Cycling - 2009

As I race cyclocross, my riding season ends up being quite long. My last race of the year is generally in late November or early December depending on the exact schedule. I like to take some time off at the end of the season, I find it's great mentally and helps with getting the focus back for the next year of riding. The downside of this is that while lots of riders are starting up with the base training for the next year, I am happily sitting on my hiney enjoying winter treats.

But by the time January rolls around, I am itching to get back on the bike, which is a great situation to be in. In the wintertime in Canada, this means a large number of hours indoors on the trainer which is far from the most exciting way to get into shape. Fortunately, it is offset somewhat by the better part of a month of fairly sedentary lifestyle so I can approach it with some enthusiasm. So January is my month to ramp up some volume and get some hours in, followed by starting to ride a bit harder in February and March.

I've got a few goals and things that I want to do this year. I want to do more road racing this year than I did last year. An injury took me out of commission for a month or so in June which kind of did a number on my 2008 road season. Fortunately, it appears I have tons of choice for grassroots level racing in Vancouver. I'll start the season off by doing a couple of the Team Escape Velocity Spring Series races. Later in the year, Escape Velocity also holds a series of Tuesday night races, which sounds awesome. I haven't yet found out about any sort of regular time trial series, but I would expect that there is one somewhere in Vancouver.

I will also be doing a couple of endurance mountain bike races this year. I intend on racing the BC Bike Race in 2010, which means I have to get back into the mountain biking somewhat seriously. So far, I'm likely going to be riding the Salty Dog, but beyond that I have not made too many plans.

Cyclocross is a long ways away, but there is a series in Vancouver and thus I will be racing it.

Of course, this is all theoretical at this point. All I really know is that I intend to continue to get faster and hopefully actually be competitive within the next, oh, decade.