I’ve had a good couple of days of training and some excellent talks with people about my racing so far. I’ve gotten a lot of good advice on what to do and not do. Most importantly, I’ve been reminded of the progress I’ve made. It is sometimes easy in the shuffle of race results to remember what things were like a year ago. Luckily for me I’ve made a lot of gains in a year. Fitness gains. Technical gains. And I think really most significantly, mental gains.

Yes, that almighty mental game is super key. Especially for me right now. It would be easy to drag myself down into a pit of despair and self-pity. That happened last year. (Twice) But it is not happening this year. Last year tough races and results, served to only make me fear my bike and each upcoming race. Not this year. Not even close. On the contrary, my race experiences this year have made me embrace my bike and racing even more. I want to be out on my bike right now – riding in the mud, tackling the sand, descending something crazy.

I’m not sure how this shift happened. I can’t question it. I can only be thankful for it and stay positive. There is no room for the negative in my season. I realized that some might have my read my posts on Sunday and interpreted them as my feeling a bit down. Nope. Fired up was and is how I’m feeling. I just want to get out there and get better.

These last two days have been so good for this. I had a super awesome ride on Monday. Got out for close to three hours with some really challenging start intervals thrown into the mix. Let me tell you – 45 seconds when you’re standing sprinting out of the saddle in your hardest gear, is a really really long time. I loved them. And good news is, I get to do them again tomorrow. The interesting thing about these intervals is that they really taught me that I’m not going hard enough in the start. I guess I really wasn’t sure how the start should feel. Apparently it is supposed to feel like these intervals. Perfect. Now I know. Today I got out for a ninety minute recovery ride. Initially, I thought 90 minutes didn’t seem like much. But let me tell you – my body needed a short easy recovery ride. Didn’t realize I was tired until I started pedaling!

I had a great talk with a new ally here in Belgium who is proving to be super helpful in my quest to get some technical training. Also got the name of another rider who might be able to help out. Cool. All I can do is ask.

Did a little bit of bike work as well. Well, bike work might be a stretch… I’ve been riding and racing with some old Look egg beater pedals. These pedals are three years old… One pair finally quit after Sunday’s mud bath. So now I’ve got a new pair of Crank Brothers egg beaters on one bike. I was kind of impressed that I identified that the pedals were done and was then able to change them. I know – this is not major but it could lead to crazy instances of bike mechanics – before you know it I’ll be changing brake pads, replacing my bar tape, and taking off the stays…

On deck Wednesday is a super day of training. It is a double day. Yes! It is going to be a good one. Long ride in the morning with the infamous start intervals. Home for a bit of a rest. Then out to the nature preserve in Averbode for some ‘cross riding. I’m going to set up my own little course and then section it – working on the various parts – steadily getting faster and more confident. Cool.

I’ve got two races on the schedule this weekend. It will be my first trip to Holland of the season on Sunday. Off to Den Hagg for a race. Den Hagg is just outside Rotterdam. My only memory of Rotterdam is from the summer of 2007 – my first criterium racing experience in Holland – the GPS stopped working and then I discovered a massive traffic circle in Rotterdam with what felt like 15 exits! Anyway, I’m looking forward to racing this weekend. More opportunities to practice and improve.

Now for your viewing pleasure, I’ve got some photos from Balint Hamvas of http://cyclephotos.co.uk. Balint took these pictures at the Nommay World Cup. Thanks Balint!

Have you ever wanted something so badly that you would do anything to have it? This is where I’m at now. I just so desperately want to improve. I want to. I have to. I just feel like I’m on the cusp of that next level and I want to get better now.

If I could be out riding my bike eight hours a day, I would. If I knew that would make me better. If I could find that “magic” drill or training park that would just help push me along to the next level – to where I want be. If only…

This is how I’m feeling today. Perhaps it seems a bit desperate. But I’m so darn hungry for improvement. I’ve got damn strong legs. I’ve got a powerful set of lungs and heart. I just need my technical skills to catch up. I could get by okay at home in Canada and the U.S. with my legs, lungs and heart. But not here. Here watts don’t matter if you don’t have the skills. This is cold hard reality of the situation.

