looking ahead

burn out, mental exhaustion, poor pre-race focus/prep, no mojo, self-doubt, whatever it was, it happened.

Time to move on. I feel somewhat turned around. Not to take away anything i wrote - it is pretty damn unadulterated. That said it could be worse. Did yall read what JP has been going through? That's solidly sad and messed up. Maybe, this is a temporary down turn. Having a poor race ain't the end of the world. I ain't getting paid for this. Heck the winner of our race only got $25 out of the deal. $25 for winning an open Masters race (technically it was a $50 bill, but then with an entry fee of ~$25, day off or almost that via bikereg, it is what it is). It isn't about the points (Masters are masters, categories are meaningless essentially, you are fast if you train or are genetically gifted). It is about racing.

Bad days, good days. They come and go. Learn and move on. Learn from both. Make a correction in the course and look towards the future. Like steering a ship, you can hold a steady course by watching the wake, but if you aren't looking ahead you'll crash and sink... it takes more skill to look a head and steer a straight course, more work. But it has to be done.

So the decreased attendance lately is bothering people. Why decreasing? Just the cold?

Could it be the increasing number of races on the calendar for a given day? Or is it the races down in the MidAtlantic pulling riders? Races around the country pulling people away from our region? We have a strong region but maybe many of the throngs travel to the biggest races in the country. Leaving the smaller races feeling the pinch of lower participants?

Maybe it is the changing race day schedule. Early season there were individual categories for most races. Now. It seems the promoters are sticking the earliest starts to the two largest fields. Cat 4 and C 3/4+. Ala Sterling and Farmington. Then when you add a third field (and not the smallest of fields either) the 55+ to the mix. And then ask the 55+ to go for a championship while trying to ride through both the 3/4+ and the 4 racers i dunno. That's a tough call for a 9am group.

Sterling has 128 racers pregistered for the 9am race, 31 for the 10am race, 57 at 11, 60 at 12, and then the last two UCI races don't count so much as they are elite/UCI men and women races.

Does that seem disproportionate? Rightfully so or not. It is odd. The 11am race should be considered an elite event as it is the 1/2/3 Masters race. the 12 is the 2/3 race...

For many of the 9am participants they can come, race, and go home and have a full day doing other stuff: watching the Patriots dismantle another team or playing with the kids or raking leaves or what ever. But, that is the big core of your spectators right there. They go, sure and then there is parking for the elites in prime locations. But no spectators for them.

Then there is the whole notion of starting the Cat 4 before the Cat 3/4+ and then making the 55+ start last. Pretty crazy. If it was me, i'd do it backwards. But then, maybe they have done it backwards and maybe it doesn't work doing it that way. I dunno. Why not put the lowest (traditional) turnout earliest?

Are the races i talk about the least the ones w/o any attendees? Or is the fact that i'm talking about something the reason other people are showing up?

There are two races this weekend. I'm only considering doing one of them. Baystate obviously. Yes i had a crappy day on the bike. But my wife said i looked good out there. Meaning, i've stopped looking bad on the bike when racing. That's a good start right? A good day at work is still a good day and it does rank higher than a bad day on the bike. But yes, you can't have good days without bad days or the good days cease to be good. I do seem to have better days when the 3/4+ race is its own race. Those races i can start aggressively and attack and hold on. The 1/2/3+ races i haven't been as aggressive in the start and it seems to someties translate into the rest of the race. Lowell's start wasn't sub par due to lack of aggression, it was due to the fact that my freaking left foot (ground foot) slipped and i botched the start. Had to play catch up. The affect maybe of the start wasn't during the race but afterwards. I'd not raced in knee warmers. Not sure what prompted me to start racing in them yesterday. But then, maybe if i'd kicked ass wearing them i'd have been glad i did. Experiment and learn. Right?

I've really only got 4 races left in the season. If you count Baystate up in Sterling. 4 left. 2 of those are at Goddard park here in RI. Baystate, MRC, verge finale. GCD is right though. If i don't race Sterling, i'll be worse off mentally than if i did. It would be a replay of Canton all over again i think. But then, if i had been racing at Canton maybe i wouldn't have dug as deep in Dayville to pull out a 4th place there. Who knows. Look forward. And yes, rethinking and rethinking is what i do too much. Too much thinking. Not enough turning the brain off and going as hard as i can towards the objective...

Okay - there - way too much introspection for one day... way too much...

During a visit to the mental asylum, a visitor asked the Director
how do you determine whether or not a patient should be institutionalized.

'Well,' said the Director, 'we fill up a bathtub, then we offer a
teaspoon, a teacup and a bucket to the patient and ask him or her
to empty the bathtub.'

'Oh, I understand,' said the visitor. 'A normal person would use the
bucket because it's bigger than the spoon or the teacup.'

'No.' said the Director, 'A normal person would pull the plug. Do
you want a bed near the window?' (thanks for the joke Lee)

-g