BRITEsport

Back! (or starting to get back on track at least)

Checking in here… I know it’s been a while but I will do my best to keep things up to date. I got married last month (woohoo!) and so I have pretty much been off the bike more or less for over a month. I actually didn’t miss riding/racing for the first couple of weeks… probably also because I was pre-occupied with wedding stuff. I had lots of family in town for a little over a month, and it was non-stop (fun-loving) madness. Also, I was burnt out. Wow - I barely did 10 races and I was burnt out?! The truth is, I thought it was going to be easier to handle grad school/wedding stuff/ training/ racing… Yes, it’s a lot, but I’ve been pretty good with balancing things in my life. However, just because you feel like you are handling things just fine, doesn’t mean you are necessarily. These past couple of months have been a wonderful learning experience for me.

Grad school has gotten off to a good start, but much work needs to be done, and I look forward to it. I married the love of my life, and I am the luckiest person in the world. Really, though. There was also no way that planning my wedding with Saskia wasn’t going to be stressful, but we got through it just fine, and it was awesome! I was also a bit over ambitious about my training/ racing as the wedding was getting closer. I was telling myself I was training and riding enough, but those notions were completely thrown out the window when I raced San Rafael Twilight. Ouch. 15 mins and I rode straight to the car, HAHA! Yeah, it was a bummer (not really) and I was annoyed, but as soon as I hopped off my bike and went for a recovery drink, I knew. I lacked consistency/ intensity in training, and more importantly my mind was elsewhere for the past 3 months. If I have learned anything about myself in the 3 years I’ve been racing, it’s that FOCUS is the key to my success. Nope, it can’t be perfect all the time, but that’s why we work hard at everything we do. I am going to build on this for next season!

Anyway, I am looking forward to this off season, building some good base miles, and starting 2013 strong. I am stoked about my cat2 upgrade this year, but I am hungrier than ever to get some results, and hopefully travel to out-of-state races next year. 

Thanks for reading, and there will be more posts sooner than you know!

-Joe