The Pursuit of Rad Skills

Things are cruising along nicely here in the Midwest, in a mostly uneventful fashion. Despite the never ending below freezing temps I've been able to get in the best early season training I've ever done. I did have to invest in a few critical pieces of apparel, but since then it's been smooth sailing.

This month things are starting to ramp up a little, but still trying to enjoy some off season like activities at the same time. This weekend is Lauren's birthday as well as Valentine's day, luckily my significant other enjoys a good pedal herself, so I imagine it will be a good weekend with plenty of riding thrown in. Next weekend I'm going on a little camping/ riding trip in North Carolina with my dad, brother and Lauren. The trip is only for a long weekend, but it should be great to take in a bit of nature as well as ride the Blue Ridge Parkway for a few miles too.

Following the trip to NC, we've got our Panther/ Competitive Cyclist team get together in Ohio for a weekend of riding and distribution of all our gear. Seriously, I couldn't be more excited to ride for a team with a great roster and that's sponsored by the sweetest online retailer around.

After all of this stuff, it brings us almost to bike racin' time. Now, I'm not going to be driving all over the place to race every little spring race on the calendar, but I'll pin a few numbers in March and try to get myself up to a decent level for April and continue to take my time building my form for the summer.

And last, but not least... Cross Worlds to Louisville. Can't believe it, but pretty excited by it. Some of you know that I have aspirations to go to Worlds as a racer and some of you don't, well now it's out there. That's what I'll be working and training for over the next few years. Hopefully making a public declaration of my intentions will keep me accountable, and remind my friends and family to help me stay on track. In years passed, guys like Tristan Schouten and Brian Matter have been able to represent the Midwest at Worlds, and guys like that are my inspiration. Worlds selection is an interesting process and when those guys raced Worlds, they got a spot thanks to a few of the top guys not wanting to make the trip. It's safe to say that with the U.S. hosting worlds for the first time, there won't be any top U.S. crossers skipping it. I realize that this makes for a pretty lofty goal, but what's the point in making a goal if it's just to be mediocre? Plus, when you think about it, I really just need to make a couple minutes improvement in a 1 hour time trial over the next 3 years. Totally do-able.