Exactly, I care enough to I know when to give up, lol. It comes to a point where getting shit-stomped is no longer fun. I’m not sure what I’ll do after I fail again this year; I quit racing on the road due to all the broken bones, not sure there is anything left to train for if I’m not racing CX. Maybe I’ll treat myself to a carton of Marlboroughs.
This is one of the many joys of living in Colorado…you learn quickly that having expectations for race results is a waste of time! (Unless you are @jlittle - that you, Justin?)
You’ve blown my cover Wes(?), but yes. Last year was my first in cross so you can see where things went right and wrong for me.
Hey some more CO cx’ers. Are you guys also counting down the days to Harlow. Super amped for grass and sand! Jokes aside, that was my first podium in the SS field.
I’m more of a road guy and did CX as a lark last year. I’ll probably race the last part of the season, but with a crummy call-up it will be tough to get anywhere.
I hear ya. Did a pretty heavy road schedule last year, felt great at the end of road season. Got worked in cross. My last race was the rattler and did kind of well. It’s hard to go straight from road to CX. I’m going to take a mini break after Gateway Cup and get back into it during US Open.
Most people fade out by November.
But you have to get out of cat-4 at some point or you’re basically a pathetic, waste of life. There is no excuse to not make it to cat-3 if you’re trying at all. That’s where I’m at.
I think there’s a lot more to racing than podiums (says the guy who can’t even finish top 10 yet lol). I found a lot of fun in improving my crossresults points during the year, beating my staging/predicted finish and moving from back to the pack to upper part. In some races my motivation was just to beat a guy who had been beating me in a few. Hopefully next season I can aspire to more, but it’s fun just to get out there, ride hard on well designed courses, and hang out with people.
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I went back and looked and I finished CX Specialty about 3 weeks before the end of the season in December. That really just worked out because of when I started my Base/Build/Specialty cycle following Marathon Nationals, so wasn’t planned. Also, it was my first go around with TR so I didn’t really know what to expect in terms of performance, etc. Basically I’m saying I just went with it.
I did make a small change to the plan by swapping Wed and Thurs workouts so I had the two difficult workouts back to back. That made Thurs my easier day heading into the weekend’s Saturday and Sunday races.
During those final three weeks I cherry-picked workouts from the Specialty plan based on the importance of that weekend’s races. By that time I wasn’t going to get any better, faster, stronger, etc., so it was really just about maintenance and finishing strong.
Looking back, it worked out really well in terms of my results, so I wouldn’t have changed anything.
Just no. It’s an amateur sport we do for fun and fitness. Yes be competitive, as we all are. But coming first, last or quitting after 10 yards does not make you or anyone else a pathetic waste of life!
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Someone is psyching themselves out of both peak performance and fun at the same time 
On a similar note, isn’t the term “serious cyclocrosser” an oxymoron? 
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Last year I actually skipped specialty. We’ve got a long season here in the PNW (I raced every weekend, sometimes twice, from the second weekend of Sept to the second weekend of December). Those races, along with cross practice that could range from medium to hard, and a Tuesday interval ride, and a set of openers the day before the race (my go-to was Truuli) made the specialty plan seem like too much. I finished short power build right before the season started and then went from there like this:
Monday: Recovery plus core
Tuesday: intervals on CX bike
Wednesday: CX practice or Sleeping Beauty+2
Thursday: Pettit
Friday: Pettit
Saturday: Race or Truuli
Sunday: Race
On the rare weeks I had a Saturday race but not Sunday, I just moved things up a day and did Andrew’s on Sunday for a little endurance work.
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Dude. Knock yourself out with the self-hatred if you must, but don’t sh*t on other people’s efforts. There’s no need.
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