Looking Back on 2013

Last time I looked back on last year, I didn’t have a ton too be super proud of. 2012 was a tough year in general, but I did have some success. 2013 was on the other end of the spectrum. Not everything went right, but I had good luck for things I couldn’t control and the support from some amazing people and an amazing community and on the whole everything was amazing.

In an effort to try to constantly improve I’ve been thinking about what the big difference makers where, I’m thinking about what was different, what I changed and what I kept the same. This is a tough thing because the big glaring difference was no broken collar bone and no Mono to deal with. I have to say that I don’t regret breaking my collar bone. I’m happy that I have the mental ability to push myself to that point. I know now that I can really hurt myself racing and I know that it isn’t going to stop me. But because of the collar bone and mono, I feel that comparing 2013 to 2012 will always have that asterisk.

 

Going from 2012 to 2013, I made an effort to stay health and continue to eat better and become more disciplined. I had seen so many people jump into eating better, riding all the time, and training. I made the change a little slower and never put big pressure on myself to be a certain way. I’ve continued that approach into 2013 and will into 2014 as well. I try to lose weight, 5 lbs if I can. I ride hard at the lower weight and see if I can still apply the power. For me it’s all about building habits that I can sustain and adding habit one at a time. Eat better, get that down. Then do my stretching, get that down and move onto core strength. Always adding new elements into the established routine.

And speaking of core strength, I really hit core strength big in 2013. I think it’s always good to set goals that don’t have a result attached to them. I wanted to get some UCI MTB points, I wanted to win a WORS race. But these are both racing goals. I also set the goal to have no back pain during 2013. I failed this, but in this I learned the importance and benefit of good core strength. Going fast in pedaling sections takes training, but going fast in technical section takes core strength and balance. Improving my core strength really helped me improve my technical handling.

In 2012 I learned how to train hard and push myself. This is certainly the first step to learning how to train and to becoming fast. What I took from 2013 was that the preparation to ride and train is important as well. When you’re trying to train to exhaustion, or ride all out day in and day out, it’s important to prepare for it just like you would a race. For me this meant eating the right things at the right time. I had a lot of workouts that were spoiled by eating the wrong thing at the wrong time. I would either bonk or throw up. Not what I was looking for but lesson learned.

I’ve noticed that I eat less. It’ll be interesting to start tracking my calories again in the spring to see if my resting metabolic rate has gone down or if I’m riding more efficiently. In this same trend, I’m going to try and get a body fat percentage measurement to really dial in my weight and keep myself in the healthy and consistent range. But this all part of a bigger trend. I’ve noticed a shift. My body seems to be changing again. Legs are smaller and more defined and my veins are finally starting to pop! It’s all about getting my legs to look like Brian Matter’s legs, as weird as that is.

I've done some really cool racing this year. I sat down last year, much as I am now, to plan out the year. I remember sitting down and imagining what I could do. The question wasn't what could I do, but it was what I had to do to get where I wanted to be. I planned a racing calender that would take me all over the continent. Alabama was first, Then Missoula, Windham, Subaru Cup right in Wisconsin, National in PA, and to cap it all off, a World Cup in Canada. I mixed in a bunch of local WORS racing and it was set to be an awesome season. The cherry on top was when Sarah Lukas made me aware of the opportunity to race in China. Just looking back all I can think is how lucky I am and what an amazing year it was.

When I look back there is a lot that went right, but there are also things I could have done better. In general, I would say I'm on the right track, I'm doing the right things, or at least trying to do them; trying being the key word. From here its about becoming more diligent and instead of almost never missing a workout because I didn't manage time well, it's just never miss a workout. At the end of the day I still have some growing up to do and becoming more responsible to the people I love and the goals I have is part of that.

I graduated in December, and between that, the increased level of support from KS Energy Services/Team Wisconsin and the realization that I might be able to make a living riding, I’ve started to take it more seriously from all angles. Riding, communication, strength and conditioning, talking to sponsors; I’m treating it more like a job and less like a hobby. It’s’ still a hobby, but it’s becoming less of one. That has been the most exciting for me. This could actually be a thing, I could actually race my bike for a living someday.

I've also been lucky enough to find the most amazing women I've ever met. She's beautiful, smart, talented and even more driven than I am to succeed at her goals. It's pretty cool to see someone geek out hard about something they love. Looking forward to getting to know her better everyday of 2014.

2013 was an amazing year for me both professionally, personally, and in racing.

Which brings me to the future, what on the plate for 2014? Much of the same as 2013 really. I’ll be hitting up the Pro XCT series again. This was in doubt until only a few months ago, when Sho-Air renewed it’s commitment to USA cycling by expanding the Pro XCT schedule and increasing payouts. Very exciting. I’ll also be looking to do well overall in the WORS series. Last year I was hoping to win a race, but this year, I’m going to make sure I do. I’ll be going to XC Nats and hoping to end my MTB season a little sooner so that I can have more of a CX season. Having said that I’ll still be applying to race for the national team at 3 races. The Pan-Am games, the Mont Sainte Anne WC, and the Windham WC. I’ll throw in a few fun races from there, but that alone will be a big schedule. From there I’ll plan out a CX season, but I haven’t looking into that yet.

Off the bike, I’m pretty excited to be done with school. I can move anywhere, I can do anything now. I’ll be sticking in Wisconsin at least until August when my lease ends and I’ll be sticking with Saris for work. I’m very happy with how things turned out and I can’t wait to start training for 2014 in the next couple of weeks.

Happy Trails, Thanks for reading.