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TRAINING / RACING<br />
At right : Colin hikes the Manitou Incline near<br />
Colorado Springs, a one-mile trek that gains 2,000<br />
vertical feet. Far right : Colin tears up the course<br />
during the 2012 USA Cycling MTB Cross Country<br />
Nationals. Photos : Courtesy of Team Kenda/Felt<br />
Recharging for<br />
next season<br />
with Pro MTB<br />
rider Colin<br />
Cares<br />
BY COLIN CARES<br />
About 15 minutes into my run, I started to enjoy myself.<br />
I knew I wasn’t on pace for a Strava record, but I could<br />
taste a slight tang of blood that proved I was going<br />
hard, and it felt surprisingly good. A few months ago,<br />
as I prepared for the MTB World Championships,<br />
I couldn’t have imagined running, much less chasing other<br />
runners on Strava and enjoying it. I was nearing the end of<br />
a long season and approaching a limit. No matter how many<br />
interval workouts I did, I only seemed to halve my distance to<br />
my goals, never quite reaching them. I needed an off-season,<br />
one in which I ran, ate a little too much, made myself sore, and<br />
did the things that, at another time in the year, would have<br />
probably made me slower. Now, however, during the off-season,<br />
they would eventually help make me fast.<br />
Success in cycling or any endurance sport isn’t a process of<br />
continual improvement. Rather, finding fitness is about working<br />
hard to make gains and then patiently working through<br />
inevitable setbacks. With foresight, those setbacks can be<br />
- continued on page 27<br />
26 Feb/Mar : Issue 83<br />
"<strong>Hammer</strong> <strong>Nutrition</strong> powered me to a half marathon PR today!" - Taylor J.
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