Friday, June 13, 2008

Yesterday, word came through the team grapevine that Ken had another bike related trip to the hospital. This coming just over a month after his bad crash in Washington. As tough as the last crash was this one sounds really brutal. Broken lower right arm, broken bones between the teeth and the nose area. Ken is probably the nicest darn guy around and certainly doesn't deserve the injuries he has had lately. I feel very bad for him. Get well Ken.

I have been racing for far too long. Thankfully, that 15 yr long period has seen very few moments of landing and sliding along the pavement. And, when I have hit the ground, the injuries have been relatively minor with only one trip to the hospital... knock on wood.

Sometimes I wonder how I would react to a bad injury. Would I quit the competitive side of the sport in my somewhat advanced age? It makes me wonder sometimes. Those thoughts have crossed my mind a few times in recent years anyway. Would an injury seal the deal?

Since the start of April my training has suffered badly. I often think I have s subliminal fear of success. If I get to point of riding really well, I get lazy and my fitness goes to hell. Early this year I was going quite well but ever since the start of April I basically stopped training except for our regular weekend rides. For a while, I was able to bluff myself with a few decent rides but for the last month has been awful. My desire to train was negligible and every bad race in recent weeks took a little more desire away.

Maybe Winghaven was the turning point. I rode three times this week. Nothing terribly fancy in terms of training but there were maybe two times in the couple months that I rode more than twice during the week. A little consistency in my riding has changed my mental outlook. For a moment I had an urge to skip Thursday's ride but I was not going to let it happen. One week does not make a big difference but I am looking forward to the weekend.

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