Or race actually.  The season is fast approaching with a bunch of local races here on out until the first XCT race near Austin Texas that takes place the first weekend of March.  There there are two more big races at the end of March Bonelli, which is a UCI HC classification, and Fontana the weekend after.

Im nervous, but relaxed.  I have put in a lot of time training the last few months and feel more confidence in my fitness than I ever have, at the same time these races are very f*cking hard!  With two world cup races in North America this year my goal is to qualify to be able to race in one or both of them, but we will see, its good to dream big right?!

Down here in Southern California we are fortunate to have mountain bike racing year round.  Robert from Racers and Chasers has a pretty fun winter series with multiple events at different venues so far weve raced at Balboa Park and Black Mountain.  Then there is Southridges series at Fontana, which is great because it is normally a pretty similar course to the XCT event the end of March.  Victor, aka Slasher, puts on a fun series as well called the quick ‘n dirty.  He’s organized a race at the end of February and plans on having a mid-week summer series as well.

Photo by PBcreativephoto.com

I was fortunate enough to be part of the first round of coaches to be considered for the BC2 coaching (braveheart coaching squared) program.  It was put on my Lesley Patterson and Dr. Simon Marshall down in San Diego, CA.  The coaching camp featured coaches from all around the country with diverse backgrounds who were interested in becoming part of braveheart coaching platform.

Needless to say there was a lot of information to take in, and I am still processing most of it this monday morning.  One of the more unique things we learned about which most (probably none actually) coaching platforms don’t cover is brain coaching or training.  This is one thing that I have gone through tremendously in the past on my own, it can be the difference between a bad race/great race, and even effect your mood at work and your home life.  I don’t want to spill too many beans, but this is something for everyone to check out in the future.

Look at all that learning!

So after two days of short trainer rides crammed in between the long hours of learning Im gonna head out on my bike and work on training my brain and work on certain coaching platforms for the future.  Big thanks to Lesley and Simon for putting this workshop on, it was exactly what I was looking for as a new coach entering the market!