Off-Season 2009

The best time of year in Central Texas is Oct - Dec. Daily temps in the 70s, clear and sunny skies, dry air... and Cyclocross season. This will be my first year of racing Cyclocross, and I'm excited and trepidatious at the same time. Excited b/c it is something new and challenging - a different sport than road racing but utilizing and enhancing your road racing fitness. Trepidatious b/c I've only ever done 3 cyclocross races, and I finished dead last, or next to last, in all 3. My skills are non-existent. But you have to start somewhere and I'm hoping to just have fun getting my feet wet this year in the hopes of improving for the future.

Not quite sure what the off-season will entail this year. I leave that up to the coach. He knows his stuff and is also an avid cyclocross racer. I'm confident he'll make my entry into a new and unusual sport much less painful and with much more preparedness than it would be without him.

My fitness has progressed nicely this year under Adam's guidance. I'm not quite as fast as I want or need to be for regional Pro-1-2 category races, but I'm getting there. I have noticed substantial improvements in my endurance and speed this year, after having worked with Adam since only March. Its the little things that make the big difference: being able to sit in comfortably in races vs hanging on for dear life; being able to attack and counter attack confidently without fear of blowing up and getting dropped; the realization that, if I'm hurting, so are MOST of the other racers, b/c I've done this stuff week in and week out in training (a.k.a. added confidence).

I've gone from riding at the back and getting popped in the first 10 minutes of a crit, to being in the front, attacking, and finishing the race. Cut me some slack: I didn't really "race" for the past 4 years or so - I'm really rusty. Still a long way to go and lots of improvement needed (some results wouldn't hurt, either), but the progress is noticeable. I think after this off-season of having Adam manage my training and competing in 8 - 10 cyclocross races, I'll be ready to race for placings in 2010.