Be the doughnut! (or, how I learned to stop worrying and enjoy mediocrity)

Delish

Delish

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
As we roll through another #crossiscoming hashtag season and into a #crossishere hashtag season, it seemed like a good time to start a new blog. I thought I would start fresh, not only because it’s been a long time since I touched the last one (which sucked anyway), but because this for season and probably the next many-seasons, my approach to training and racing will be different.

A few months ago @pearl asked the following question:

“a birdie told me you aren’t training for cross, i don’t know how to not train/take direction from anyone anymore. How do i make sure i stay fast for cx? sincerely, concerned in concord”

I explained my new “training plan” as follows:
#1: Ride my bike when I want to ride my bike
#2: When I ride my bike, have fun riding my bike
#3: Through #1 and #2, stay kinda-sorta fast

Last season, I had a coach, I did most of the workouts, built in seasonal specificity, yada yada…. I’d give myself a sold B+/A- in terms of training effort. 90%. @Dominos and I hit the season pretty hard with 13 races in the bag. And the results? Pretty satisfied...felt strong, had a few podiums, finished 3rd in the local 1/2/3 series. Could have put in more effort and maybe done a little better? Perhaps. But I’ve never really been a 110% effort sort of guy (see @UtahJoe ) and so, realistically, I was pushing the boundaries of my time-bending ability with the training/racing schedule.

Time is perhaps the ultimate finite resource. Despite my best efforts to bend time--to balance work, kids, training, racing, social engagements, right-brain development, toddler birthday parties, toddler birthday parties, toddler birthday parties--there are always trade-offs. For various reasons, this past year has been an exercise in reevaluating life’s inputs and marginal returns. Going forward, I strive to be a solid 80% guy: to follow Pareto’s 80/20 principle. To do the things that will get me most of the way there with minimal inputs. To forget about the flat end of the marginal utility curve. Which brings me to the last and finally tenant of my “training plan”:

#4: Race against fast guys and be completely OK not being all that I can be. In other words, be happy just to be out there racing.

Being OK with possibly sort of sucking will be the toughest part, but at least there will be doughnuts. Join my on the journey to Mid-Pack Mediocrity because I'm CERTAIN that if I don't have time to train, I'll have plenty of time to keep up this blog, right?

Be the doughnut! #doughnutiscoming
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wow 15 minutes and i got first, i guess everyone is out to lunch

i will be following the same plan, inspired by you <3
 
I like your riding plan; it sounds like mine. Sub'd for more donut pictures and content. Keep it up!
 
A+ title...i ate that same donut this morning and felt like garbage and regretted my life decisions about an hour later.

Ive been on that same training plan for years. but for multisport stuff i get even more stretched out and fewer hours on each discipline. I know ill never be fast, but when i started racing, i told myself i would stop if i no longer enjoyed it and if it became something i didnt want to do. So that mentality has poured into my "training".

Riding my bike after work should be something restorative to a degree. It feels good to get your heart rate up and do work...but sometimes you have to remember why we are doing this in the first place. we cant spend all of our time in the pain cave.
 
Delish said:
Being OK with possibly sort of sucking will be the toughest part, but at least there will be doughnuts.

Be the doughnut! #doughnutiscoming
OzYkxbc.jpg
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I've been ok with this since race #2 or 3. (Was in denial at the beginning I guess). Doughnuts are definitely helpful, as is bacon, cookies, brownies, and beer. Some make better hand-ups than others though, and all but one are better warmed up.
#DoughnutCrossIsComing
 
Last night, as I'm putting my 2 YO to sleep, I was thinking about cross. I thought about the routines, the workouts, the disciplined eating, race day nerves, post race bs'ing, and then the cleaning up and doing it all over. I felt pretty lucky to be able to take part.

This year will be tough because I worked pretty hard on on the MTB and I'm not sure how much I have left. But regardless, it'll be a blast because cross always is.
 
Tell me more about your plans for this blog? Will you offer training plans? Recipes for unhealthy pre-race food?

You should consider trademarking this "mediocrity" idea. Mediocre Training (tm) with Mediocre Coaching experts and events. I can see lots of line extension opportunities too, like a line of beer-infused coconut water, or doughnuts packaged as energy bars.

Call me to discuss, I think this has potential.
 
Dominos said:
Tell me more about your plans for this blog? Will you offer training plans? Recipes for unhealthy pre-race food?

You should consider trademarking this "mediocrity" idea. Mediocre Training (tm) with Mediocre Coaching experts and events. I can see lots of line extension opportunities too, like a line of beer-infused coconut water, or doughnuts packaged as energy bars.

