Random Words.
Cyclocross is not unlike the holiday season. You max out your credit cards on gifts (for yourself) including parts, reg and travel. You make plans weeks or months ahead of time for said travel. You overindulge in your diet by under-indulging, way too much. Seriously your loved ones think you're sickly and don't stop offering you food. Everyone else that loves the season can't stop talking about the season. You can smell the sweet aromas of frites, coffee, beer and rim cement not unlike pine and cinnamon and fresh baked cookies.
"transition"
I appreciate the negative energy of non CX-racers as much as the positive energy simply because though negative it's still energy being tossed into the stoke machine that is CX.
"transition"
Half of the fun for me is the build up to race season. Perfect preparation leads to smoother execution and there is something immensely satisfying to that. My satisfaction isn't just in driving 8 hours in a weekend to pre ride 3 hours and race for 1.5. I totally feed off of the planning, packing, travel and perfect execution. Every Thursday night before a big road trip is a ritual in itself. Packing race kits, pre-riding wear, street clothes, the right footwear. Agonizing about the weather forecast, making sure I have my diet figured out. It's all part of the experience for me, and I love it all.
Not to mention I get to party with my "team" and best buddies like it's going out of business and meet new people every week.
Hopefully the lightning holds off today, I'm looking forward to my first skillz sesh of the year.
@MadisonDan who I'm voting for as leading the CX stoke competition this year has a great work out lined up. Dan is followed closely by
@Mountain Bike Mike holding a solid second place in the stoke competition. Also honorable mention to
@Delish and I don't know if I'm allowed to vote for myself but I think I'm in the mixes somewhere.
"conclusion with plans for my final week before racing"
I'm waiting a little long to re glue my first (and last) wheel of the preseason because I'm hoping to do a minor carbon repair. I flatted at Gloucester last year and rode it out half a lap and put bit of a crack in the rim. Then I had a couple beers post race and pulled a little more carbon off. I'm confident racing on it exactly as it is but I figured I may get a little extra life out of her if I throw some resin and material back at her. Hopefully more details on that task next week.
I'm planning on racing pit wheels (mud tire tubies) for my first weekend of races because the parks are pretty rooty and I'd rather not destroy my stuff. I'm not trying to win those races as much as practice form and warm up. They will probably damage my crossresults points but I think I'm in a position where I would like to start further back in the pack. I don't have any goals for a specific event, which is kinda nice. Going to go along for the ride this year. I'll be making some "major" "commitment" "decisions" at the end of the year depending how things go.