Planning for 2012

Shoot, already late February and I finally committed some time to write some thoughts. Needless to say it has been a busy start to the New Year. Coaching is at an all time high for me as it seems people are starting to hear about my coaching abilities and taking a more structured approach to their training.

What remains hard for me is balancing the desire to train and race with work, a sweet side contract, work with a secondary and fast growing company, starting up a new racing team and of course family. Times like these I am glad I have not committed myself to triathlon training and racing again but I do have to say the sport is calling to me and it grows louder each day.

Recently watching the XTerra World Championships, the Ironman World Championships and Lance throw down at Panama 70.3 are inspiring visuals for me. On the flip side, so too have the Tour of Qatar and Tour of Oman coverage been in stoking my passion for road racing.

So I feel the need to write it out publicly to declare my focus for this season on road racing versus triathlon. There it is so please keep me focused on preparing for this year's road racing calendar.

It is an exciting calendar posted by the Alberta Bicycling Association. Many multi-day events and a potentially huge Calgary Super Week. As I looked at the calendar and started to drool over potential racing weekends, it became apparent that I could race almost every weekend from May to August without cyclocross events being listed! Obviously too much.

So I have narrowed things down to the following;

May

7-12th: Aerobic Power Haus bike camp!

19-20th: Bikes on Broadway (Saskatoon) - never been but always wanted to try this one.

27th: Pigeon Lake RR

June

14-17th: Banff Bike Fest - yeah we get to do all the events this year!!

July

8th: Masters Provincial RR

August

3-6th: Tour de Bowness

8th: Crankmasters ITT

10-12th: J-Lap Memorial Race

19th: Provincial Road Race?

26th: Provincial ITT Championships?

Having publicly stated these events and my focus this season I feel committed to this process.

I am super motivated to be ready for this season and help my new teammates in the races. I love the role in supporting a teammate and helping them to win almost more than going for the win myself - well almost. Now I had better continue with my training program as I have heard and read that many local guys have been doing the training camp thing down south...

JVD