There is some great advice on this board. For what it’s worth, I gave up competitive distance running too early and it is one of my biggest regrets as an athlete. Maybe its time for a break to return fresh. Maybe even with the framing of process first, as others have said. Not easy to do but you can make that shift. I should have taken my own advice all those year ago, stepped back briefly, found a coach, and re-frame my own perception away from being result oriented. Whatever it is you do, good luck. Hang in there.
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I’m not talking about people on running teams. The majority of runners showing up to the random 5-10k or big city half/full marathons are not on teams. Doing a running race like that, lots are just happy to finish, crits don’t get the same thing to happen.
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I’d quit. Coming from some that doesn’t like racing because my bike might get dirty…
Seriously, 1. Did you finish the race safely? 2. Did you get a couple of good workouts? 3. Meet any new friends? 4. Look at your data on TR and Strava 15x? 5. Get a couple of thumbs up from your close Strava friends? For me if I get ahead of at least one person I feel good and yell out “TrainerRoad B*tches” If I can get my yell it is all good.
With my kids and sports we never talk about what happen in the game directly after the match. We go to 7-11 and get a treat. A few days later we talk about what went well. What went poorly they already know so why bother. Boom done. Positive reinforcement.
Have fun yo!
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I’d second/third the find joy in the process of learning to ride with people, training, etc.
From my personal experience it took like 2+ years to ever finish in pack in a crit, and it was mostly just gaining the confidence to be close to people. And still, to this day its like a toss up whether or not mentally i’m there. I found that reframing the conversation around whether or not i felt good , i felt i did what i could, if i improved over last year, etc was a way more positive perspective to take on racing. When you emphasize the result of a race so much, it makes the racing become such a giant weight on your back and you’re not able to get the best out of yourself (in my opinion)
The thing with racing is that only one person can win, but that doesn’t mean that other people can’t have little victories in other ways. The first time i ever finished a crit in pack, i remember getting high fives from all my friends who knew that that was my first time doing that.
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Third race done and dusted. Didn’t do well, but I definitely understand why I didn’t. But regardless, I had fun. Got to actually work on race craft, and actually racing in my drops.
Need to focus on bike handling and focus on confidence in the corners with others. Oh and not letting gaps open up when taking corners.
Thanks everyone.
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