I don't celebrate traditional New Year, I celebrate Cyclocross New Year. This lies somewhere between Thanksgiving and the Chinese New Year and the specific date it falls on depends largely on how well one is doing in their CX races. There's a few primary differences with the 3 New Year Celebrations. With traditional New Year, people get hammered and then at midnight they kiss each other and each other's husbands/wives/significant others and spend the next couple days hungover trying to make up for the stupid shit they did on New Year's Eve. Though I've never celebrated Chinese New Year, it seems similar to traditional New Year with the exception that dragons are involved and the children receive little red envelopes with money. For CX New Year, we race our final race of the season, receive an envelope with money if we do really well, and then celebrate "Fat Week", which is about 7-10 days in a competition with other cx racers to see who can gain the most weight.
Markedly different than the envelopes containing cash at the end of CX races, these envelopes make millions of Chinese children happy during Chinese New Year.
This year, my CX New Year falls on January 14. This is when I'll be racing in the Masters World CX Championships in Louisville, KY. This was not in my goals for the year because, to be honest, at the beginning of the year I didn't think I had any place in the World Championships. My goal for the year was to be a top 10 racer in the Verge New England Championship CX series, which is a level I have never achieved. I figured I'd try to focus on achieving that first and then I could think about Worlds.
So here's a quick recap of the year that has led me to being on the doorstep of my first ever world championship event. My CX2010 came to a merciful end in December following a downward spiral of subpar results in my last handful of races. Mentally and physically I was fried. To make matters worse, I started CX2011 only able to gain 5 pounds during Fat Week, which was far below what some of the more elite CX'ers were able to produce. For example, I believe my coach, Kurt Perham, was able to put on 12 or 13 pounds. To be fair, he typically races at about 20 pounds over his birth weight so he could gain 5 pounds just walking by his refrigerator at the end of the race season. After fat week I pretty much stayed off the bike for a month except for a few mtb rides on the snowmobile trails. I focused more on nordic skiing and strength training, getting my deadlift up to 275 lbs. When I did get on the bike, my peak power was higher than ever, which I attribute to the deadlifts and possibly a poorly calibrated power meter. Working with Kurt for the second year now, he got me dialed in quickly and I progressed rapidly. My threshold power increased by about 7% within the first few months and I was riding stronger than ever by late Spring.. This is when Worlds started banging around in the back of my head, but I didn't want to lose sight of the fact that my best Verge finish ever was 23rd and I had a lot of work to do to get into the top 10 first. I spent the Spring and Summer months racing MTB and road races here and there. I had a great result in the Blue Hills Classic with a top 10 finish (best I had ever done there previously was 25th), but I wasn't as concerned about the results as much as I was with getting good, hard training efforts for the CX season.
I had two setbacks leading into the CX season. The first was taking part in the Tough Mudder, which froze me so badly that it rocked my system to the point that I wasn't the same on the bike for a good 3 weeks following the TM. This was my own fault. My training load at that time of the year keeps me right on the edge of being able to make performance gains without going into "overtraining". There is over-reaching, but it's controlled. The TM put me over the edge.
What was I thinking?
The second was in early August, training a football team in the weight room at 6:30am I had to demonstrate power cleans about 40 times to help the kids with their form. I wasn't warmed up and I was just grabbing whatever the kids had on the bar at the time. By the time I left, my lower back was feeling it, but I didn't think it would be too bad. Later that morning my training ride had two long, hard threshold intervals, that I actually crushed. It seems the combination of the power cleans and the hard ride, plus a hot bath that I took later that night was enough to really screw my back up and I was hobbled for the next two weeks. Off the bike for, I think, 8 days. And this was one month before the start of CX. Bad timing.
