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Goal Setting & Plug Pulling...

Thursday, 29 May 2014 00:10

By Dan Hedgecock (danhedgecock.com)

Every year I’m surprised when it’s time to start racing. In January winter feels like it will never end, especially living here in Minnesota. In January it’s always easy to list off ten things I want to accomplish, ways I’m going to train differently this season, nagging problems that I’m going to resolve once and for all – all of these things vaguely outlined and scheduled for a few weeks down the road because I have plenty of time to get started later.

Then all of a sudden, it’s time to race and I haven’t checked off half the things in my mental list, much less gotten into shape. Then I race to catch up, jam in too much in too little time, get in shape, race a lot, struggle with the same issues and before I know it September has shown up and I’m feeling pretty worn down in general.

Last season was very mediocre. My races were all very mediocre. I usually finished 1 or 2 spots out of the money and feeling like I ‘just didn’t have it.’ Training was mediocre. It was a pretty uninspiring year all told. It wasn’t terrible, just really mediocre. I finished Lifetime Chicago last August and pulled the plug on the whole year....

Looking back, I’m really glad that I pulled the plug. It was my first season racing as a professional, and I had very high hopes after winning HyVee in 2012. Calling the season quits after a bunch of mediocre performances was a bit disheartening and not an easy decision. READ MORE