Thursday, September 3, 2009

Good Times and Season Recap

Jeez, why so serious?
Bringing the hurt.


Well, after a pretty lame month of August I finally got myself to some races! Sadly, the blood offerings I made to the goathead gods haven't done the trick, and I still managed to flat at the Winters road race. Smarter this time, however, I brought a tube and a pump, so I fixed it and finished my race. DFL, but better than DNF. Along the way I rode and chatted with Ruth Winder, who also flatted, and it was nice to have someone to ride with. Turns out a little help goes a long way, too, because the next day, at Vacaville, she and I worked together a bit, tried to get away, and when that didn't work she tried to give me a lead-out. Unfortunately my body/brain seem to shut down when I see 200m to go and I was no where to be found. She, on the other hand, won the race when she didn't see me coming around her, so it all worked out. I also won a bottle of Cycles Gladiator win for being the Most Aggressive rider. Seriously, I attacked on lap one, lap two, lap . . . I attacked a lot. I spent a lot of time off the front, but it was a bit to windy to really make anything stick. I made it a hard race from the get-go, and whittled down the field so that when I lost the sprint, I still came in 11th. Gotta figure out the sprinting thing . . . next season. But the whole point of this is, I had a really fun end to the season. I don't feel like I lost any fitness with my whole "11-stitches-in-my-knee-gotta-take-it-easy" week.

Which, following a minor infection, antibiotics, and dissolvable stitches that wouldn't dissolve, is healing up quite nicely thank you very much. I have a large semi-permanent bump on the front of my knee that makes kneeling yoga poses really painful, and I can't do girly push ups anymore, but as long as I can push the pedals I'm happy.
Soooo . . . how to wrap up the 2009 road season in a nice little package with a cute little bow? I had some good races, some bad races, and a whole lot of good races with unsatisfying endings. I had some one truly great race, courtesy of an even greater teammate. I've trained harder, and more, and with greater focus this year than ever before. Actually, I don't think I ever really "trained" before this year. I rode my bike, sometimes hard, but nothing about it was really training. And I still love it! After completing my hard intervals I feel like I've just won a race. Which leads me to what I really am happy that I learned this year: my true competition is myself. Some people will be faster than me, but sometimes they'll be slower. Some people have more natural talent, more time to train, more support, and some people have less. Ultimately it's a race to see how hard I can push myself, how smart I can be, how resilient I am. If I win a race along the way, so much the better, but even if I'm stuck as a mid-pack cat 3 for the rest of my life, I'll still keep pushing. I don't think I will be, I certainly hope I won't! In some ways having a rough last month has been good for me (hooray for the silver lining!). I seriously struggled with my motivation, my optimism, and my desire, but I've come out of it stronger, more dedicated, and more committed to enjoying every minute I spend on my bike. The more painful the funner. Which is good! Since cyclocross is freakin' painful.

2 comments:

X Bunny said...

enjoy your well-earned bottle of wine!!

Kimberly (aka. DrKim) said...

congrats on a successful season. I came to the same realization as you did this season...and as soon as I did, and just decided to have fun with it, won my final 2 crits of the season! Your knee looks gnarly....way to conquer that and have some great times on the bike. Maybe I'll see you at some races next season.