Camp #1
Posted by mattcrane | Filed under Uncategorized
I wrapped up Jelly Belly camp #1 on Saturday, and happily flew back here to Georgia with two suitcases stuffed, in one case over the weight limit, with jelly beans and new team clothes. Our first camp was a short and laid back affair with the goal of spending a few days taking care of our sponsor and media obligations before our full on training camp in a week’s time. With the oft taxing and time consuming elements of team camp behind me, I can now look nowhere but forward towards the next few weeks, which will include one more week of specific work at home, a week of long rides with the boys once back in Cali, two training races, and then the big show, AToC.
I would be lying if I said I wasn’t excited and in high spirits. We have a fun group of guys, a lot of enthusiasm, enough jelly beans to open a candy store or at least feed a British grammer schooler for a day or so, and a really cool and very supportive staff.
Also exciting is the change in equipment, which can sometimes, or I should say is almost always, a stressful and uncomfortable sensation, but in the case of last week proved to be stimulating and bracing. Our GT GTR Team bikes are rock solid under the pedals and have a really sharp paint job, and the SRAM Red components have proved from ride one to be intuitive, precise, and ergonomic. The braking is especially sharp, and for someone with smaller hands, the canted in levers allow for an easy grab without straying from one’s optimal grip position.
So good bikes, good guys, good beans, good times. Hopefully this will be the trend for the rest of the year, and all signs say it will be. I have a hard week ahead of me, because I have some quality K’s to do, some experimental strength training to implement, and enough workload on the plate that I will be running my recovery abilities on max capacity. I’m motivated enough to take it on though, and it’s the final push I need to have the legs ready for the opening of the season. Hopefully something more exciting than continual eating, riding, reading and sleeping will occur for me to post about, but if not I’m sure I’ll come up with something!
Let’s get it on
Crane
Posted by mattcrane | Filed under Uncategorized
Had a good ride with new teammate and Athens peer extraordinaire Nick Reistad the other day, and we got to talking about the blog of yours truly, having already covered a vast range of topics during the non stop chatter of our 4 hour ride (politics, history, conservation, distaste for hipster scum-ok that was just me ranting, I don’t think Nick shares the same rabid aversion as me- sustainable town planning, various racing and training aspirations, and so on into the infinite realm of mutual nerdom).
Anyway, Nick pointed out that one of the most important elements of a blog is frequent posts and accessible content, i.e shorter posts. To be honest, once I get on a roll, the length thing becomes a minor concern to me, as I am quite unable to turn off the faucet once the word tap has been turned. However, I would like to use this blog as much as possible to convey a sense of who and what (shudder) I am off the bike, as me whizzing by in full kit hardly gives much impression as to what the case may be in this department. To that end, I am going to try really hard to keep the posts more regular and share as much as possible about my goings on. I’ve been getting my training really dialled lately, and I’d like to thank ol’ tricky Nicky (duped me out of a fair and square town line sprint) for giving me a slight prod in the direction of doing likewise blogwise.
But in the vein of reducing verbosity, I’ll try and draw to a close. I was sitting in a nice mineral bath in my new place (more about that another time), relaxing the strain of an intense day at the gym out of the legs, when I got to thinking about the nature of the decisions we make in handling out lives and affairs, and specifically as an athlete, those that relate to training and the lifestyle thereof. I considered for a minute whether the choices I have been making lately are the best path for me to be taking to achieve my goals, and I was happy to discover that I have nothing but full confidence in my methods, and that I believe them to be part of a greater approach that will lead me to success.
But this begs a question that extends far beyond one’s approach to sport. In life, we all have methods and approaches, we all have our ways of doing things and moving towards the future. For me personally, all of this comes from within, and the energy I direct towards living my life is almost entirely self motivated. Whatever the source of one’s energy and method, there should always be an assurance that they are the best way to get you the places you want to go.
As this hasn’t always been the case in the past, I am shocked and pleased to discover that I have true faith in my life approach at this point. Can the same be said for all of us? I would like to venture not, just as easily as I can say that my current state will not be constant. However, I don’t think it is ever too late to stop and reasses our goals and happiness, and how we are going to achieve them. My parting thought is just that we all deserve the best for ourselves, and that one’s procedures throughout life should reflect this as much as possible.
Or maybe I sat in the tub a little too long and let the salts get to my head. But seriously, make your terms for life good ones and then make them happen. Or not, its your funeral.
Wishing everyone well,
Crane
Happy “New” Year!
Posted by mattcrane | Filed under Uncategorized
Being back home in CT always disrupts things quite a bit, and this year’s Christmas time has been no exception. The new year comes with a lot of uncertainty, lots of residual holiday stress, and also the silly notion that we get some kind of fresh start with the advent of the new calendar year. I’ve tried that approach before, and I don’t think it works given the ever evolving and continuous pressures of life that rarely take time to consider the last four digits of the day’s date.
I find this time of year to be particularly challenging for some reason, but this passage reminded me of what it is all about, and so I would like to share it with you:
“Fear, hydra-headed fear, which is rampant in all of us, is a hang-over from the lower forms of life. We are straddling two worlds, the one from which we have emerged and the one towards which we are heading. That is the deepest meaning of the word ‘human,’ that we are a link, a bridge, a promise. It is in us that the life process is being carried to fulfillment. We have a tremendous responsibility, and it is the gravity of that which awakens our fears. We know that if we do not move forward, if we do not realize out potential being, we shall relapse, sputter out, and drag the world down with us. We carry Heaven and Hell within us; we are the cosmogonic builders. We have a choice– and all creation is our range.
For some it is a terrifying prospect. It would be better, think they, if Heaven were above and Hell below– anywhere outside, but not within. But that comfort has been knocked from under us. There are no places to go to, either for reward or punishment. The place is always here and now, in your own person and according to your own fancy. The world is exactly what you picture it to be, always, every instant. It is impossible to shift the scenery about and pretend that you will enjoy another, a differant act. The setting is permanent, changing with the mind and heart, not according to the dictates of an invisible stage director. You are the author, director, and actor all in one: the drama is always going to be your own life, not somone else’s. A beautiful, terrible, ineluctable drama, like a suit made of your own skin. Would you want it otherwise? Could you invent a better drama?”
-Henry Miller, Sexus
Anyway, I was digging on that a bit, especially the last sentence of the first paragraph, about all that we have and see before us being available to our choosing and will. Choice, choice in all things, is a nice thing to remember going into a period of new beginning, even if we are only fooling ourselves into thinking it is one.
I’m looking outside, and the slush on the street is as gray and cold as the pavement it lies on, but the sky it meets has the blue of tropical water over pristine sand…
Happy New Year,
Matt C
