Looking Forward and Back

It's been a while since I've written a proper post (not just a training log), so I thought I'd reflect a little about how my season went last year and what I'm looking forward to this season. When I started racing last year, I didn't really have any goals, since I knew next to nothing about bike racing. I think my first goal was to race at least 25 times in my first year. Well, I didn't count too closely, but I think I raced at least 40 times last year, a number of those being stage races or track omniums that I counted as one race. So I think that was a success. As my season progressed, I made more goals for myself. First, it was to upgrade to Cat 3 - that ended up happening fairly quickly. My next goal was to make Cat 2, which I achieved in time to race in the Elite/U23 road race and crit at Elite Road Nationals, as well at the time trial. Having done that, I wasn't really sure what to do next, but then I decided I needed a coach to help bring order to my training (which was haphazard and inadequate) and set realistic goals. Dan Smith of SportVelo became my coach, and once again I had some goals: I wanted to compete at Track Nationals in the Individual Pursuit. I don't really remember how I figured that out as a goal, since I'd never done a pursuit before, but I guess it just sounded really cool - a short time trial on a fixed gear bike on a velodrome. Well, it turns out that I really really like the pursuit, and I had great races at both the NCNCA District Track Championships and at Elite Track Nationals. Overall, I'm really happy with the way my first year of bike racing turned out. There were a number of races where I probably could have done better, but they just helped identify my weaknesses so that I could work on them for this year.

I am very excited for the 2011 racing season. I'm racing with the Webcor/Alto Velo Bridge Team, and I think that all of our riders and staff are absolutely amazing. We've also got some great sponsors, with Webcor, Kaenon sunglasses, Patagonia, SportVelo, and Voler.

My goals for this year are a little bit vague, but I've got better ones at the start of this season that I did last year. Strangely enough, my number one goal for the year is the furthest in the future - I want to podium in the Individual Pursuit at Track Nationals (since I got 6th last year). More specifically, I'd like to break 3:50, since I only managed a PR of 4:01.3 last year. But Track Nationals is at the end of September, so in the meantime I've got some other goals: I want to upgrade to Cat 1 on the road. Although it's an important goal to me, I'm also a bit flexible on it - my real goal is to become a really good bike racer. If that means that I'm not the one finishing top 5 because I just gave my teammate a leadout to win the race, then I'll settle for that too. I'm still a bit new to the whole racing as a team thing, but I'm also really excited to race with and for my team. I'd also like to race more on the track, though I'm not sure how much time I'll be able to devote to it. Lastly, I want to PR at the Sattley time trial (and hopefully win in the U23 category).

Part of the reason I'm so excited for this season is that I feel like I'm so much more prepared than I was last year. My fitness is significantly better, and my bike handling skills and tactics are much improved. I'm looking forward to further improving my skills and tactics, as well as pushing the boundaries of my fitness. There are a couple of races that I'd really like to do well at, but really I'm looking forward to all of the racing this season.