Don’t take this to read that I’m down on myself. On the contrary – I’m just so darn frustrated. I want to be better. I want to be able to descend the muddy slick descents with confidence. I want to always be pedaling – instead of thinking and stopping pedaling. I want to be more smooth and efficient in the mud. I want to be able to choose better race lines. I want to be able to get up the steep inclines. I want to float through the sand. I want it all.

Problem is, these things take time and patience. And they take outside help. To put it bluntly – I need someone to go riding with here in Belgium who can put me through my paces and teach me how to descend better, ride the mud better, ride sand better, choose better race lines and basically sharpen and improve all of my technical skills. If you are that person – email me! I want to learn so badly. I’ve got the lungs and legs – I just need the technical know how.

So you can probably guess I am less than satisfied with my race today. You are correct. This was the first “real” Belgian ‘cross course I’ve raced on this year. Muddy. Slippery. Twisty. Crazy descents. Technical climbs. A really good hard challenging course. It also did an excellent job of highlighting my technical problems. After the race, I received the following comment “Your fitness is very strong. Your technical skills need to improve. I see you hesitating on the descents and then stopping pedaling”. This is perfectly spot on. I’ve written a full race report over here – you can read more about the course and the race there.

But this being said, I did have a very good day. Great drive to the race with Jos. Super support from Jos all day – she was awesome in the pits, had fresh bikes for me when I pitted, cleaned both bikes after the race, power washed my legs and shoes, wiped down the bikes and reminded me to get changed. Couldn’t have done the race without Jos. As a treat we stopped at a bakery on the way home. Jos got a tasty frangipan tart and I got an underwhelming raisin croissant – so underwhelming I only took two bites! Quick and smooth drive home. Hung out with Tim and Jos for a bit and we watched the highlights from the women’s race. Then I was back home and spent two hours working on the bikes! Crazy but I just wanted to make sure everything was as clean as it could be.

Chilled out evening. Had a good long chat with Skip of KingsBridge today. Go check out the KingsBridge web site and learn more about one of the key sponsors of Ottawa Cross.

Just talked to Marc. He had another tough slog in the New Jersey mud. Sounds like it was an epic weekend down at the Mercer Cup. Gotta tell you – I don’t miss that race! It was great to talk to Marc about his race and then for him to give me some sound advice about my racing and training. Really without Marc, none of this would be possible. I would have cracked long ago. He is super supportive of my cyclo-cross racing and really puts himself second so that I can do what I want. This just makes me want to get better so much more. I want to be able to call him and tell him about my breakthrough race and excellent result…

I’m finally in the full-on bike racer groove. It has taken me a bit to get used to having all this time on my hands. This is the first time that I haven’t juggled working along with racing and training. Strange, this time thing is hard to get used to. Initially I was tempted to “do” and then “do some more”. This was not working. On top of getting used to life here and life without Marc, this do more attitude and a couple of big races resulted in stress and a bit of fatigue.

I have finally seen the light. The less is more mantra is now ringing true. I’m taking deep breathes. Throwing away to do lists. Just taking each day as it comes. Sure I have things I want to get done. But now I’m recognizing that I don’t need to cram my days with stuff. What I need to do is get in quality training. And take the rest of the day to reap the benefits from this training. This means taking naps in the afternoon, staying off my legs, and ensuring my nutrition and stretching is top-notch.

I’ve also learned that I need to set aside time to work on my bikes. Work might be a slight exaggeration of what I’m doing to my bikes. Perhaps intensive cleaning would be more apt. Anyway, whatever you call it, it takes time to look after and maintain two cyclo-cross bikes. Since I’m not an expert at this component of the bike racer life, it does take me a bit longer to get things done. But so far so good. As it stands right now, I’ve got two sparkling clean Stevens Super-Prestige bikes in the garage. All my tires and wheels are clean. The chains are nice and shiny.

