You may ask that with all these changes in my approach to cycling this year, “What are your goals for 2012?” That would be a good and fair question. It is a question I’ve asked myself and struggled with. I guess my first goal is to set some goals!

Typically, I divide my goals with the bicycle into three sections — racing, personal and charitable. Racing goals can be your typical “A”, “B” and “C” type events that you try to peak for. These goals can also be aims within the race — improvements in performance and knowledge of the sport. Personal goals are more associated with training. Working toward a certain FTP or a time up Paris Mountain. Charitable goals have normally culminated in my Ride for Mike events.

I guess I’ll do the same thing this year. One thing I know is that I need some goals in order to stay motivated. It is just up to this point, thinking of goals has made me tired.

Racing

There will be plenty of opportunities to race locally this year. It all starts with the Spring Series in mid-February. You can have some pretty serious racing under your belt by the end of March. Also in March is the Spring Cycling Extravaganza — a new two day series presented by the POA Cycling Team. As for April, I don’t know if I’ll take the trip down to Charleston for the SC crit championships this year, but the St. Francis summer series starts up locally.

May presents opportunities at the Spartanburg Regional Classic and another St. Francis race. June brings about the SC road race championship, the SC time trial championship and, yes, another St. Francis race. July could see me in Asheville again for the French Broad TT and road race. There is a St. Francis race near the end of the month as well.

The new race weekend “End of Summer Blowout” will take place in August along with the continuing St. Francis race. September brings the end of most racing — except cross — with the final St. Francis race. So, there is plenty of racing right in the general Greenville area. Throw in other races within an hour or so drive and you could nearly race twice a week or more the months March – August.

That isn’t my plan. My “A” race is going to be the SC Road Race Championship on June 9. My goal is to be as fit as I can be to be on form for a top 10 finish. I’ll use any racing up to that point as a means to reach that goal. I’m definitely not planning to explode out of the gate for the Spring Series!

Other than that, but goals will be to put a more conscious effort into watching and learning — becoming smarter. That means better skill wise, better reading moves and better at using the field to put me in the best place. This will happen by racing and watching riders I know have been in this game for a long time. The goal is to set a lesson plan for each race, focus on that one thing and grade myself at the end.

Personal

This one is simple. I want to return to my obsession with the mountain. I realize many people think this is a Don Quixote endeavor.  However, when I think back to some of my more fun periods on the bike, they include my attempts to bring my time down on that 2.2 mile stretch of road.

My goal here is simple. I want to get a personal best climbing Altamont Road. That means I have to climb it in less than 11 minutes and 24 seconds.

Charitable

Here is where I face a challenge. In the past, I have always had a clear road ahead for my goal by this time in the year. For 2012, I don’t have an “epic” ride in mind.

Originally, my goal was actually much larger. My plan was (is?) to start a new foundation — iridefor.org. Its purpose is to help others who want to be an encouragement by personally supporting people in need. Basically, it would be to provide tools and knowledge to help anyone carry out their own “Ride for Mike.”

The problem for me right now is that to make this a success, I would have needed to be much farther along in the process right now. I just don’t know if I can pull it off on the same scale for 2012 that I originally dreamed.

At the same time, if you don’t have goals, you might as well not dream. I still have a dream for iridefor.org. While I may not hit the stars this year, I don’t see why I can’t land on the moon.

So, there you go. I’ve laid it out what I’m thinking. That is another part of setting goals… you need some accountability. That is one of the main reasons for this blog.

Thanks for keeping an eye on me.

 

Tags: Goals

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 26th, 2012 at 8:55 am and is filed under Life, Racing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.