Resetting my goals for 2022

 In October 2021, I hit the pause button on my cyclocross season mainly due to the extensive family commitments that come with having 3 young kids (8, 11, 13). In the Fall, we are juggling tennis, soccer, x-country, school, and a number of other commitments that crop up on the calendar from week to week. It’s an especially stressful time for my wife who runs her own successful real estate business while juggling car pool duties and a hundred other things that demand her time. Having that kind of stress in the house while you are in your own world, focused on training and the next race simply isn’t tenable and ultimately not fair on everyone else who’s trying to make it all work.

So, after just two races in the 2021 cx season, I pulled the plug. I told my coach I needed to stop for now, and even sold my cyclocross bike on the Pros Closet. As disappointed as I was, in a strange way, I was also relieved to let go of that stress. Driving my daughter to tennis on Saturday morning and helping to get the kids out the door during the week by 7:30am meant no more group rides for the time being and getting up at 5am to train all of a sudden was optional with no looming sessions loaded into Training Peaks.

Instead, I spent more time helping to coach my 11 year old son’s x-country team, the Rain City Flyers, and in so doing, I found inspiration and joy in seeing these young kids become dedicated athletes having fun, training hard and competing as a team, all rooting for each other and feeling accountable for the team’s objectives. Being around such talented, hard-working, and kind boys helped remind me of my own childhood back in Dundee, Scotland, where I was a member of the local running club, the Dundee Hawkhill Harriers and then later, as a member of the Nicholls State University track and x-country team.

The boys trained twice during the week and then either trained or raced on Saturdays and I absolutely loved trying to keep up with them. Now, you might be thinking, they’re only 11 or 12 years old, so surely that can’t be all that hard. Well, over a 3K x-country race, we had a couple of the kids run a sub-10 minute race – that’s averaging a 5:20 mile pace! So, yeah, these kids are blazing fast, even the number 5 kid who’s still averaging a just over a 6 minute mile pace. This group of kids went undefeated the entire season, culminating with a Junior Olympics U12 National Championship in Paris, Kentucky in December.

For me, less time on the bike, but more time running felt like a much needed change. The inspiration came from the boys. I may not have had goals of my own but playing even a tiny role in their success was all the motivation and joy I needed. Seeing my own kid start in September with no base and then come home in December with a junior national championship medal with his friends was so cool. I’m already looking forward to next season, and once again, the cyclocross season will probably need to be on hold, but I think I’m fine with that. Certainly some small pangs of regret that I don’t get to chase my own goals, but I think that’s all part of the journey – circumstances change, and we need to reset and find new goals to focus on, not dwelling on what ought to have been.

So, here we are in February 2022, and I’m still not sure what the year holds as far as my own goals for the year. I’ve once again signed up for Rebecca’s Private Idaho in September and that’s the only thing I’m committed to. Even then, I was unsure I was willing to jump into that one again, but my friends’ enthusiasm for the event tipped the scales. No question that week in Sun Valley was a highlight, but it was also a huge commitment to get in race shape and I have to admit that as I sit here right now, not having ridden seriously in more than 5 months, the journey towards fitness feels daunting. Sure, I’ve been skiing, running, and biking a bit in the interim, but nothing structured, and certainly not the volume I know it’ll take to be competitive. I’m averaging maybe 5 hours per week on the bike just now compared to the 10 – 13 hours per week I was putting in most of 2021. I’m also thinking that maybe I want to try to race masters x-country in the Fall. The boys really did inspire me, but again, I’m pretty much starting on the ground floor. That sort of excites me though – seeing how far I can go from nothing.

In the meantime, I’m looking to get a new bike amid all the current supply chain issues and I think that’ll help give me the spark to get on the bike a bit more. Here’s to 2022. I hope you’re looking forward to the road ahead!