Finally Some Results

So it has again been a while since my last update. To be honest there hasn’t been much going on as I didn’t race the weekend after Subaru Cup. I took the extra time to get myself aligned for the coming school year and get myself back into the MTB training/racing schedule that worked so well for me last year. As much as I really enjoy racing on the road, and racing as much as possible, 2 races every weekend and trying to train in between is just a lot of work and effort. It was really wearing me down. After taking a couple days off and resting for the Subaru cup I felt great and did well in a tough field, so I can say for sure that I was very fatigued. And looking back on all the racing and all the results for the year, it all makes sense.

Down the first part of the descent, before the switchbacks

 Putting my body through all the stress in the beginning of the year wasn’t all bad though. I learned a lot about my body and how it reacts to training. I now realize what it means to be tired, what it means to be exhausted physically, and mentally. I have always felt that balance in life is important, the real key to happiness. But this doesn’t mean that just playing everything safe and in the middle is the way to go about getting there. You need to push your body and you mind, find that limit and break yourself down. I have done that with my mind and spirit doing formula and found my limit there. Now I have done it with my body on the bike. But the other side of things needs to be explored. I definitely had a time after school ended where I was super lazy. I sat around a lot and slept even more. No doubt this was kickback from all the work I had done, but it showed me that although you can’t work yourself dead, you can’t sit around all the time either. You really do need that nice balance.

And that is what I feel that I am moving towards now. There isn’t necessarily anything crazy amazing going on in my life that I am really excited for that is making me happy. I think that because I am just doing what I love, getting sleep, training, working, making money and living relatively stress free I am happy. It’s not a revelation, or an epiphany. It is the realization of a long term goal. I found that happy medium between overworked and underworked. That’s not to say that I am there, but I have it in sight. It might not be something that I can attain and hold, but it’s something that as long as I’m close, I can be happy.

Not my best photo, but this was at the top of the
second to last climb, you can see the relief on my face

And this is really helping me in other aspects of life, like bikes! It just makes sense that the only way to get faster is to train hard. But when things fall out of balance, you are not at you best physically and mentally, you just can’t train hard enough. I found that a little rest goes a long way at Subaru cup, and that with that restful mindset; I was able to train harder. Put those together and you have a winning formula, well 9^th.

That’s right! After a week of good training with a few long rides early in the week leading up to Alterra, followed by some rest and two hard interval days followed by more rest; I was feeling pretty good for the Super week race on Saturday. This past weekend was certainly going to be a good weekend. There was a super week race which literally started down the block from my parents’ house. Then the next day was Alterra. I was feeling really good for the Crit, and had a fair amount of support from my team. With 2 laps to get I was sitting 10-th wheel which was perfect. From there I made the mistake of not moving up for the last lap. Early in the last lap, the eventual lead out that won moved past me, in retrospect, I should have followed that wheel. I came around the last corner and opened up a really long sprint and made a ton of ground up, but not enough to take the win, finishing in 7^th. A little disappointing, especially to not win in front of my parents and friends, but 7^th was still pretty good.

Thanks again Claire

The next day was Alterra and despite racing the next day I felt really good. I lined up and had great position from the start. I filed into the field section in about 15^th wheel. From there I just kept picking off riders. Pretty quickly I found Bryan Fosler’s wheel. I followed him and Matt Gehling around for the first lap and came out onto the big climb in contact. I decided that I had to show them I was a force to be dealt with so I attacked up the hill and got a gap. Turned out they really didn’t chase much until they realized that I was gone. With them behind me I really felt like it was going to be a good day. And with my dad, and few other friends supporting me and cheering, I knew that I was in for a good race. My favorite cheer had to be the one from Claire who was handing me bottles. She said, “Slow down Joe, I can’t keep up with hand ups.” I didn’t slow down.

The last lap was a really tough one, because I know that the guys behind me might be able to catch me if my legs didn’t hold out. I was lucky to have a racer in front of me get a mechanical and I slotted into 10^th place with Ronsta up a head. I slowly pulled him back and on the second to last climb and attacked past him and got a big gap. Then I rocketed down the tricky decent trying to put enough time into him. I came out of the forest for the finish with Ron close enough to catch me, but somehow I still had some left and I put even more time into him. I ended up 9^th after an amazing ride. I cannot express how happy I was to place so well. I really need to thank the Trek store of Madison MTB team and Team WORS member Claire Cannon for the hand ups and my dad for a little bit of water and a lot of excitement.