Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all my friends, family, and colleagues. I’m thinking of all of you this holiday season, and I wish you all the best for 2014.
The race mechanic requests for 2014 are rolling in. I’ve already had to turn down a few upcoming opportunities due to scheduling conflicts. I hate turning the jobs down, but it’s a double-edged sword. It’s really fun to travel, to see new places, and to work with new athletes on the road. The downside is being away from the family. I was on the road A LOT in 2013, and missed my wife and kids very badly. We’ve both been blessed with steady jobs, and are FINALLY falling into some sort of rhythm in this crazy life. As much as I enjoy managing all the moving parts and hitting the road, my flexibility to do so isn’t going to be there in 2014. I haven’t said “NO” to everything yet. I’m still trying to shift some things around to try and sneak in a bit of race work next year. Maybe get a little fix during the upcoming season…
I am hopefully going to do some more local races next year. I changed race team affiliations, and will be racing with Team Energy Velo for 2014. It’s a team that my shop sponsors, and it’s headed up by two very good friends and customers of mine. They’re looking after me very well, and I hope to represent them to the best of my ability at the races I’ll be able to attend. I’m trying to get a few solid results early in the season, in order to get my upgrade to Category 3 this Spring. I’ve been a Cat. 4 for as long as I can remember, and the tail end of the season I actually had some decent results. Hoping to upgrade sooner, rather than later.
Gotta get some of my fitness back. I hyper-extended my left knee the day before the Hincapie Gran Fondo, and decided to ride the entire 80 mile ride with a little soreness in the knee. That turned out to be a horrible idea. I severely strained my patellar tendon, and was off the bike for over a month. There were times I could barely walk, and most nights I spent with my leg elevated and icing. With some amazing help from one of my friends, Jeff, a physical therapist, I was able to rehab and strengthen the knee back to normal. My fitness took a serious dive, however. I’ve been able to ride during the past three weeks, but it’s still winter, and I’m being a bit of a wuss about it. I’ve signed up for the Strava/Rapha Festive 500k challenge, which entails riding 500k between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. I don’t see any way to finish it, short of burying myself on NYE, but I’m doing as many miles as I can until then to see if I can regain some of that lost form. Definitely got some pounds to shed and some muscle to regain in that leg…
Oh… I need some help. I want to plan some sort of bike adventure for 2014. I need some ideas. Leave me a comment here if you have any thoughts for what kind of bike mischief I might get into.
Good talk. See you out there.
PROBIKEWRENCH 