Sorry folks. Tonight’s post will be brief.
I wasn’t planning to, but I watched the debates. I planned to listen to the first few minutes, you know, just to get the flavor of the thing. But then they drew me in. It was good, refreshing in fact, that they actually mentioned some details. You’ve had pre-race gitters; imagine the inflammation these gentlemen suffered in the moments before this contest.
Only one comment on the politic: It’s a severe weakness, but I’m having trouble getting past the word “provider.”
Wait a second…this is no political blog. It’s Cycling Wednesday on a health and fitness site.
Jim Lehrer says get back on task.
—
I’m going to do something tonight that I really don’t do enough of. I am going to promote another blog.
Fellow cyclocross racer, Joe Bellante authors The Best Bike Blog Ever. Seriously, you have to love that name. I want to call your attention to a recent post in which he discusses the humbling act of being lapped in a CX race. Entitled, It’s NOT Dirty: Lapped While Lapping Another, Joe writes candidly and humorously to those of us who rarely–if ever–see the podium. Joe is like me: he’s a non-elite masters racer forced to race in an elite race.
That’s the thing folks, other than a rare few, we are all non-elite. Former world CX champion Bart Wellens calls pro racers that don’t win, ‘normal.’ That’s bad for us masters, eh?
All this said, our non-elite status should not stop us from competing–from taking tests. You don’t skip the local 5k just because you won’t win. You surely don’t become an Ironman because you need to win. There’s something to the race. There’s something about trying to go really fast. But not so fast to become ensnarled in yellow tape–because no height of VO2-max overcomes tape wrapped around an axle.
I’ve been loving CX this year. I’ve tried a little harder…to eat fewer calories, to get more sleep and even have committed to some HIIT intervals, which some call Tabata intervals–but I like to call Kabukis. All this extra effort has made me fitter, but it hasn’t really improved my results. There’s a truth to results in masters racing: it’s (almost) always the same.
What I liked most about Joe’s words is that they emphasized the best part of racing a bike on grass and in mud:
That it is fun. Whether you are the lap-er or the lap–ee.
JMM