Two Books

Hockey was tough last night. I felt like I expected to feel two weeks ago... my legs were tired and I had no jump. We had all of the "energy" guys there though, so it was a fun, fast skate.

I mentioned that I'd been reading a couple of books:

Ride of Your Life, by David Rowe. This e-book is essentially about goal-setting and time management for cycling. It's really geared toward long-distance cyclists, but I think the process is essentially the same for racers. I thought the first half of the book was particularly good. The exercise of evaluating past performance on the bike turned out to be very worthwhile for me. Also good was his advice about managing your relationships while in pursuit of your cycling goals.

Sport Psychology for Cyclists, by Saul Miller and Peggy Maass Hill. I had a terrible time getting my hands on a copy of this book. I think that it's out of print, although the Velopress website doesn't say this. I've read through the book, but I haven't officially started the exercises. Each chapter presents a concept, and then there's some "homework" at the end. It's set up so that you do each chapter's homework for about a week before moving on. The first couple chapters are about breathing. Then it gets into some imagery, power talk, etc.

One part that really stuck out for me was the chapter about commitment. The discussion was about how you handle the adversity that comes up in a race (or in training, or in life). You basically have two choices, you can let it use you, or you can use it. If you're committed, your only choice is to use it!