Practice, practice, practice

Promises to Yourself By Christian D. Larsen

Promise yourself….
To be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind;
To talk health, happiness, and prosperity to every person you meet;
To make all your friends feel that there is something in them;
To look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true;
To think only the best, to work only for the best, and to expect only the best;
To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own;
To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future;
To wear a cheerful countenance at all times and give every living creature you meet a smile;
To give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others;
To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear; and too happy to permit the presence of trouble;
To think well of yourself and to proclaim this fact to the world, not in loud words, but in great deeds;
To live in the faith that the whole world is on your side so long as you are true to the best that is in you.

The wrist is slowing me down and changing plans. Ouch! That hurts quite a bit given the planning and preparation for this fall. But, the fire is burning inside...sometimes there is no other choice, despite even the shrewdest skepticism, to believe that sometimes things happen for a reason.

I see the doctor again on monday 9/26 and will probably get the cast off. He'll also give me a good idea of when I can start racing again. I'm hoping to do Cross our Cancer in KC , but that will probably be too soon. We'll see. If not, Bubba #1.

The agony of amateur athletics

So I broke my wrist on the friday before my first weekend of cross racing. I wasn't even doing openers or anything cool. I was just spinning around making sure my bike worked when I was passing a runner with a dog on a wet asphalt bike bath. When I passed, the dog lurched at me a bit so I reflexively turned and had my front wheel slip out. I picked myself up and rode another 30 minutes. At the time my wrist hurt, but I went off road and told myself that if bumps didn't hurt it couldn't be broken. At 2am that night, I was thinking about it very differently.

First thing in the morning I ate breakfast and told my 2-yr-old and mom that I needed to go to the ER. I figured I'd decrease my wait time by brining a box of baked goodies...which actually worked, since about an hour after going in, I was walking our with a diagnosis of a broken distal radius.

The funny thing about the first day or so was that I really seemed to take it in stride. Oh well. More beer and cookies and rest and not training. Then monday started.

Let's just say that my work and academic situation at the moment is highly stressful and full of incredibly stupid and frustrating bullshit. By 5pm monday, I was about ready to curl-up in a ball. Tomorrow however, does not hold an hour or two of riding on the trail. Wednesday, I'll be cooking dinner for my family while my BoCoMo buddies are out on the CX practice course. Next saturday, I'll do a trainer ride then eat dinner and watch a movie instead of racing Hermann.

Don't get me wrong about the direction in which my writing is leading me...I really love what I do professionally and I LOVE my family. But shit. Racing and training to race helps me cope! I feel so....normal when I'm pissed off at 5pm and don't want to cook dinner and don't get to ride tomorrow. Normal sucks. And my wrist hurts. Shit my wrist hurts. Maybe if i had cable and could zone out and focus on other people's problems. Maybe reality TV would help? If not, I'm sure Fox news would convince me that I have lots of people to blame besides my own ego-driven desires and the frustrations/suffering we all experience.

The honest assessment of the situation is that cross season in this country is too long anyway. And missing the first 4-6 weeks only means that I don't peak and then have to re-peak again. Instead, I'll have 8-10 weeks of focus, fun, friends, and fall to lead up to the racing that matters for those of us who value the 'glory' of amateur racing...jersey's and bragging rights and maybe , just maybe, beating a bunch of jerks on a sure-to-be-cold day in Wisconsin in January (aka the national championships the first week of January).