Here we go....

Well, up till now (since August 24th crash), I have mainly been trying to lose weight and let my body heal. I should be getting my new bike the firs week of February, and then its time to start a performance phase of training. I've already registered for one (brutal early season race) race the Batten Kill Roubaix, and have a second event picked out for June, my goal this year is to do 15 or so events. To do this I will be doing two races in some events and some mid week training races. I am at a point that I have learned a lot about nutrition and fitness over the last few months and am ready to see how well I apply what I have learned.

In June I will be doing the Lake Auburn road race, in Auburn Maine. This is a chance to see my younger brother (not much younger:) ), whom I am grateful to for (even though it may not have been his intention) getting me involved in cycling, my nieces and nephews; as well as a gauge on how my fitness and cycling skills have evolved over a one year period. The Auburn race was actually my first race, it was a cat 4/5 35mile pretty challenging course. My brother finished 3rd, and out of 60 starters I finished 53 (only 54 of us finished the race) and to me that was my goal, " not to finish last or at least finish". This year I am setting my goal at finishing in the top 15, of course I want to win the race, I am very competitive and never go in with limitations. But, I have also learned there are many factors not in our control when it comes to racing.

At present I am setting up my goals for this race season, one of which is to up grade from a cat 5 to a cat 4, then I will be able to do more races due to the fact that I can be in the master events as well as the regular cat 4 and or 4/5 races even 3/4 if I really want to challenge myself, and I love a good challenge. My nutrition has improved ten fold,and my understanding of how my body (mine personally) reacts to certain fuel intake and what quantities, now I will learn those things in a performance based training platform. Since, I have joined the cyclo-club I have had much more structure in my training and been more consistent and this is whats its all about. Thanks again to all those that give me input and help me keep things in some sort of order, it is a daunting task to change ones lifestyle so drastically but for the best. I still wonder sometimes: we know that cigarette smoking causes cancer as well as just being bad for our health yet people will spend thousands of dollars a year on this habit. On the other side of the spectrum people know that eating health and staying in some sort of shape can lead to a longer better quality life, yet lots of people would never change the way they eat or their activity level for the good. Maybe, the Surgeon General should post that smoking leads to a long and fruitful life and eating well and exercise is terrible for you and leads to all kinds of ailments. Hm mm, maybe that would work.

Harvey