{"id":3754,"date":"2015-09-16T13:39:44","date_gmt":"2015-09-16T20:39:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/silversagecenter.com\/staging\/?p=3754"},"modified":"2015-09-16T13:39:44","modified_gmt":"2015-09-16T20:39:44","slug":"the-end-is-just-the-beginning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/silversagecenter.com\/staging\/the-end-is-just-the-beginning\/","title":{"rendered":"The End is Just the Beginning"},"content":{"rendered":"

Contributed by Silver Sage sponsored Reno WheelWoman, Hanging-in-there-tough-Heidi Littenberg<\/p>\n

USA Cycling Masters National Championships, held September 9th<\/sup> through the 12th<\/sup>, marked the end of my 2015 racing season.\u00a0 The dates have been circled on my calendar since exactly one year ago.\u00a0 In 2014, I registered, but couldn\u2019t attend because I was sitting behind a computer monitor all summer and couldn\u2019t really ride, let alone train.\u00a0 The sudden decrease in riding time was clearly visible on Training Peaks. Instead, I sat at work for something like 12 to 14 hours a day almost every day of the week.\u00a0 I looked at friends\u2019 Facebook and Strava posts with envy.\u00a0 Riding and racing passed me by.<\/p>\n

\"61879418-ND5A9045\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Fifty two weeks\u2026. 365 days.\u00a0 I was anxiously awaiting this year\u2019s event, mostly because it meant I could participate, unlike last year.<\/p>\n

However, as August approached, I started feeling late-season burnout.\u00a0 July included a couple big races and the training for those pretty much fried me.\u00a0 After a good conversation with Coach Julie Young, she tweaked my training plan so I could train and manage the burnout as much as possible.\u00a0 This included more group rides for much-needed social contact, the Reno Wheelmen Tuesday Twilight races, some regular solo interval sessions, and a renewed focus on quality over quantity.\u00a0 Some days were better than others, but she helped me head to Ogden, Utah with the bulk of my fitness and desire to race intact.<\/p>\n

I went to Nationals with two simple goals for the races \u2013 race hard and have fun.<\/p>\n

Our time trial course reconnaissance gave me reason to be concerned.\u00a0 A steep, somewhat long climb awaited in the last five kilometers of the 35K race and I was worried my legs wouldn\u2019t be up to the challenge.\u00a0 Time trialing is new to me and I didn\u2019t expect much in terms of results, but the course was intimidating anyway. On race day, though, I found some focus amid the pre-race butterflies and I pushed myself as hard as I could.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t set the world on fire, but that wasn\u2019t the point.\u00a0 I was able to sit back after it was done and reflect on the past year.\u00a0 The main point \u2013 I got to do it.\u00a0 That\u2019s as good as a win in my book.<\/p>\n

\"61879419-_T7O4425\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The criterium awaited three days later and that\u2019s my bread and butter.\u00a0 I had time to recover from the TT, help my teammate during the road race, cheer for friends, and do some fun riding.<\/p>\n

On race morning, a quick course inspection and warm-up got my juices flowing.\u00a0 The course looked to be as fun as I hoped it would be.\u00a0 I lined up at the start and told myself, \u201cYou are here to have fun.\u00a0 Do that and the rest won\u2019t matter.\u201d When the starter\u2019s whistle blew, my mind immediately went into \u201crace mode\u201d and stayed there.\u00a0 Crits require laser-like focus because things happen so quickly. I wasn\u2019t sure I would have that focus after being all over the place mentally in August, but I did. Even though I missed the medals by about six inches in the sprint, I felt exhilarated.\u00a0 It was FUN and it was exactly why I\u2019m so addicted to racing.<\/p>\n

So, the first moral of this story is talk to your coach<\/u>.\u00a0 Julie did an excellent job of helping me maintain focus and fitness despite low motivation.\u00a0 Burnout is tough to manage, but it\u2019s doable when you make sure your coach knows what\u2019s going on.<\/p>\n

Even better, I\u2019m ending my season with the desire to go after it again next year.\u00a0 I\u2019m already looking forward to all the fall and winter cross training Julie will dish out, so I can be stronger and faster when things start up in the spring.\u00a0 So, the cycle continues.\u00a0 This season\u2019s end has become next season\u2019s beginning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Contributed by Silver Sage sponsored Reno WheelWoman, Hanging-in-there-tough-Heidi Littenberg USA Cycling Masters National Championships, held September 9th through the 12th, marked the end of my 2015 racing season.\u00a0 The dates have been circled on my calendar since exactly one year ago.\u00a0 In 2014, I registered, but couldn\u2019t attend because I was sitting behind a computer […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":3755,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-athletes-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/silversagecenter.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/silversagecenter.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/silversagecenter.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/silversagecenter.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/silversagecenter.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3754"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/silversagecenter.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3754\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3756,"href":"http:\/\/silversagecenter.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3754\/revisions\/3756"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/silversagecenter.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/silversagecenter.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/silversagecenter.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/silversagecenter.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}