End on a low note

Worst race of the season today.

Hilly, super technical course. I imploded, got lapped by half the field, and likely got an asterisk/warning next to my name in the results for the amount of times I said "Fuck this shit" while on the course.

So we're calling it a season at this point. Too many more days like today and I'll be selling a cross bike.

Cross season recap:

I didn't do as well as I wanted to or as well as I thought I was going to this year.

Reasons: I can spot a couple.

1.) I cut my bike volume down from probably 4-5 days a week last season to maybe 2-3 days a week this season...and I cut the volume in August this year as opposed to September/October last year.

The other side of that coin was that I spent more time in the weight room. That wasn't without its advantages...they just weren't all that apparent on the bike. As the season wore on my lack of bike training came to bite me in the ass as my finishes slipped with each passing week.

2.) I spent a lot of time mountain biking last year. I went mountain biking once this year. That affected my handling and confidence. The mountain bikers are definitely at an advantage on the CX courses. Next year, instead of phasing riding out and transitioning more into weights, I think I'm going to try to get more MTB time in starting next August.

3.) Burnout. Long season. When winter starts to roll in again and you haven't really taken a break, you start to really not want to be on your bike.

Anyway. I think the way things went this fall was the way things had to go this fall. My real life has gotten busy and I had to prioritize such that my hobbies got pushed to the back burner.

All told 2008 was decent. Strikes and gutters. I improved substantially on the road and I didn't improve much at all at Cross. Now, I'm taking some time off. Especially weekends. And I'll see how I feel about next year.