Chad's spot for various thoughts, musings, poetry, ideas and whatnot

Monday, October 27, 2003

Second to None

Well, the race is in the books and my recovery strategy seems to have worked. After a sketchy start (what else is new) I was able to put my power to use and climb my way to a second place finish in the series finale. It was good enough to give me a 0.5 point win in the GAP series after pay dirt points are taken into account. It's been a good season on the dirt. Out of eleven races I won three times, finished second twice and fifth three times. Excepting one DNF when I was leading a race, I never finished out of the top ten, even when things weren't going my way. I'm still trying to get the fact that I won the state mountain bike points series to sink in. The medal at the Georgia Games was enough but to add to it the series championship is pretty special. It's all part of the fairy tale season, I suppose.

What makes the experience worthwhile though are the friendships I've made with the other guys racing and their families. Dan, Tom, Mark, Todd, Ian, Mike, Jeff and Ladon have been great guys to compete with and great guys to get to know. I'm pretty sure none of the other race groups are planning to ride and spend time together after the season. We may be rivals on the course but we root for each other on and off the course. I wish all of my competative endeavors went this way. We helped each other out, worked on trails together, shared meals and beer, comiserated with and congradulated each other and laughed, a lot at the fact that a bunch of getting to the top of the hill guys were out racing our big kid toys. One thing I think we all liked is the fact that we took it to the 19-29 yr old men who never seemed to hold our wheels for very long.

I'm not sure where we'll all end up next year. Dan, Todd and I are all moving up to sport class along with Tom. I expect that next year we'll be struggling to place in the top ten as we pay our dues and learn our skills. I do know that we'll still hang together at the races, work together on the local trails and ride together for fun. There are already a couple of epic rides planned for the "On your left!" gang. If you're out riding on the trail in north or central Georgia and hear someone call that out, it may be us. Grab a wheel and hang on for the ride.

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Tuesday, October 21, 2003

Various Notes

Cycling Update

Well, I seem to be on the mend. The recovery week and the judicious training schedule I've set up seem to have done the trick in terms of getting me back to a more well-rested state. Last weekend I went and rode the final event course and felt strong throughout the ride including the killer, long climb at the end. I did three laps and felt like I could have done one or two more so that was good. I'm still trying to decide whether to take one more good look at the course this weekend. Knowledge is always good but do I want to spend four hours in the car to get that knowledge which will come from 2 hours of riding? Hmmmmm. Anyways, the days here are perfect right now with temps in the upper 70's and light winds. To all those suffering up north; neener, neener, neener.

Advertising

OK, I'm fed up now. I feel a rant coming on about this so be on the lookout in the next couple of days. The lovely wife and I were watching TV (non-cable) Sunday evening to wind down from a long weekend filled with fun and drama (literally). I must have seen three of four commercials that indicated that all those watching the advertisement were entitled to some luxury item such as a $30,000 a year car or an exotic vacation or some other similar thing. Argh! I had to use the "finger of scorn" several times to express my opinion on this. Let me be clear on my take on this: you and I are NOT entitled to any mode of transportation much less a car much less a $30K SUV of death and destruction. Get a bike. An expensive one is an order of magnitude less in terms of cost and a bunch more heallthy. Be forewarned, I feel a rant building.

Mother Teresa
Now for something positive here. I was pleased with the coverage of the beatification of Mother Teresa for the most part. I was really pleased to see that she now stands a good chance of emerging from the shadow of the other person who died at nearly the same time. Nothing against the former Princess of Wales, I suppose, but I was outraged when the media decided to go hog wild over her death in an orgy of sensationalism. They so far as went out to say that we were more affected by Diana's death because we related to her better. I'm not so sure which "we" the media was talking about but I struggle just as mightly dealing with the idea of royalty as I do with that of impending sainthood. I just don't have much context in which to place either. No, I think that more people were affected by Diana's death because the media never seemed to let her and the story of her life be out of the media spotlight. Now, six years later, it seems that people are seeing the truth that the tiny Albanian woman had a much deeper and more profound effect on this world than any troubled member of the British royal family has ever had. Again, that is not to diminish Diana or the good she did in her life. Still, the work of Mother Teresa is among the most amazing stories of the 20th century. There should be no one who stands in the way of the recognition of what Christ has done through His willing and humble instrument.

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Monday, October 06, 2003

Nicked Up

In football terms, the idea of being "nicked up" means that you've got a bunch of nagging little injuries that don't keep you from playing but hinder your ability to perform at your best. Over the last five or so weeks I've gotten pretty nicked up as a cyclist. It started in Savannah with the century there. I rode hard on a very hot day and I think I began to take a lot out of myself. Later that week I went to Camp Thunder for a training ride on the Man 'O War and crashed several times. Big hematoma on the backside, lots of blood on the legs and all the rest. On that Saturday I was at Carter's Lake for a GAP series race and I crashed about six times trying to descend (something I'm not too good at). More blood, more sore muscles. I try to spend some time recovering with slow rides the next week but that weekend was the Barnesville Omnium. Three road races in one weekend. I won the time trial and took sixth in the road race but got shelled in the crit. I took sixth in the omnium which was great for my first Cat 4 race but I was getting tired. The following weekend I raced my MTB in Savannah (I know, I know-how do you have a mountain bike race in Savannah). I was strong but on the first lap I took a thorn in my front tire and it started going soft on me. I endoed four times during the race on my way to finishing sixth. Sigh. Last week I decided it was time to spin and heal. The whole week was given over to recover rides. I did great until Friday were I was doing a few sprints to get ready for the GAP race in Gainesville this last weekend. I shifted at the wrong time and threw my chain. That, in turn, threw me. Fortunately I landed at 25 mph on my back in the grass. No real damage done but I did ring my bell a bit and strained muscles in my neck. Saturday I went to G-ville, raced and because of a terrible start, again finished fifth. I felt great on the ride but I couldn't get through traffic fast enough to make up the time I lost at the start.

A month of racing and race training have taken their toll. I'm tired all the time and I'm making more mistakes than I should. My legs are all scratched up and a lot of different muscles hurt in a lot of different places. Still though, I had to ride through the little things. I may not have finished as well as I had hoped in a lot of my races, but I did finish each one and I'm still holding a slim lead in the overall standings for the GAP series. It will all come down to a last race at the end of this month. Win or lose, I can be pleased that I hung in there and fought it out through the entire month.

Life is like that too. Sometimes I don't always do the best I can do, but the important thing is to hang in there. Sometimes in life we get nicked up and beaten down a little bit. A lot of people decide at that moment that whatever it is they're trying to achieve is not worth it and give up. What they really need to do is weather the storm and get to a point where they can get some recovery time. Then they heal and learn and start training for the next test and challenge.

That's what the next three weeks are for me. Recovery this week and then training to peak. I want to be at my best form for this last race of the season. I may not win but it won't be because I gave up. In any case, I plan to bring my A games to the Heritage Farms finale on Sept 26. I'll have recovered from my bumps and bruises and I'll have ramped up my fitness one last time for the season. I'll be ready and rested, toned and trained. I will have practiced descending until I can do it with some confidence and I'll work on getting better on my starts so I don't have to fight my way through half the field on narrow single track or up rooted climbs. I'll be ready to compete and to challenge.

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