#motivationmonday

"It ain't about how hard you hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward" 

-Rocky

Valley of the sun; the champ; the man; the metamorphosis. It all came at me so abruptly, and I let it get to my head. Right after VOS I had the biggest training week of my life with about 30 hours and 500 miles logged during my February school break. After that, poof! All my motivation was gone; I rode maybe a couple times a week for about a month. San Dimas approached and I was not at my best. However, my fitness from that big training week still lingered within me so I did ok in the 2s, but nothing noticeably great. It was a disappointment and a failure in my eyes and I believed that it would be enough to kick start my training again. But, unfortunately, it was not. Still, I sat around the house, getting lazy and unfit. Sea Otter approached all too quickly and this time my low fitness was all too noticeable. I got lapped by people I had beat by 3 minutes at Valley of the Sun! What a bummer. I knew it was all my fault too, which made it that much more disheartening. I was the one who hadn't trained; I was the one wasn't ready. I disappointed pretty much everyone that knew about my cycling, and especially my uncle and team, who were there to watch me gasp to try and stay in the pack. And to those who watched me flounder like a fish out of water, I am sorry. I learned a lot from sucking that much; this sport ain't easy. You get out what you put in. I can thankfully say that this race has motivated me to train again. There's no way I'm going to let that happen again at nationals. I also learned that self training is extremely difficult to do because, well, it's all you baby. If you even slack off just the tiny bit, it can escalate out of control because no one's there to tell you to stop. So I've decided, along with encouragement from my Team Director, Larry, and my uncle, Andy, to get a coach. Roger Young, who I've had as a coach for track before, will be my coach for road as he's very experienced and honorable. Now that I have a coach, all I have to worry about is sheer training; I'll have someone to lean on when I need support. I am very thankful for that as it takes a huge load off my shoulders. I'm now back on track for nationals and it's never felt so good.

Thank you for your understanding and support,

Jules