by Maghalie Rochette

Normally, when the season comes to an end, it’s hard to keep me from moving. I’m supposed to rest, but I want to do so many things. I want to ski, I want to skate, I want to go running with snowshoes, etc. This year, however, when we came back home, I was cracked. I basically did nothing for a week, except for reading, cooking, and blowing my nose…because I got sick, AGAIN. I think I was really ready for a break...

Now, I’m finally back to wanting to do all the activities. And the two weeks I’ve had at home gave me enough time to reflect on the past year. (Because, yes, I do feel like 2018 finished on February 2nd.)

I’d like to share some of those reflections with you.

Thank you
I know, this will sounds really cheesy, but the truth is that the main emotion that comes to mind when looking back to the past year is gratitude.

Gratitude for the great mountain bike season I’ve had alongside the CLIF Pro Team, and the fact that the team and CLIF Bar supported me through the change of program...I think

Gratitude for having received the support I’ve had, when I decided to leave the CLIF Pro Team and start the CXFever Racing program…I haven’t told many people, but I made that decision about 3 weeks before the cyclocross season started, so putting the program together on such a short notice was a challenge.

The only thing that made that dream a reality was the support I’ve received; support from all the people and companies who believed in me and boldly decided to join me in this quest and support my endeavour. I also feel massive gratitude towards my family, and towards David, my boyfriend, who put all his personal projects on hold to follow me in this big dream...and who funded much of this project, too! (Does that mean he was sugar daddy?)

4 lessons from the season
To be, bike racing is as much about pushing my physical limits, as it is about getting to know myself. There are many lessons I learned this year, and I’d like to share a few key moments that thought me important lessons:

. PanAmerican Championships: Learning to Win

The race had been tight since the beginning. It would require a strong attack, or a big mistake to separate Ellen and I for the title. Normally, I would have been the one making a mistake or a badly timed suicidal attack. In other words, I would have found a way to screw up, because I would have been too nervous and too scared to face what would happen if I really tried. This year, I learned to trust myself, keep my cool and win races in many different ways. To me, 2018 was a breakthrough for that.

. European racing culture : “Take the best, leave the rest”

I really struggled racing and living in Europe. The culture and the attitude are very different. It is not friendly. It’s a “win at all cost” attitude. You have to fight for everything, from a parking spot, to the port-a-potty, to your position in the race. I was also bored at many times. I struggled to adapt, but I came back a better racer for it. I learned to face a situation, and observe it without judgment to take what’s best and leave the rest. The best? It’s good to stand my ground and learn to fight. The boredom is a good excuse to focus even more on my craft and do things that will make me better. The aggression, the negativity, and all of that? I can notice it, but it does not need to affect me, or my excitement to race.
I’ll be back in Europe next year. Differently and for shorter periods of time, but I have unfinished business there.

. Relationships and working with companies : Defining myself - "I am not a bike racer. I am a girl from Quebec who loves to ride bikes."

This is something I am still working on: Detaching my personal identity from my bike racing accomplishments. It can sound like a positive thing to define yourself with your successes on the bike. The problem is that by doing so, you also define yourself by the failures. That impacts your self-confidence on and off the bike in a bad way. A bad workout becomes a real personal catastrophe when you define your self worth by the result of it..."Fear of failure" becomes a very real thing.

This year, working on projects and relationships with companies that supported me gave me something to be proud of outside of bike racing. I've always had many hobbies, but I saw this as a job, so it was different for me. It also brought more structure to my days. I would do my trainings, but once they were done, I had to quickly move on to work on other projects. I did not have the time to ponder too much about my previous or my next workout…and my performance in training and in racing improved considerably. This became crucial when my race performances got worse throughout the season…bad races did not mean I was a failure, and knowing that allowed me to keep doing my absolute best without being scared of being a loser if things did not work out.

To me, that was a life changing realization. I knew the concept before, but I started to grasp it this year. And working on this is my biggest personal goal right now.

. Being sick before Worlds: Cherish the preparation

When I got sick for 2 weeks before the biggest race of the season, I was stripped from the privilege of preparing properly for an event. It made me realize that I should always treat preparation as a privilege. Preparing and getting ready for an event is what makes me excited to race. To me, it’s probably 90% of the joy of racing...because that's how I find my best self. Being sick helped me reinforce my belief that I need to cherish every second of training and preparation when I can. That's the attitude I want to bring into my 2019 training season.

In conclusion, it has been an incredible year and I want to thank each and everyone of you for following along in this journey and sending words of encouragement throughout the year. Your support truly made a difference for me!

Honestly, I just can't wait to see what the coming year will bring. All I know is I'm more motivated than ever :)

Cheers,

Maghalie

MECHANIC'S TIP

Preparing your gear for the Off Season

When the season comes to an end, it's important to not leave your bike in questionnable condition...You don't want to make yourself a bad surprise when it's time to start riding next summer!
Here are a few tips of things you can do:

Shoes: Wash your shoes and spray some lube on the cleats;

Bike:

. Wash your bike thoroughly and lube the moving parts.
. Change the chain, so you know the bike is ready to ride when the season starts;
. Change the break pads;
. Verify that everything is working properly and make appropriate fixes;
. Tubulars: If they are done, you can unglue them right away and already start thinking of getting new tubulars for next year. Might as well do it properly now rather than rush it a week before the season.

Ask yourself: Now that the season is still fresh in your mind, ask yourself some questions and organize accordingly to improve for next year.

. Were you missing some equipment you wished you had? (Some tubulars? Some clothes? Some pikes? A trainer for warm up? etc..)
. Was everything working properly this year?
. Was my race set up comfortable and efficient?
. What were my strength and weaknesses? What are my goals for next year? How can I work on these strength and weaknesses to get closer to my goals?
. What was the most fun thing about the season? How can I ensure there are even more fun moments next season?

IDEA WORTH SHARING

CXFever racing - Would you like to be a part of it?

In my opinion, for a partnership to be successful, it needs to be beneficial for both parties involved. To me, that means customizing the partnership to your and your company's needs.

As the season wines down, I am already starting to build the program for next year and I am looking to add new partners to make the program even better.

If you are interested, you can contact me to discuss how we could make this partnership exciting for you and your company! I also invite you to take a look at this "Partnership Opportunity" below.

WHAT'S NEXT?

For now, I am still enjoying some vacations. I did some fun skiing back in Canada, but I am now in Tucson, AZ having fun on my mountain bike and doing hikes. My training won't be very specific for a few more weeks.

Page mise en ligne par

Consultez notre ENCYCLOPÉDIE sportive

veloptimum.net

.

.

.