Masters Worlds

Admittedly, I've been feeling a little down about not winning 40+ 'cross nationals. And that's only been made worse this week by watching my peers racing at masters worlds. But I reminded myself today that I traded in one race for a whole season of UCI events, with results and press and points every single weekend, all season long. With the exception of Robin Seymour who gets 100 points for winning the Irish championships every year as the only points he scores, I'm the highest ranked guy over 40 on UCI points. I reminded myself that _that_ was my "world championship" goal. So I'm gonna try and be happy with that, and happy with my season. It's a miracle I'm still here, and I'm looking forward to a few more before I'm back to racing with the old guys, even if I do have a full-time job I plan my racing and training around, just like everyone else.

I haven't wanted to complain too much about it, because I don't want to take anything away from guys like Brandon and Pete, guys who are real masters with jobs and families, and who are also real bike racers. It's hard to find the balance between expressing the respect I have for them and my own motivation and disappointment in not beating them at nationals, and being envious of them at worlds. I hope I'm not undercutting them in any way, because my admiration for them is sincere.

Anyway, I think it's time to start journaling in more than 140 characters again, so anything that takes more than one tweet, I'm going to try and jump over here again and just bang some thoughts out, without worrying about how complete they might be. I just need to get them down.