Crossing Over

Cue the montage music. Something cheesy, like We Are the Champions, or since this is a no budget bike blog, the unlicensed version Are We the Champions? Cue the slow motion shots of the snowy rides on the MTB back in december, the Tackle the Tower stair climb in February, and club rides through the spring, the Covered Bridge Races and the Tour of the Valley in July.

I'm going to do one more Westlake, the rest of the Leroy TTs, and that's it for my road racing season.

I can sum up this season in one word--transition. The main event this year was jumping into the "A" field at Westlake after a few seasons in the "B" field. My fitness definitely improved compared to prior seasons, but not enough. Now I know what's required to ride consistently with riders that have such a high level of fitness, and can work toward that.

My approach to training this year sort of worked, and I learned from its failings. I gained fitness through the early season and June. I spent the vast bulk of my training time riding hard tempo and time trial type efforts, but never managed to get much anaerobic work into my schedule. I completely fell apart in mid July. Too much racing, not enough riding in that month.

'cross season is going to fire up full steam in a month. In the mean time, I'm just going to be doing long rides around northeast Ohio and enjoying what's left of the summer.