Today was about recovery on the bike. I was supposed to do a recovery ride yesterday. But exuberance got the better of me and I went out and had a not-quite-recovery ride in the nature preserve close to my house. My coach caught this and reminded me of the importance of rest. It is so hard for me to spend time on recovery because I just want to be out there practicing my skills, working on my starts, and getting more comfortable riding in the mud and sand. But lucky for me I have coach Steve… Without him, I’d be out there drilling it day in an day out. This is so tempting, especially when I have the time. But I know deep down that I need to rest and recover. And this does not mean start intervals and hard slogs through the mud.

So today’s ride was rather pleasant. I explored some new roads and pedaled down some old favorites. I love going out for a ride with the following ride plan: pedal along, take the next left, pedal along, take the next right, pedal along, hmm – I’m lost, now try and find my way home. This is what I typically do when I don’t have set intervals to do during my ride. Some may find this stressful – not knowing where you are. But for me it is part of the adventure. When in doubt, I ride towards the church steeple. This inevitably leads to the center of the town. From there I can guess and find my way home (mostly).

I have decided not to race tomorrow. I really wanted to. But I had to weigh the pros and cons of racing on Saturday. The race is not close (but not far by North American standards). But it is really more the pre-race and post-race work that I worry will cause me to fatigue. I want to be fresh for Asper-Gavere on Sunday. I also had to remember that I raced on Wednesday. It is hard to remember that I don’t have to do every race there is. I’ve got a big schedule ahead of me, so missing a race with the junior boys is not a big deal. Mind you I really like the vibe of the Vlaamse Cyclo-Cross Cup. But hopefully I’ll get out to a couple of these races later in the season (in fact I do have one definitely planned for next weekend).

I best be off. I’ve got a nice hot mug of honey tea waiting for me… Happy Friday. Best of luck to Marc racing at the Mercer Cup this weekend. Best of luck to the Fearless Leader this weekend at the Ontario Provincials. I’ll be cheering for you guys. I miss standing in the pits and cheering you on and then hanging out after the races and rehashing the 40 minute races for what seems like hours! Couldn’t do this without you guys.

(Totally forgot – go check out my latest online column at Cyclocross Magazine!)

Had a solid night’s sleep and was up early this morning. I just can’t sleep in! So frustrating. I would love to be able to sleep until 8 a.m. Nope -up at 7! Oh well. Early bird gets the worm I guess. Popped out of bed and decided to get my yoga fix on. I did a 20 minute yoga detox flow. Just enough to get me limbered up and a bit of sweat on. Nothing like sometime in pigeon and warrior three to get the blood flowing!

Next mission was a ‘cross ride. I set off towards Averbode – I had planned to ride the trails I had discovered earlier in the week. But as I was pedaling along listening to Stuart Maclean and the Vinyl Cafe, I spied a trail to m left. I wasn’t sure where it would go, but what the heck… Well, I found an even better place for training. I discovered this massive “nature preserver” with mountain bike trails, mega-climbs, fast twisty descents, long bumpy roads with big patches of mud and sand, lots of bumps thanks to the horses that people ride in this place as well. It was an awesome ride. I was able to ride for 90 minutes and barely doubled back on myself.

Think I’ve found my new playground. This nature preserve is bordered by roads. So my “rule” was that if I popped out on a road I had to practice a standing start. I ended up doing four standing starts. I tried out the new drill that I learned from Matt yesterday. Put your bike in the hardest gear. Get in a position as if you’re on the start line. Then sprint like mad for 30 seconds or so. Starting in the hardest gear really teaches/forces you to use your upper body to move the bike and to get a good hard burn in the legs. I have to say, that this drill really highlights if you are slow at accelerating. I definitely notices that the first few pedal strokes are very labored. But I’m hoping/planning that with more practice I’ll improve.

