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July 24, 2005
Tour de France Over - Feeling like retirement
As the Tour de France ends and Lance wins his seventh Tour he's headed into retirement from cycle racing and I'm feeling a little bit like I've already retired, before I've even raced in a real race. Well, I've done time trials, but that's not the same as a road race or criterium. It's been exactly one year now since I was introduced to the bike racing crowd: http://blog.lib.umn.edu/carl1236/dailyspirit/003379.html
Even if I've gotten in pretty good shape, I don't feel like I'm capable yet of staying in a road race or criterium. There is no such thing in the cycle-racing world as a 'beginner's race' They have CAT 4/5 races, but these seem all too fast for my conditioning. So a year after I thought about doing bike racing I'm feeling a little like I've already retired from it. Haha, I'm old enough that many people my age have already quit before I even started. But that's not the point. Now my plans have to change and I have to refocus. I'm planning on trying Triathalons next year and then someday maybe I'll go back to road racing. Triathalons seem more like time trials than group road racing. These are individual events and have a wider range of people at different fitness levels participating. My main fear with cycle racing has been getting in the way of those who are faster, and then being yanked from the race for being too slow. My fitness level is better than it was a year ago, but not quite up to the level of these CAT 4/5 races.
I don't know what I'll do about this feeling yet, but I'll keep working on my fitness level as I commute and ride everywhere on my bike. Like the Tour de France final stage, after a year of working so hard, this feels a little anti-climactic.
Posted by carl1236 at July 24, 2005 9:41 AM | Cycle Racing
Comments
Hi,
I didn't figure out what is your name even I read with joy about your blogging.
Your sharing is very inspiring. I love it.
Would you mind to share more about your lanuguage learning experiecne?
Cliff Kwok
Hong Kong
Posted by: Cliff Kwok at July 25, 2005 10:25 AM
Hi,
I didn't figure out what is your name even I read with joy about your blogging.
Your sharing is very inspiring. I love it.
Would you mind to share more about your lanuguage learning experiecne?
Cliff Kwok
Hong Kong
Posted by: Cliff Kwok at July 25, 2005 10:26 AM
Hi Cliff,
Thanks for your nice comments. I appreciate it. If you didn't see it in some of my replies, my name is John.
About my language learning experiences: I'm studying linguistics and have been working on learning several languages, some more successfully than others. You can click on my categories to read previous posts about language learning.
John
Posted by: John at July 25, 2005 5:54 PM
John, what I've learned from my limited racing experience (2 time trials, a road race and a crit) and from riding with lots of different people is that you only get faster by challenging yourself to get out there and ride with other people and race against people who are faster than you. This results in some crappy race placings at first, but someone has to be last, right? And I say this who is almost always next to last, so I know what I'm talking about :) I was 6th in the Northfield Crit but I think I won my place on a technicality.
Posted by: sascha at August 3, 2005 2:49 PM
Thanks for the encouragement and words of advice Sasche! I know you are right. That's usually the attitude I have, and certainly the attitude I came into this with, but sometimes it's hard to tell the difference between being pragmatic and being self-defeating. I guess it's not a sharp distinction and it's easy to call 'giving up' by another name, i.e. not yet capable. But you are right. This past year I have made the most progress by riding with faster riders, and sometimes being dropped, then trying not to get dropped again.
I think I've never given myself permission to get dropped from a race, or even that this happened on a regular bases with other racers. I have had the mentality that I needed to be capable of hanging in the peleton for the entire race to be able to try the race. And judging by some of the training rides and speeds I know I'm capable of for any duration, I didn't think I was ready. But I am going to try the Beginner's race this Sunday.
About the Triathlons: I started running this last January and have competed in several running races. Last Fall, my friend Dan (who rides with the Gopher Wheelman/County Cycles team now) gave me a flyer for their $60 Triathlon training course, which I couldn't do this year because I was already planning on doing the SPBRC BRP. I've kept the flyer because I really want to try a triathlon, and this sounds like a great way to prep for one. I like running too, and we'lll see about the swimming part, but I'm not a bad swimmer, so it should be really fun and exhausting. ;-) Today I went for a 5-mile run and it felt really good! Although hot.
Well, Sunday I will be at Dakota Tech to experience it, then look to see what other races are scheduled in September and October. I also thought about trying a mountain bike race.
Thanks again Sascha for sharing your experience in racing. I hereby give myself permission to be last. Also, I've been enjoying reading your blog. I like your elevation graphs!
Posted by: John at August 3, 2005 4:42 PM