With the new year quickly approaching, I have decided to take a look back at this last season, and reflect on it....If I was going to grade my season I would give it an incomplete. I started to late, and ended way to early than I had anticipated. My main goal for the season was to be in top form for the US Mountain Biking Nationals that took place in my good old backyard in Bend, Oregon in September, and then bring that form into my first real season of cross. Part of the plan was to start training way later than usual because of this, and well it turned out to be not such a bright idea after all...
By the end of July after I had completed the Cascade Cycling Classic my training became rather sporadic, and unstructured. So when Marathon Nationals came rolling into town I was severely unprepared, and I'm the type of person who if I'm not ready for a race of that caliber I would rather skip it, and cut my losses.
I did learn a valuable lesson from all this, and that is to prioritize for multiple peaks in the season rather than one main goal event, which is exactly what I will be doing for next season. The plan as of right now is for me to peak in time for MTB XC Nationals in Sun Valley Idaho in July, and carry that peak into another goal race for 2012 in the Cascade Cycling Classic that takes place a week later in my hometown. Then begin building for another peak for cyclocross. (I will have another blog post highlighting my racing schedule in more detail soon) So yet again I will be a jack of all trades cyclist dabbling in road, mountain, and cyclocross.
The funny thing about taking this approach is, I am in kind of a middle ground with my riding right now. Basically riding hard when I feel like it, and riding however much I feel like it for the given day. I am still keeping some high intensity stuff thrown in there to ensure I don't lose to much of what I have gained this year, but the preparation for next season just so happens to start on the first week of the new year. What are the odds of that? And you know what? I'm super excited about it to, which is something I can't say I felt about this season, and part of the reasoning behind that is I had someone amazing in my life, but things went south, and needless to say she is no longer in my life anymore, she knows who she is...But ya know what? In a weird type of way it's only adding fuel to the fire that burns inside be to accomplish what I want in my life. Mainly what I want to accomplish in cycling, and this year is going to be my year because of that fire that's making me chomp at the bit to start working hard in preparation for next season. If I had to sum up how I'm feeling about this next year it would be this....
"This is a new me, on a new team, with a new plan."
and on that note it's time to wrap it up
-Austin Line
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