Call me to discuss, I think this has potential.
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Those weekly emails would be fun

Monday: meh
 
qclabrat said:
are there any mtbnj short track type cx races?
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Yes, they were in March :)

Ya I get the 110% thing.....This year was the best results I have ever had while also being the least miserable and most fun....but had I actually went for the full 110%? maybe I would have lost more weight, or trained a little harder...maybe that would have moved me up a few spots...but ill think about it for next year.
 
Is CX talk allowed outside of the CX cage?

Is this message going to get me banned for mentioning CX three times?

I've been pretty OG rainbow sprinkles. Talkin' 'bout crushin' dat sprink for 26 years now. I feel as though sprinkles are in the middle of a renascence. Possibly riding the wave of the craft donut craze and Progressive's Flow perhaps?

Or maybe I'm just surrounding myself with people into sprinkles.

Either way, I'm excited about this blog.
 
Salieri - Coincidentally, I’m just finishing The Fountainhead, which draws a similar parallel to Amadeus--Salieri to Mozart and Toohey & Keating to Roark. In both stories, the medocrites are enraged by their inferiority and feel the need to destroy their superiors. Ayn Rand is quoted as saying “’Mediocrity’ does not mean an average intelligence; it means an average intelligence that resents and envies its betters.” That's certainly one way to approach mediocrity.

@jShort makes a good point about being lucky just to take part in this sport. So many people fall off the training band wagon, perhaps eat too many doughnuts, then start getting their asses kicked by people they used to beat, which makes them unhappy, envious, and resentful so they eventually stop racing altogether. Exactly the point that Rand is trying to make.

There is, of course, other way to react to mediocrity is and that is to be inspired by those who are better than us, to accept our own lot in life and to be thankful for the opportunity just to participate.

I hope to make the format oft his blog 33% incoherent rambling, 33% nerd-out-bike-tech, 33% diet, 33% other stuff and 33% Mediocre Training Tips™ (thanks for the @Dominos for the idea). What I've found through my new mediocre training regimen is that 1) I really enjoy riding, and 2) I usually push myself pretty hard whenever I ride. It's not that I'm not training or working hard or that i don't care about doing well. I just want to do it in such a way that doesn't consume too much of me. Hopefully this is a recipe for not totally sucking. Either way, I'll share my results. If anybody want me to send you a weekly training plan I will set that up. You'll get the following email every Monday AM:

Monday: Meh
Tuesday: Taco Tuesday!
Wednesday: Dowhatyalike
Thursday: [cough]
Friday: Beer Battered Onion Ring Friday!
Sat-Sun: RECOVER

In other news, I started rebuilding @Norm's front China Lefty wheel which @UtahJoe rode for a while. Spokes were pulling through the nipples. Turns out that Stan's goo was getting inside the rim and had corroded the spokes and nipples pretty badly.
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Time for new spokes and brass niples
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I think I started running those for the 2012 season...so I guess 4.5 years aint bad for a set of alloy nipples.

Plus anything your gives @Norm just corrodes...anything...give him a gold bar and it will be covered in rust in 24 hours.
 
Delish said:
Salieri - Coincidentally, I’m just finishing The Fountainhead, which draws a similar parallel to Amadeus--Salieri to Mozart and Toohey & Keating to Roark. In both stories, the medocrites are enraged by their inferiority and feel the need to destroy their superiors. Ayn Rand is quoted as saying “’Mediocrity’ does not mean an average intelligence; it means an average intelligence that resents and envies its betters.” That's certainly one way to approach mediocrity.
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We are actually living through Atlas Shrugged right now.
 
UtahJoe said:
Plus anything your gives @Norm just corrodes...anything...give him a gold bar and it will be covered in rust in 24 hours.
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Says Mr. I Destroy GPS Units like Gallagher f*cks up watermelons.

Delish said:
There is, of course, other way to react to mediocrity is and that is to be inspired by those who are better than us, to accept our own lot in life and to be thankful for the opportunity just to participate.
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This can also be the fast way to land in a rut where you don't push yourself because it's easier not to.

The fact that one races at all means that there is some level of competitive streak in which he or she wants to measure up against some people or persons. If zero shits were truly given about placement the logical conclusion would be that racing is complete nonsense. I think some leeway can be given to those people who do things as an accomplishment (see W101, etc), but CX does not fall into that purview.

As someone who has gone from reasonably successful in cx to completely pack fodder, it is not the distance from the pointy end that makes it hard to stomach. It is getting beat by people that you would never imagine losing to on your worst day ever. The day that someone beats you that you could not imagine ever losing to will be harder than losing to the guy you beat by 30 seconds on average last year.
 
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