Season ending thoughts

Just some random stuffins'......

For a guy like me that has to train in blocks somewhat due to a hectic schedule, the WKO software and especially the PMC and TSS components were a great way to see if I was gaining fitness and not just guessing at things. I went from 70 CTL in January 08 to a peak of about 122 in September.
I held onto quite a bit of fitness through cross season and tried to spend my bank account wisely and rest only for bigger events on the NCNCA Cup.
One thing I noticed was with too much rest and a big positive TSB I sucked on race day but excelled about two days later with less positive TSB- my best races and best power numbers were generally with a TSB of 5-10.
Had the events been longer than a hour I think I would have killed it- I never really got tired , just didn't have a whole lot of hops.
I tapered down the last couple weeks to 90 and definitely lost a bit- I lengthened my season by a month trying to stretch for those last CCCX and NCNCA races and couldn't do it- my best races were in Mid December around Natz- definitely going next year.
I can hold good fitness in a race period for 6-8 weeks max, so just spending it in a more focused way will be on the agenda for next year.

One more powermeter thought- several times this season my races were marred by crashes and mechanical and driver error- if I only judged my performance on that of my competitors I would be awful down on myself- doing some tests and seeing some PB power numbers in December kept my head in the game.

My best race was one where my rear wheel went sideways in the drops at the start and I had to run for the B bike, then get going a half lap down.
I chased through the field with full mouth dribble a-goin' and got within 30 seconds of the leaders before rolling my back tubie- not a stellar result with hands in the air at the end but one I'll be proud of for a long time.

The SS A field was good hard racin all year- the best racers came out on top over the season, I think we raced each other hard all year but also rode with some class, not easy to do when you put a bunch of competitive fellows together on a little dirt path.

I got a bunch of kids out racing this year in a positive environment, several of them the LARPD was their first race, some of them have bigger fish to fry on the road, but I think going wheel to wheel at least a little bit all winter is good for you.
08 will be a complete success if a quarter of the kids take the lessons of sport and use them in their lives somehow...

A big shout out to all the compadres and my family- we went to tons of races this year, much to the dismay of the 12 year old, but loading up the barge and heading out every Sunday was fantastic.