First race of the CX season was Quad Cross and I got 5th. A smaller race, but a good start to the season nonetheless. The first Verge weekend in VT I got 13th and 14th. Our field was very strong and deep and I knew that I had a lot to improve on to get into the top 10. The next week was another smaller event at Sucker Brook and I actually led the race for a couple laps, but couldn't maintain my top end and faded. I finished 4th and was bummed to not get on the podium. Gloucester is my favorite Verge weekend and the fields were packed at 90 racers both days. I got 14th both days and was only about 20 seconds out of the top 10. Getting closer. Then on Friday of that week during my training ride a car pulled headfirst out of it's driveway and I t-boned it at 20mph, launching myself and my bike over the hood, imploding the windshield, coming to rest on the dashboard. Being Adamantium-enhanced, I walked away in better shape than the car and my bike, but my leg was banged up, especially my knee. I remember coming to my senses, rolling off the hood, and walking around wondering if I'd still be able to get top 25 in the race the next day so I could get more Verge points. It could be argued that it was a poor decision, but I did race that weekend, finishing 21st on Saturday (worst race of the season for me), and managed 15th on Sunday driven largely on the anger and disappointment of my result on Saturday.
At the current prescription prices, I couldn't afford the maximum Adamantium dose that Wolverine was able to take, but I was able to get a large enough dose that I survived getting hit by a car with minimal damage.
It took a few weeks to shake the effects of the accident completely and I got 11th at Northampton in my strongest race of the season. Then at Sterling on Thanksgiving weekend I finally cracked the top 10. I had a great start, had great legs, and raced the smartest race I've ever raced, finishing 7th and following that up with 11th the next day. Last Verge weekend of the year was Dec 3/4 in Warwick, RI and I was probably less than 50/50 on whether or not I would go to Worlds. I don't want to be that guy that goes just because it would be cool to race Worlds. If I go I want to be competitive with a legitimate shot at a top 20. Day 1 of Warwick I had an awful start and ended up 30 back coming out of the first set of turns following the starting sprint. But I was riding strong and seemed to be able to hold my top end longer than ever before. To put it in Viagra terms, I could go harder, longer. I picked my way through the field bridging from group to group and finished with my second top 10 of the season. Considering the terrible start I had this was an awesome result. I was racing stronger than ever before and was really just coming into peak form. The "worlds" thoughts were strong now and I was wondering if I might take a shot at it. I went back to the hotel room in Warwick, took an ice bath, and laid down on the couch to do absolutely NOTHING for the rest of the day in preparation for the race on Sunday. I was watching a movie on TV, "Angels and Demons", with Tom Hanks as the Harvard Professor who is a symbologist with the worst haircut in the history of movies. He is called on to go to the Vatican and save the Catholic Church from bad guys. The detective from the Vatican pulls Hanks out of the pool at Harvard and explains what's going on with the Illuminati (the bad guys).. Lots of ancient religious symbology involved and Hanks is playing hard to get. The detective says to him, "You've spent 10 years of your academic life searching for the very symbol you now hold in your hand... How much longer must we pretend you haven't already decided to come.".. It occurred to me at that moment that despite trying to convince myself I was maybe 50/50 on going, I pretty much already decided I was going to Worlds.
Thanks to Professor Langdon for helping me decide to chase a dream and compete at Worlds. But, honestly, what's with the hair??
So there I was on December 31st at 8:00am, 33deg, raining and sleeting, slipping on the black ice of the driveway, strapping my cx bike to the roof racks of the truck to head down to Wareham, MA to do a practice race put on by the odds-on favorite to win the Worlds in the 50-54 group, Kevin Hines. There were over 30 of us out there at Jellystone Park in Wareham yesterday. Jungle cross, through the woods, over the sandy beaches, past the cranberry bogs. There were 5 former national and world champions, elite racers, the top masters in New England, all trying to stay sharp for just a couple more weeks. It was one of the best races of the year. We all sat in the barn after the race, banquet style, eating sandwiches and talking about our plans for Natz or Worlds. It was awesome! I contrast that to 20 years ago when I was one of the people who celebrated traditional New Year's, partying, drinking too much, not giving a shit that, not only did I not achieve my goals the previous year, but I probably didn't even have any. Speaking grandly about all I would accomplish in the coming year and forgetting about all of it once the alcohol-induced fog lifted the next day. Now it's different. Each year I get better and stronger in every way. Physically, mentally, and emotionally. I have goals every year and I work my ass off towards achieving them. This year I have unfinished business and I am completely stoked that my CX New Year is falling in January instead of December. 20 years ago if I was going to Kentucky it would have been to tour the bourbon distilleries. Now it's to race for a World Championship....
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