dinner, and as a reward I get to read a book in bed for an hour or so, though I usually only get a few pages deep before I’m dead to the world. I take weekends off because public riding areas tend to become zoos filled with side-by-sides and chaos, and that’s when I’ll shop for groceries and do laundry…the usual work of just being alive.

The beginning of the training month is brutal, as going from basically not touching a motorcycle since November, to hours of riding and training, can be pretty painful. But by the end of January my body will have adjusted to the demands I’ve placed on it, and I’ll be ready just in time for the first rounds of the U.S. Sprint Enduro and NEPG series in early February. As Cage the Elephant puts it, “Ain’t no rest for the wicked.”

I suppose…But to be honest, I’m happier once the “off” (non-Florida) part of the off season is over. You’d think it’d be the opposite…just chill and rest for what’s always a grueling season. But down there my only job, and the only thing in my life that really matters, is training. Being a pro racer means living on a thin margin, and I work seasonal jobs for extra money (40 hours a week at an Amazon warehouse last year, and a hodgepodge of pizza delivery, general labor and substitute teaching this year), but once in Florida I don’t worry about much beyond the next 30-minute training moto. I find my Zen in physical suffering and intense focus. This is the time of year I’m most at peace.

The best part, though, is the optimism I feel crossing the Florida state line. The season is so fresh and full of promise that I can almost taste it in the air and see it in the sunrise on day one of my southern trek.

Everyone starts out with zero points. Lady Luck and my own shortcomings have yet to kick me in the teeth. Every year as I steer the van south I truly believe that maybe, just maybe, this will finally be my year.

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