Mar 13, 2023

THE BURNOUT PROBLEM

I INTENDED TO WRITE ABOUT THE VIRTUES OF TIME OFF. But, I wound up grinding for 9 hours straight, trying to catch up after the road trip. My output dwindled, the sun broke through...

... and a battle ensued.

The 14 days of riding in a row, 6 of them racing, vs sitting in my office grinding from sun up.

My body ached to rest, my soul longed to get outside.

I can definitely burn out on racing, same for training with an agenda...

... but there's nothing more rejuvenating than rolling on two wheels.

So I kitted up
kept my HR low
and lightly tapped the pedals.

It's good to be home.

Here's the burnout problem.

There are some really fun and good races to be had during the next 6 weeks...

Team Big Bear's endurance race, 3/18
Sagebrush Safari best XC race in SoCal, 3/25
US Cup XC on Vail's new sweet single track course, 4/1
State Road Race is back, and I love the course, 4/8
BWR San Diego, I've never done it, 4/15
Sea Otter, Fuego XC, 4/22

... I've already signed up for 5 of the races because each one that I learned about seemed better than what I'd already committed to do.

Last weekend was my A race for the first half of the year.

I didn't plan to ramp things back up until summer, for Marathon Nationals in September. I thought I'd do a few events in the spring for fun, not 6.

Then, the state road race was rejuvenated and ya know I gotta take a crack at that.

Then, I heard about US Cup and how can I pass that level of competition up?

Right now, looking at the calendar seems daunting. I will definitely burn out if I try and treat them all as A races.

That's impossible.

I can probably pick 1, and do the rest for fun and practice.

Even then, there is a fair amount of travel and the ensuing chaos that always goes around getting all the equipment dialed in perfectly. Which means, I will probably skip one or two and definitely roll in on a half ready bike.

The key to not burning out, is to keep it light and get myself in a headlock if I waver for one moment on committing to making more than one of these races and A race...

... which will it be?

We'll see.

(Why did I sign up so early you ask? Because I like to help the promoters sleep easier, it's so stressful wondering if anybody will show.)

https://pedalindustries.com/collections/raceday-calendars™

This is such a powerful tool.