Where do you go?

Where do you go when you reach the goal? Do you reset the goal knowing you can do better? Do you re-evaluate the goal to focus on something else? What about the sacrifices you've made along the way? Do you go back and try to put right those things you brushed off in the name of getting to your goal?

One of the inherent problems I see with having a goal based on athleticism or some other type of competition that requires constant practice is that eventually you have to come to terms with where you're at, how you got there, and is it worth it to keep trying to go forward. You know that once you settle for what you've achieved its basically a slow downward spiral in terms of your ability. The question then becomes did your enjoyment come from the activity itself or was it the focused reaching of the goal that brought you happiness?

Obviously, if the activity brought you joy, then you can still keep going with that activity as long as you're ok with knowing that you're no longer at the top of your game. However, if its the challenge you relish, how hard is it to keep on going with the knowledge that you've reached the top and are sliding backwards. While I could pretend this is about any part of my life, its pretty obvious that I'm talking about riding and racing my bike.

I'd love to be one of those gifted individuals that has raw talent that can take them into the upper echelons of the sport, but I don't think that's the case. I feel like I've put a lot into reaching the level I'm at. I'm still nowhere near the top, but I feel like I've reached the level of rider that I originally set out to be. Now that I'm here, I know what it is going to take to keep me here. I also look back and see the things I've pushed aside in the name of getting to this point. The ever growing wake of sacrifices chugs slowly along behind me.

Do I keep adding to that sacrificial wake knowing I haven't reached my full potential (even though I've reached the original goal)? Or do I turn back and attend to those sacrifices and do what I can to repair those items. Would it feel like I've given up on my goal now that I know there's more to be had? If I turn back, do the items I've sacrificed to get here now seem like they were wasted without cause? So many questions beget more questions. It really just boils down to what makes me happy and can I still find happiness if I become less than what I know is possible in order to not have so many sacrifices. Where is the balance point?

A couple milestones

At least milestones (most) are better than other types of stones. Of course there was that saying about those who live in glass houses shouldn't pass kidney stones or something like that, but anyway that's neither here nor there. I actually passed a couple cool milestones.

First off I hit over 150 posts on this blog. Damn. Of course most of it is just the usual drivel, but occasionally I seem to come up with something good. So I suggest going back and checking all 150+ posts just to see if you've missed any nuggets... Why the hell do I hear crickets all of a sudden?!

The second milestone was actually cooler than the first. What, you say how can I possibly top that? Well kiddies, gather round and let me tell you a tale. There once was a man from Nantucket, oh shit, can't do that one. Actually, I'll just skip to the good stuff. Since I'm an anally retentive type of guy and a number crunching fool to boot, I just have to keep track of all the various stats of my rides. Funny enough, I actually have been that less and less as I get further into riding just to ride. Sure, the stats are always interesting to gaze at every now and then when there's no paint to watch dry... Thanks in no small part to making an attempt on the coveted Cup O' Dirt and laps upon laps of Hillside, I cleared 100,000 feet of climbing this year.

So, does that translate into the ability to leap over tall buildings in a single bound, do I have quads the size of tree trunks, can I squat a dump truck? Hell no. I climb like a fucking turtle. Apparently this turtle just likes to climb. I actually did think it was pretty cool to see that I'd ridden the equivalent to almost 20 miles straight up though. I know it damn sure felt like it when I was huffing it through the beginner course at Boone, struggling to keep moving on the 4th lap of the Dirty Du, or pedalling into a headwind on the last gravel hundy attempt. I think one of my goals for next year is to see if I can break my climbing from this year.

So that brings me to a question. Do any of you set silly goals at the end of the year? Anything concrete specific or just things like get my ass on the bike more this year? I hope the upcoming year for me holds a few things:
1) Develop more mad skillz yo on the mountain bike. Now that I've got a bike worth developing some skillz on I should probably think about nutting up and becoming much less of a hack. If I don't I'll probably end up sawing through multiple logovers with my big ring while riding Denman's...
2) Climb more/climb like a goat. OK, so maybe the second part is overstating a bit, but I'd just like to climb better and faster than I do now. A little concentrated work and I think it'll happen. I know I can't really go much slower, so I've always got that to fall back on!
3) Ride more than I did this year. That shouldn't be too hard unless work really screws me over again. I started off strong the first part of last year, but the last 6 months held little to no mileage and didn't do much for me in the way of keeping my bike fitness up.
4) Race more. I'm eyeballing the IMBCS series pretty heavily as something I want to focus on doing next year. It should be a good time riding, scraping my face against trails, and keeping bears from eating me (I may be exaggerating a bit on the last point).

That's it in a nutshell from this nutcase.