But then I always think of the same thing... does amount of races won really defines success? And how do you really measure success?
The question as it is, is pretty easy to answer. In fact I can answer that question with one finger. I find it interesting that this is the first question asked by people who have never seen a race and are usually not competitive. I know it seems like the obvious question to ask...but I have never seen that as a way to quantify success. To me, success in racing is so much more.So much happens in a race to really put in down to one question.
Racing for me isn't about winning and losing. While in many sports this how you quantify the success of a team or how well you're doing...I think it's quite different in endurance sports. In any race there can only be one winner...but there aren't 2 teams...and there are no ties. It's 40 people in a race and most, if not all of us want to win. Winning races is rare for most of us but I don't know if it truly defines a good race. For me racing is about getting better, it's about the races with the race and the all out battles with friends. 1st place may be hard fought...but even harder is the fight to be not be DFL or to beat someone you've never beat in a race.
At the end of this year I've had some time to think about whether it's been a successful season. Things didn't start out or end exactly as planned but was this year successful for me?
The start of the year seemed promising. Cut 10 minutes off my PB time from 2 years ago in the Prairie Roubaix. Finished in 5th place out of 16 teams at the Salty Dog Enduro in the 2 man team category the next month, missing third place by one lap. My first MTB XC race went pretty good as I missed 10th place by a few seconds in my second race in the Sport category.
However, my training went a little off the rails when the Midweek Mayhem crits were cancelled. Up next was a mountain bike race in June in a foot of snow and freezing tempartures which ended up doing more then a bit of wear to my mountain bike. After that came another disastrous race in Cat 4 in the Bike Banff Fest where I lost contact with the pack when 2 riders rubbed wheel in front of me and half the field got dropped and then lapped. The cap off the month, I was helping out as trail ambassador for the Furious 3 race which was also super muddy and ended doing even more wear damage to my mountain bike.
I was gone most of July on a business trip but upon return I participated in my first 24 Hours of Adrenaline race as part of 5 man with some friends. Our goal for the race wasn't placing but to have fun. We managed to get 5th out of 20 teams despite just going out and having fun. I also managed to churn out some pretty decent laps times...and I might have even managed a few smiles during my laps. This was one of my highlights of the season mainly because I got to ride on an awesome team and the weather conditions were awesome during the race.
Up next, I entered into the Tour de Bowness races and the Jay Lap races. This year I decided I wasn't going to do any of the road races...just focus on the hill climb time-trials and crit events in order to prepare for 'cross.
My first road race was a hill climb results which I was a little disappointed with the results as I was one second slower than my result a couple year ago despite increased amounts of training. The circuit race was going pretty good but ended up being behind a crash on the final lap which split the group up...although I managed to avoid the crash and finish up about mid-pack. During the crit my only goal was to not get dropped and stay with the pack. I finished the race about mid pack again and accomplished my goal of finishig the race which I was really happy about.
During the Jaylap Hill Climb I ended up getting to my start a little later then planned as I got held up at work and missed where the sign-on was. Despite getting a great warm-up and feeling pretty strong during the race I still finished up over a minute off the leaders time and in the bottom half which was disappointing as hill climbs are usually my strong point. The crit was pretty much the same goal as the one in the Tour de Bowness which I was able to accomplish once again.
Despite some low's during the first half of the season...I still think so far I was having way more success then previous seasons. I felt stronger then before and much more confident on my mountain bike then before. I was finally keeping up to my team on the group rides and riding with faster people without getting completely shelled.
Next up...cyclocross 2012.
- Kyle
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