Nearing the End

The holidays are in swing and as I predicted I’m spending more time enjoying friends and family. Thanksgiving was fantastic. I was feeling a little burned out at work and needed a break. We spent time with my parents on Thanksgiving Day and then spent the weekend in the mountains with my wife’s family. While up at a cabin over the weekend we took all the kids sledding and tubing and enjoyed some adult beverages. We all had great fun and ate way too much, my wife even made a nice vegan dish for each thanksgiving meal to help keep things under control. In the end we came home tired and refreshed.

The holiday weekend was interrupted by the news of a local cyclist, Chuck Coyle, being busted for doping. I knew of Chuck, seen him at the races and had ridden with him at the Boulder Velodrome. I didn’t know him personally but it did hit home to know someone busted for doping. His response to the charge was, in my opinion, weak but it's crazy enough to make me think you can’t make this stuff up. Either way, it’s sad. Sad he was somehow involved and sad he’s now suspended from racing, the one thing he’s done his whole life. It must be like coming home from work to tell the wife you were fired for checking porn sites at work…. performance enhancing?

The days have gotten short and finding time to ride outside during the week is almost non-existent. I’ve been on the trainer a few times and have been running, but nothing serious. Just trying to remind my body I have a few races left but my fitness is dropping off and I’m starting to look forward to a change. I’ve started thinking about goals for next year as well as looking forward to getting in some time on my other bikes. It was always my intention to have a stronger middle of the season, in an effort score well in the point’s competition as well as work on upgrading to Cat 3. Both of those were successful.

Two weeks ago I race the Alpha CX #2 and the Cyclo-X races. Both were a lot of fun. I was coming back off a business meeting at sea level the week before so things didn’t go great but it was fun. Things I’ve noticed about the 3’s, everything is more competitive. Racers have similar abilities and speeds, unlike the 4’s were some racers just get blown out quickly. I’ve actually been surprised by the skills or lack of skills some of the racers have. They are crazy fast when things open up but I am certainly hanging with them or gaining time when things are technical or require some CX finesse. I’ll have to work on my flat out speed if I ever want to become competitive with this group.

This weekend is the Colorado CX Championships. I’m going to race the 35+ open on Saturday and SM 3 on Sunday. My goal is to enjoy this last major weekend of racing. The weather is looking dry and nice, too bad since I never did have a muddy race this year. Going forward, I’m not sure I’ll hit the three remaining races it will be a day of or day before decision.

Thanks for reading