Sunday, March 8, 2009

The Passion (for biking)

This weekend we raced at Depauw and it didn't really go as well as I had hoped. I didn't get dropped or anything but I dropped the ball on making the good breakaway both days which was frustrating. The TTT saturday went well with our A team getting 5th but that was more due to Joey and Naveen pulling really hard than me. Chris managed to score 3rd both days which was awesome. Brian R won the crit today by a hair in a photo finish. Andy S got 3rd in Men D for the crit too. Kara and Aimee also both got top 10 in the Women's B Sunday. I was really happy to see how well our team has been riding in all categories.
Now I have to figure out what I need to do to start getting better. I have already figured out that I am not in as good of shape right now as in previous seasons for a variety of reasons including the the 3 week vacation to Europe in the winter that involved no training and a lot less training this past winter due to school and other comittments. But now it is time to move forward and get back what helped me do so well last year and that is THE PASSION. What is THE PASSION? It is a passion for bike riding and doing lots of rides that help you get that passion for riding is what helped made me strong last season. For me this means doing lots of long easy rides where I can explore new roads. I also like to do some of these rides solo since my pace is usually a little slower than other riders while training. I was really concerned about doing well this weekend so I could get points for qualifying for natz but now I realized that I did the best last year when I didn't put pressure on myself and just raced for the fun of it. So now I need to get the passion back but how am I going to do it?
I have a few key opportunities for getting some serious passion rides in. The first is spring break in Arkansas. I plan to do at least 3 or 4 long rides on roads that I have never ridden there before and that means they are gonna involve crazy dirt roads. The second is Easter weekend and I am planning to kill 2 birds with one stone. I am going to ride from Purdue to the University of Illinois to visit my girl friend Ellen. So if you see me at the races or around campus ask me how my 2 main goals of not getting mad after any race and getting the passion back are going!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Go Go Go Derek! Ellen will always be there to support you... Maybe just mentally because I dont know how to race...

Seth said...

Sounds like a very good plan, Derek! Good luck and keep it real, dude!

Jake said...

Where in Arkansas will you be training?