I really had a blast out on my bike today. It was just me and the woods. Saw one lady walking her dog. Other than that I was free to zoom around in the mud, sand, and singletrack. Gotta love riding in the deep dark black Belgian mud. It really forces you to turn the legs over. Most excellent day on the bike.

I took a picture of my bike post ride:

I also discovered some photos on my camera from my trip to Treviso, Italy:

Well, I’m off for the afternoon. Decided not to race on Saturday – want to make sure I’m fresh for Sunday. So I’m looking forward to a couple more days of good training. Tomorrow I’m going to go into the suburbs of Antwerp for a little bit of “shopping” at Decathlon and Saturn (massive electronics store). Looking forward to more fun on the bike.

Today I raced in Niel, Belgium in the GVA Trofee. Since it is a national holiday today, there were so many people out for the race. I’d forgotten how many people come out to the cyclo-cross races here. Very cool. Makes for an exhilerating race experience.

Lucky for me, Jos came wit me to the race. So helpful to have her support. She is an expert navigator and is a big help with the registration, finding the parking and then doing the dirty work in the pits. Thanks Jos – I owe you!

We set off early today. I wanted to get there with time to get on the course before things got really crazy. I knew that parking would be a challenge and with the crowds I wanted to be well-settled before the craziness began. Super happy we arrived when we did. We managed to beat the craziness at registration. And thanks to my determination, we were able to get parking in the elite parking lot. The elite parking lot is really only for the elite men… But I told the parking wardens that they weren’t giving out parking passes (which was true) and that we wanted to park in the elite lot. In this case, persistence paid off and we got a sweet parking spot next to the Fidea team compound.

I hopped on the course pretty much right away and got in a couple of laps. Super fun course. Challenging and pretty much unrelenting. Nowhere to “rest” or really recover. This was due to the surface – bumpy soggy grass. It wasn’t as muddy as last year. Rather just soft. Seemed like the combination of the bumps and the wet grass were really effective at grabbing the bike and sucking you down! I’ve written a race report over here. At the end of the day, I finished 18th. I was duking it out for most of the race with the girls who finished 16th and 17th. On the last lap I lost them on the steep run-up. I simply couldn’t get them back. Bit frustrating because I know I was stronger than them – they were just that better than me technically.

Before the race I met Rudy De Bie – the Belgian National Team coach. He is a super friendly guy and promised to shout at me during the race. And shout he did. It was awesome to have him encouraging me. Then at the end of the race he was there to give me some tips and a friendly smile. This was super awesome. I really appreciate all the help and tips I can get from people. Especially from someone like Rudy De Bie. Thanks Rudy!

I did a quick little cool down with a quick side stop at the Sven Nys clothing booth to check out this year’s line of clothing. Mmm, some really nice Sven Nys branded clothing this year. Sven Nys is not only the top ‘crosser here in Belgium, but he also has a very popular line of clothing.

Jos and I got the car packed up pretty quickly and then went on the search for the prize money/start money place… We were misdirected to the registration building… This was definitely not the correct place – but luckily we saw the race officials walking towards the race – so we drove one of them back to the race and he directed us to the correct place to get the start money. Once this was sorted we were quickly in the car and on our way back home.

As usual the drive went super quickly as Jos and I discussed the day and the race. It helps to have a good friend like Jos to talk to after the race. Helps me get the race out of my system and get her thoughts on what is going on. And thanks to Jos, I’ve got a mechanic lined up for the next World Cup in Koksijde. This is a big relief.

Well, that was the day. The bikes are clean. One load of laundry is done. The second is almost done. Now it is time to chill out a bit. Maybe flake out on the couch with a magazine and get an early night to bed. Another big day tomorrow. Another double day. Next race is on Saturday – racing with the super-fast junior boys in Zelzate, Belgium. Thanks for the support and the emails wishing me good luck.