Maybe this post should really be re-titled to Weekend Thinking. Or maybe weekend thinking about riding. Really it should be weekend talking and thinking about riding. Don’t misconstrue this to mean that this weekend I’m only going to talk and think about riding and not ride. Nope, I’m going to do it all. Ride. Think. Talk. Trick is doing it all at once! (Okay lame joke…)

All this to say that yesterday in the car during our drive to Lakefield, Marc and I talked a lot about riding. About setting goals for each training ride. This involves thinking about the scheduled work-out, setting goals for each interval, and the ride overall. Then going out and achieving or over-achieving on these goals. If you don’t meet the goals, it is not a failure – rather time to ask why and what happened.

The other thing we talked about really boils down to “wanting it”. About having to want to get better. To want to put yourself in that place of pain and suffering. To really testing your body to see how far it can go. To committing to the ride and not letting yourself give up or “back down” on the ride.

For me this means that when I go out on group rides, I need to pay less attention to what my SRM is telling me and focus on staying with the group and riding intelligently. I need to go on these group rides with the commitment that I’ll do whatever it takes to stay with the group, to attack the group (if it is such a group ride), and to push myself.

This is how I’m going to get to the next level. I need to make this jump. To do this I need to bring out some aggression. Not crazy aggression. Just that level of emotion that drives me forward and makes me want it.

Now, all this being said. Don’t get me wrong. If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you know that I am one of the most driven and committed athletes out there. But I can still do more. And I can take this drive and commitment and focus in a slightly different direction. To help me make that jump to the next level.

So this is what I’ll be thinking about this morning as I’m sitting on the Marc’s back wheel really wishing he would slow down…

Happy pedaling. Happy Easter.