There are not many things worth doing in life come cheap or easy. Racing definitely falls into that line of thinking. The bikes are not cheap and the races are not easy. If there is one thing I learned this past year it is that if you are not moving forward, you are backing up.

I started the road race season stronger, faster and smarter than I was last year. My plan was to finish the Cat 5 races I needed and then move up to Cat 4. Somewhere during the off-season I convinced myself that this season was going to be easy. I was an experienced Cat 5. I was stronger, faster, and smarter. All I had to do was show up, and good results were guaranteed. I was wrong. But it wasn’t the strength or speed, or even the strategy that got me, it was my own mental preparation. If you are not mentally prepared to race, and to suffer, then you are not prepared at all.

I had two DNF’s this past year. Neither was because the race was too long, or two hard. I just wasn’t mentally prepared. The tour of New Braunfels road race was my first road race of the season. I was a seasoned Cat 5. I was in better shape than last year. I knew the course and how Cat 5 races played out. Top 10 was my goal, it was going to be easy! Back in the real world when the first hard attack came, I was a little too far back in the field and had to chase hard, leapfrogging riders and closing gaps. I survived and managed to hang on to the lead group, but it hurt. It wasn’t supposed to be that hard. Who forgot to tell those guys at the front? When we got back into some hills, I was done. Slowly sliding off the back, watching my top 10 ride away. I grouped up with 5 or 6 other riders and we set a steady tempo, taking pulls in a paceline. Physically the riding was pretty easy, mentally I was done. A few miles later the race course turned right and I turned left, back to the car. After getting home and looking at the results I realized that just finishing I would have been in the top 25. If I had ridden with some enthusiasm it could have been a top 20. Not the top 10 I wanted, but not a bad result for the first weekend of racing. Mentally, I blew it.

You would think that I would have learned my lesson…….but no. Fayetteville stage race came along. Again I told myself I was stronger, faster, smarter and a good finish was guaranteed. Stage three was another DNF for me. After going home and looking at the results, Stage 1 I finished higher than the year before. Stage 2, the TT, I knocked over 40 seconds off last years time. Stage 3 all I had to do was finish and my overall GC would have been better than the year before. But mentally I had set myself up to fail, and I did.

As I move up to Cat 4, I have time to look back think about all the things I have learned during my time as a Cat 5. The Cat 4 fields will be bigger. The pace will be faster. The races will be longer. But, if there is one thing that I have learned as a Cat 5 that will help me be a successful Cat 4, it is mental preparation. There will probably be races where I get dropped. There might be some long, lonely miles off the back. There is even the possibility that I will finish a race dead last. But if I’m mentally prepared, if I enjoy the racing and don’t focus on the result, as long as I keep the pedals turning, then I will be moving forward.