2012 - A Confusing Year

Before I begin with 2013, let me quickly try to summarize 2012...

The Bad-

• Low miles and low hours
• My Junior teammates from PV went to college/universities
• Lost motivation to race because of the lack of "team focus" and because of school...and I guess weather.
• Lots of Sick days
• Bad Diet
• New Cars...
• 3 Weeks Off in the Summer & 3 in the Winter for Philippines

The Good-

• I got a new bike; Cannondale CAAD10
• SFSU Cycling Team Commenced 

Despite all the bads, life goes on. When it was time to start planning for the 2013 Season, I assessed myself with those assessments in Joe Friel's "The Cyclist's Training Bible" and noticed I scored terribly lower than both 2010 and 2011. So I decided it was definitely time to get more serious and focused because I also started noticing that I couldn't drop my teammates from SFSU on the climbs anymore (which isn't a bad thing--for them at least =p); in fact they're now able to drop me! Due to this, I knew I had lost a lot of the skills I had trained for in 2011, so it was time to get them back and ultimately improve them.

After all the planning, the 2013 training season started around the beginning of November with base miles and low-key speed work. I was skipping workouts especially in inclement weather. Every time I would skip a workout or hours I would write in red sharpie: IMPROVE on my Weekly Training Plans. I guess it worked because I haven't skipped workouts ever since...unless there was an emergency or I just didn't see something like a family commitment coming.

Speaking of family commitment, my grandfather was getting old and we decided to visit him in the Philippines during July. I'm glad we were able to, because in December he passed away and we went back there on Christmas Day and attended his funeral there as well. I completely disregarded all my training and it was a totally legitimate reason to postpone everything. 

I think that's the important things to say. I only did about less than 5 races in 2012. I really lost motivation because there was really nothing motivating me until my teammates started kicking me in the butt. That's why, for 2013, I came in with a lot of motivation, but there are other factors which fueled my motivation even more...

--DB