Athlete Blogs
July 4th, 2009Where did the buzz go!??!
Post nationals wrap up...we had a great great day wednesday. I can't emphasis enough how much doing a full TT dry run a week earlier helped. I was relaxed, confident, flowing through the motions during my setup, warmup, race. During the warmup, at 90 seconds in it hurt alot, that is when alot of guys will get scared and shut it down, fearing they will jeapardize the race result. Nope, push through.Now this is a big one - during the race, first 90 seconds for me are really really hard. I'm not in superman land like most folks starting really hard and feeling amazing - I usually hurt real bad at the start. I was talking to my team director (aka kristy) about how good it feels the second you cross the line, how the pain is washed away and replaced with intense joy. She said, listen, remember that feeling, think about it all race. It worked so well, got me through the rough parts of the race. Could i have gone faster if I had done this that or the other? NO. I went as fast as I could. I know everything I have to do, most of us do. Unless I purposely did not try to do them, I went as fast as I could. No excuses that one other guy on the day was 13 seconds faster (lower age group). 13 seconds might as well have been 10 minutes. Now I know how a guy must feel when I put 2 min into him.
The good thing is that guy is in my group next year, so I have to bring more power, more focus, lower drag with me next year. 100% focus.
We went out to a really nice dinner that night to celebrate with one of my all time favorite clients. That night I was so wired I could not sleep. Up at 3AM. Wired. I took a nice ride on my TT bike that morning before we left and felt really good, did some hard efforts and then we packed it up, drive the 525 miles home.
I started getting sniffles, congestion yesterday - and it's still around today. No fever, no aches, good energy, just stopped up. I'm usually pretty clear with my guys - fever, really sick, no ride. none. But I'm on the edge - it's the 4th, super nice weather and there is a fun charity ride today, I get to ride with some clients and enjoy the weather. Plus, what better day to be patriotic and wear the new jersey.
Training wise, I'm not taking a big break, I just came off a long taper, went from a CTL of 100 to 90 which was spot on. Now i'm going to build back up for the rest of the season, racing some crit series, some big NRC crits and maybe a century or two.
The last two years, I found myself lost and let down after winning and hitting my #1 goal of the year - this year, I knew what to expect, so not so bad. It can be really hard for guys to focus, re-evaluate goals mid season and change course. It's important to talk to you coach about such things and get on a path that takes you were you want to go.
Time for coffee and gluten free hot cereal (not totally paleo but good)
cheers,
Pete
