It's T-minus three days until my first race of the year and I'm excited. It's been a while since my last race report. I raced more after the last report but I was burned out on writing reports, so I stopped. I finished up last season with some pretty good results, but a win as a cat 2 rider has eluded me so far. In addition to being winless I also failed to achieve the cat 1 upgrade I was trying for. I had results that would have been sufficient, but they were either in races that were divided into pro/1 and 2/3 events (you need to race against cat 1's to get your cat 1 upgrade), or in races where we didn't quite meet the field limit (you need 60 riders in the race for it to count). That shouldn't be the case this year.
I don't mean to sound like I am disappointed with my last season, I'm plenty happy with it--it's just good to have goals. In the off season I started working with a coach. Last year my training plan consisted of my commute. I would bike to work and bike home which was great for my base miles (I live a pretty long way from work, ~21 miles each way), but it didn't do a lot for specific training. One disappointment was that at the end of last season I did the Gear Push time trial which is the same distance (10 miles) on the same course as the Ice Breaker TT that I did at the beginning of the season. Despite upgrading twice and making substantial improvements to my racing ability in the months between the two TT's my time at the second one was identical to the first down to the second. The fear of being stagnant is part of what drove me to work with a coach and start some specific training. I feel like I'm faster now than I was last year but I really don't know until I start racing. Hopefully it will pay off, we'll find out soon enough.
Note: Despite a total lack of humor in this, my first entry, I will try to work it back in future entries. Cut me some slack, I've been working 12 hours a day (not counting commute) and I'm tired.