Caution: This post is going to be a little whiny due to the subject matter. I apologize to readers in advance since I know the beginning of my last post was annoyingly self-pitying. However, I feel the need to purge myself of this garbage and lay bare my shame for everyone to see so I can move forward.
Cyclocross is my favorite kind of racing. That should be no secret to anyone who reads this blog fairly regularly. Cross was the first type of bike racing I ever accomplished, and even though I was not good at it, it was the thing that finally gave me the courage to enter my first mountain bike after years of talking about it. I thought if I could race cross, I could do anything.
If all this is true, tell me why, for the second year in a row, I have lost much of my fitness by the time cross season rolls around. My first year of racing cross I was just sort of messing around and I actually did much better than last year. Now I find myself ready to race cross starting tonight and once again, not ready. Despite all the plans I made for myself at the end of last year, I am not where I want to be for cross.
Last mountain bike season started out okay, but I had virtually stopped riding by the time cross started. For most of cross season, literally the only time I was riding was during the races. My finishes reflected that, obviously. I still had fun, but I definitely questioned my strategy. This mountain bike season started out phenomenally. I had gained tons of fitness over the winter and I was pumped—so much so that I took 20 minutes off my time at Yankee. Still, here I am beginning cross season in far worse shape than I began mountain bike racing season.
My goal for this cross season was to finish every race in the top half of the C class. I don't know if that's possible now or not. Still, I can't do anything about what I did (or didn't do) in the past several weeks. All I can do is get my butt on that bike in between races this year. And for tonight, I can get out there and ride hard and hope for the best. Wish me luck!
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3 comments:
Andrea, I feel your pain. I am doing cross for the first time this year and cross practice just about killed me. There is such a difference between mtb races and cross. For me it is almost like starting from scratch.
Hey, you can enjoy the suffering with me. I am at a very unusual state of (non)fitness this fall. Gotta start the return somewhere, right?
See you this eve at the kick off race???
Great to see you out there today (as it turned out, I was way too tired to get there Friday eve).
today? HOT day for CX. Fun as all get out though!!!
You going to come up to Ithaca for JBs race?
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