The End is Nigh

Well another season has ended. Which of course means the bittersweet feelings of completion of another year and also the relief of being done with it. I'm very happy to be able to take a break and rest and do other things than ride a bike, and my body needs some R&R time. On the other hand, there's a routine you have and it's feels weird to not have to do it. I feel the same after the Tour De France finishes. For three weeks I follow the tour, and all the stories and it becomes a big part of my life. But the day after I wake up, and flip on the computer and I'm sad that I don't have that in my life. The end of the seasons is kinda like that. You get used to seeing people at each race and having a routine, you have a purpose, everything is geared towards one common goal. Now that that goal is gone, it takes a little bit to get used to. I'm not a bike racer anymore but just a civilian.

Looking back on this year, I can at least say it has been a good year for me. At the beginning of the year there were a lot of unknowns. I had joined a new team, and I had come off a pretty big injury. I knew I wanted to ride again, mainly because I got on my bike even against doctors orders, but I didn't know if I'd ever want to be competitive again. Well let me rephrase that, I knew I'd be competitive, but I didn't know if my injury would keep me from doing that. Those first few months on the bike were scary. My mind wouldn't let me take risks I normally would. Plus racing in a pack scared the crap out of me. It didn't help that it seemed that every race I entered I barely escaped someone else's crash. It really fried my nerves. It took me a while to mentally prepare myself to race again. In doing so I got out of shape and started skipping races to try and train more to get in shape. Which, of course, didn't work. In August I officially ended my road and mtb (one race) season and start prepping for cross.

Cyclocross was a breath of fresh air for me. I started actually following my training plan, and doing weekly skill practice and though my first race was a DNF I knew from that race that I was progressing and besides not being able to finish I was racing right and doing well. Then the second race I had a good race and actually felt racy again. I was fighting for position with George Gantner for a couple laps and having a blast and ended up coming in 10th. I knew I probably wouldn't be fighting for wins, I would have loved to but I knew this wasn't going to be that year. This would be a building year. After that I placed 18th in my third race and after that, the lowest position I got was 10th at states. I had a good streak of top tens, and I completed my goal of finishing in the top ten of my category, got a medal at states. So I can't say this wasn't a great year. And the icing on the cake, this was the first year I completed an entire season without a major injury!!!! So really can't complain about that.

Now I'll take a couple weeks, take a cruise down to Mexico and start planning for next year. The most important thing I need to do is enjoy taking a rest.