No one has EVER called me a perfectionist. No one has EVER called me a good listener. My gray matter has always been somewhat impenetrable to guidelines and direction. Because of this mental set up, many pieces of good advice on how to race better that I have received over the past couple of years have gone unused. “I cant get by without it”, “They are all a bunch of perfectionists”. This is what I thought.
As the 2009 season came to a close, my peers Alice and Steph catted up. I myself was still not Cat 3 material. What did they do that I did not? They listened to all of those great pieces of advice!
I guess at some point in February I came to grips with reality. Reality was that there were a bunch of Cat 4’s coming down the pike that were going to smoke my a** if I didn’t get my sh*t together. As if it weren’t bad enough that I am a third year Cat 4. Heck that’s like being a 5th year senior in college. It screams under-achiever!
In a somewhat frantic scramble, I began to change my ways. Froze Toes was approaching. It would be the perfect barometer.
Since Rome wasn’t built in a day, I decided to pick the top 10 in a list of about 40 unheeded pieces of cycling advice.
The Top 10 were as follows……
1. Get at least 7 hours of sleep the night before a race.
2. Don’t “whoop it up” too much the night before a race.
3. Hydrate before and during a race.
4. Warm up “properly”
5. Keep your cadence at least somewhere in the mid-80’s.
6. Get on a training program of some sorts.
7. Shut up and focus.
8. Don’t pull the whole time.
9. Have a plan.
10. Use a guage not your thumb to check tire pressure.
I am proud to say that I executed all of the aforementioned instructions before and during Froze Toes.
How did I do? How did I feel?
Well. I guess what struck me most was the absence of dizziness. Hard to say what exactly attributed to that.
Heck, in general, I would have to say that I felt better. I was more mentally sharp. I was able to breathe better.  My stamina felt like it was much improved.   I even managed to win a sprint.  Didn’t think that would ever happen!  It felt incredible.
Well there ya have it.
I suppose in a lot of ways Froze Toes was ,for me , a study in conformity. What I learned is that it pays to pay attention to the details.  These are the things that will give me the best chance to win before the race even starts.  After that it’s a matter of staying focused and using your “outer limits self” to pull off the win.
I just hope that this blog may motivate any other block heads like myself out there to open their ears to all of the great advice out there.

BR