This has been a good week. Training went well. It is now Friday and I already put 11 hours of quality rides into my legs before the weekend and feel good.
After some time trial workouts, a really good endurance ride on Wednesday and the Rockleigh Race yesterday, I went for an easy TT spin today. I am more tired today because I only got 4 hours of sleep, but other than that things are great.
To top things off, I learned that my Cat. 2 upgrade was approved yesterday; so I am excited. That said, I am aware that I am on the bottom of my learning curve in this sport and at age 38 I am more like a kid that is eager to learn and improve. I try to learn from the best and clearly I am being coached by one of them, so I have that going for myself.
What always impresses me about Roger is that he is truly humble. It is a quality that I particularly appreciate in him and others who have that (my wife), since it makes their accomplishments appear in an even greater dimension. I remember one particular scenario a few weeks ago when a fellow racer from a different race asked Roger how his race went. Roger answered: "Went ok, I finished". He could have said that he had won, but he kept it on the low. That impressed me.
Webster dictionary defines humble in the following way:
1: not proud or haughty : not arrogant or assertive
2: reflecting, expressing, or offered in a spirit of deference or submission
Let's look for a moment how that can relate to cycling and teach us something:
Clearly it helps not to be arrogant no matter what, but even the terms "spirit of derence or submission" are interesting as they relate directly to the team aspect in cycling and the quality of "fitting in" and "making a difference" within a group with the same interest and one goal - to win as a TEAM.
I am generally impressed by this concept since cycling at its best is a team succeeding with ALL players contributing to lift their strongest member to the podium/win. The individual "insignificance" in terms of personal result may reflect itself in definite "significance" in terms of the overall achieved goal - a win/podium for the team.
I have to still learn a lot in term of tactics and working within a pre-given strategy and I am willing and eager to do so.
I am therefore looking foward to entering the Masters race in Fitchburg and focusing on these key aspects within a proven team, rather than competing in the Cat. 2's (alone).
Reaching out to Roger earlier today, I asked him specifically to guide me through that concept and his response was: "you will be working like a dog".
I expected nothing else and it sounds great as I am sitting in my office and reflect about next week and all the blessings that I am receiving every day.
Life is good, it represents a humble gift by our creator - honor it every day. "STAY HUMBLE" and good things shall happen!
(Name of photo on top: "the humble gift")
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