Our MAMIL reflects on his last week of training before he jets off to Italy to compete in the UCI World Championships. We at Cyclist couldn’t be prouder of his progress over the year.
Ciao a tutti (I need to practice my broken Italian),
The past three weekends have allowed me the time to get some good, quality racing under the belt. At the Club Championships I was able to get in the main break of the race, finishing off with third place. I had a time trial to forget (I won’t even reveal the numbers). I managed to continue to build my unassailable lead in my local cycling club’s season long consistency awards. And lastly, I got to race my final home race, the NSW State Masters Time Trial titles, before flying out.
I had set myself a particular time and was aiming for a top 10 place in my age group (secretly wanting 7th or higher). On the day of the Time Trial things didn’t go to plan and I came home with 11th, not exactly what I was after, but it isn’t half bad. One thing I was happy with was breaking my course PB by two minutes and getting my highest state level placing, so it wasn’t a complete loss.
Looking back on the year that has been there has been highs and lows.
The lows:
- Starting off at 82kgs
- Very little consistent training
- Originally thinking, “What-if? Have I bitten off more than I can chew?” and “How the hell will I balance this all?”
- Walking in a time trial
Highs:
- Dropping the kgs from 82 down to 70 (now the lightest I’ve been since my mid 20’s)
- Setting a number of PB’s in training throughout the year
- Hitting the targets Supercoach and I set through the year
- Training hard and consistently
- Electronically planning and looking at the course in Trento
- Analyzing the technology and position adjustments to get me in a position where now, I honestly think, I can achieve a great result
So as your reading this the plan and program is set in motion. Put together by my Supercoach, my family and I are working through the various elements for the trip. I’ve reviewed the course countless times electronically (including riding it electronically) and visualised the day in my mind.
Could I have done more this year? Probably, but doing so would have damaged the delicate balance us MAMIL’s have between family, work and cycling.
The bags (and official Australian team uniform) are packed, extra luggage sorted, passport and documents ready, personal demons exorcised.
I’m ready to get the job done.
I’m no longer the big-boned MAMIL, I’m now a skinny-minny MAPIL*
*MAPIL – Middle Aged Pro In Lycra
Cheers for the support,
Rick Jordan
Twitter: ricksjordan
