CX Season Goals

I'm a big believer in the value of goals. I like to have things to strive for and most importantly, remember what I'm working for when the going gets tough. Sometimes, just like the tag line on this blog says, we set completely unrealistic goals and then get frustrated when we fall short.

Three years ago I raced my first cross race. It was ugly. I'll spare you most of the details but I dropped my chain 17 times (yep, I counted) and was lapped twice. It was probably the most fun I'd had on a bike in a long, long time. After that race I immediately made some changes to the bike, not least of course, to prevent the chain from falling off, and raced again the next weekend, and the next weekend, and so on and so forth.

Since that initial year though I've done a terrible job of managing my motivation and fitness through late summer. I always found myself burned out and needing a rest from the road and then all of sudden it was late September and I hadn't done anything to get prepared for CX season. This left me feeling flat and exhausted and not willing to spend my hard earned dollars on entry fees when I could take a beating for free if I really wanted to.

This season I somehow managed to remember that CX season was on the horizon. I was approved the purchase of an aluminum CX bike with working shifters which, in theory, should make a huge difference in my racing. I find myself coming into this season mentally and physically prepared, at least as much as I can be. I'm ready to race and I'm excited to get in as many races as I can given life's commitments (there is a baby set to be born any day now).

So with all of that in mind I decided to write out some goals for CX season. Realistic goals that I think I can stick to but most importantly use to define success. Winning bike races is hard. If 100+ guys show up to an event only 1 guy wins. It doesn't happen very often for a variety of reasons and because of that I'm going to no longer use "win" as a goal. If all goes well, hopefully I can find myself in that hunt and make that happen. You can't control what other people do in a race, but you can keep control of what you do and so my goals are written from that perspective.

Goals:

1) Ride as hard as I can for the entire race.
2) Improve technically.
3) Have fun.
4) Race.

If at the end of every race I can look back and say I did those 4 things, maybe I'll get lucky enough to snag a result or two.