Finding Motivation
I've made it my personal goal for this year to try to take motivation and positive energy from every situation I am faced with through a day, good and bad.
Racing, racing everywhere. First US Cup was this past weekend in Bonelli, CA (congrats to all the Canadians there!) and the first Island Cup race was in Victoria, BC…..and I missed them both. At first I was okay with not being able to make these races, being trapped up here at work, but after looking at all the photos posted from the weekend, I’m a little bummed….yah, I’ll admit it. I am so ready to be done up here on the trainer and get outside to really ride again. This time of year I find it always seems to really, really drag on. Part of the problem maybe stems from the fact that I don’t have a set finish date, it could be a couple days, could be a week, could be longer.
Right now the most important thing is to stay positive and excited about with I’m doing. Staying in the right head space is just as important as the actual physical training, if not more important. It’s easy for me to follow my program, do great workouts and intervals, but training my mind to stay positive and focused has always been a big struggle for me. Though I have found that a great workout, like the 2.5 min max intervals ride I did the other day is really great motivation for me to plug on.
Haha, ya, my first max effort intervals workout for the 2011 season got me really stoked. Of course it hurt, but I was surprised how much I enjoyed pushing my body that hard again. I’ve made it my personal goal for this year to try to take motivation and positive energy from every situation I am faced with through a day, good and bad. Like inspiration from a hard workout instead of dreading it, energy from climbing instead of worrying that I’m not as good of a climber as other racers, and motivation from being able to work all winter in Fort Mac on a rig and still be able to compete at World Cup races. This year I am going to try to turn every adverse situation in and out of cycling, into positive energy to fuel me.
With that being said, there are currently only 3 weeks until Pan American Championships!! I am sooo excited to be able to ride outside without layers upon layers of gear. Workouts are starting to become a lot more race specific, and training has moved from volume to a lot more of fine tuning of my body and it’s systems…..I’m itching to race!
I have so many people and organizations to be thankful to for being there for me throughout my career, but I really want to take this time to send a huge thanks to my family who I know I would never have gotten nearly this far without them. Thanks poppa for lending me your road bike for my trainer rides up north here. As well as my boyfriend, who has been so supportive and understanding with me working so far away from home in order to be able to fund my dream…..a very necessary evil for a privateer racer.
Mical Dyck is a 29 year old mountain biker from Victoria, BC representing Trek Pro City Victoria. To read more of her blog posts visit http://micaldyck.blogspot.com/
