Transitions

For the second year, September has become a transition month for me. The long races that I love are over and Cyclocross is still a few weeks away. In a way, it's good because it gives me time to transition my training from long rides to shorter and much more intense rides. I also toss in some trail running (I hate running but it's better to do some of it in training if you are gonna do Cross). I am torn because there are a few long races that I'd like to do still but I can't do them all.
The days are getting shorter and the temps (at night) are cooling off which also means winter is coming and that's always tough. I have a couple of training pals that I can count on to ride all winter and generally after the time changes, all my weekday rides are in the dark until it changes back. We usually ride all the way down into the teens (Ok all you Canadians can go ahead and laugh) and sometimes it's reeeeally tough to honor the commitment to ride. But we do. I hate cold too but I'll suck it up and just do it.
In the past few days, I have started to pick apart my season and see where I did stuff wrong, where I did stuff right and what can I do to make next year better. I tend to push myself a little harder each year than I did the year before and that will continue for next year as well. I am putting together my 2009 schedule and the races I will be doing aren't going to change a whole lot from this year with maybe one or two exceptions but I am going to expect more from myself in the way of results. I will work that out and make a plan. I generally start training for the next year on Dec 1.

Not much on the plate this weekend. I am doing some trailwork tomorrow and somewhere I have to fit in a 15 minute trail run and two 45 minute rides each with 3 five minute super-threshold (means I'm about to puke) intervals with 1 minute of rest in between.

Peace y'all