Building and Rebuilding

In this sport, everything is about building and rebuilding in one way or another. When training, we are constantly breaking ourselves down with long hours in the saddle and hard, focused efforts in order to build ourselves up for our goals. Once those goals are passed us, whether we achieve them or not, the process starts anew, and that form we had often deteriorates before we build it up once more, often times higher than before. Build and rebuild. Those are two of the key principles in cycling, as well as in life, in my opinion.

In the past year, I have become intimately familiar with these principles and what it feels like to successfully implement them. Under the guidance of Roger, my coach and mentor, I put in more effort and time to training for my goals than ever before, and I definitely enjoyed the fruits of my labor. A big result at Battenkill, an upgrade to Cat 2, and simply enjoying every minute on my bike were amongst my greatest achievements. I learned a lot about myself and what works for me, and though I still have much to learn, I think I have a lot more figured out now than I did at this point last year.

As I said in my last post, before coming back to school I finished up a huge block of training. I had never before logged such hours in the saddle, and the work I did in those two weeks have me feeling truly confident about what I will be able to achieve this coming year. Without getting into my plans for the whole year, I will say that my most immediate goals are to have a dominant performance at the Cat 2 event at Battenkill in April and then to earn my Cat 1 upgrade by June, before Fitchburg. With school starting today, training is definitely not going to be easy, as I have a big course load with three courses for my major at the same time, but I know I can make it work. I will never let cycling get in the way of school, especially since I know that waiting until I am 22 to let it fully take over my life, at least for a while, will only make me stronger, but that does not mean that I can't still devote most of my remaining energies to the sport. And that is what I intend to do. Though I'll be hard at work studying, I'll be just as hard at work proving I belong where I recently found myself.

That brings me to my final topic of the day, which I alluded to the other day. After throwing my name around and reaching out to a few different people, I was offered an opportunity that, to be honest, was beyond my wildest dreams. Back in November, I was offered, and of course accepted, a spot in the Independent Fabrications Racing Team . I was, and am, truly thrilled to be on such a respected and accomplished team, with a group of riders that I know command serious respect and are proven performers. It is an awesome group of guys and I feel privileged to be counted among them. Now I just want to go out and prove that I belong, even if only to myself.

How does this tie into building and rebuilding? Well, there are certainly some deeper and more meaningful ways, but I'm going to leave you with a bit more of a material one. On my way back to school yesterday, I picked up my new steed from the IF factory. She's a shiny and beautiful IF SSR, finished up with my first ever set of Dura-ace components. At the moment, I'm just finishing the set-up, which should be done early next week. Not that there's anything wrong with Orbea, which I fully intend to keep until it dies, but this bike is SWEET. It's going to be an awesome machine, and I will lick it clean if I have to in order to keep it as beautiful as it is now. It's going to be a good year.