New Years Resolution

I ended up 19th at Military Worlds in Ireland. There was around 40ish guys left, and it ended in a field sprint. I hate field sprints.

The race was pretty controlled, mostly by the Germans, Slovenians and Belgians. Myself and Ian Holt (on the US team) got in some quality breaks, but it just wasn't happening.

The US was represented in every break, but the problem was the Germans were too, and they weren't working - for good reason, they knew they could sprint and ended up sweeping the podium 1,2,3!

I tried to jump the field with 5 K to go, but as I was flying by on the left, the field shifted left and I locked up my rear wheel fish tailing with no where to go. I did not go down, but that woke me up, and I found myself at the beck of the strung out field.

I slowly clawed my way back up, looking for Ian (the only other US rider left). When we came back into town, the roads got way narrow and I made up tons of places weaving around crashing riders. It was exciting and terrifying.

It reminded me of the level of an NRC race because when you are off the front, you have to just drill it to stay away, and the attacks never stop. What a great finally to the end of a pretty good season. I want to race in Europe again.

I know it is not the new year, but I plan on starting my resolutions now. I am taking a break, and when I start again, it will be with the focus of next year.

I seriously need to start stretching. I see Russ doing it, and other quality riders doing it - but what really makes me want to start is now that I am not training really hard I find when I am just sitting, my muscles start tightening. I pulled out the old 80's Stretching Book, and it seems to alleviate the tension.

My other resolution will probably put several gummy and candy factories out of business. Starting 2 days ago, I am going to try to fuel myself with quality. In general, I think I eat pretty well; I juice, eat local produce, get plenty of carbs and proteins. It's the extras.

Goodbye sweet and sour gummy bears. It's not you, it's me.
Goodbye gummy worms. I think the gummy bears knew about us anyway.
I am going to miss you black and red licorice.
I am going to miss you too JuJu Fruit.
I always loved you Swedish Fish, even when you weren't the real thing.
Chocolate, we can't even go there. (Don't worry chocolate, we'll still meet in the occasional Mocha)

Oh yeah, I am not giving up coffee and wine. I am sure there are great arguments to keep these indulgences, and just knowing there may be arguments out there is enough for me.

So, for a couple of weeks, I am not riding at all. I am going to try not to do anything physical - just rest, and plan out long training rides for base miles - and plan out how I can possibly get the time off work to get these base miles in (starting late October).

I hope next year is my year.