I've really embraced the whole professional-cyclist persona this last year, racing just about every weekend from April-July, plus some more thrown in. I've learned a lot - not only about racing, but about myself as a cyclist and endurance athlete, but more importantly as a person. I've developed my racing skills ten-fold when looking at previous years, and of course I'm very much looking forward to a very successful 2019!
I've made this particularly clear to anyone that has so much mentioned a bike in my presence, but I'll be racing with Team Clark Logic starting this Spring! I'm super stoked about this, TCL is exactly where I should be to develop my racing skills even more in this critical point in my cycling career. I've raced with most of the TCL boys already, just not working together; being on the team and having solid plans for each race will not only benefit myself very much, but TCL will be just as successful with more strong riders working together; I'm super excited for this opportunity, and extremely grateful this was able to happen!
As for 2019 racing plans, I've already started to fill up my calendar (: Most everyone has seen pictures of my hot pink bike, but I'm super stoked to race gravel every weekend this Spring! USA Cycling hasn't released the road schedule for the summer yet (as far as I know) so I haven't really put too many of those on my radar, but I plan on doing all races within a 3-hour ?? radius (: Seeing as I don't work on Saturday's anymore (more on that later) I'll be free to roam the upper midwest in search of cycling glory!
The first race on my calendar is the Waterloo G&G on March 16th. It's a gravel race in Waterloo (?) and I'm hoping for a quick and successful start to the racing season. Shortly following are Melting Mann and Barry-Roubaix !!!!!
Goals for 2019 include:
- Getting some solid results and winning more money than I spend on bike races, gas, registration, licenses, etc.
- Moving from Cat 4 to Cat 3, = more money, pro races, feeling like I belong in the TdF
- Contributing to the success of TCL by helping myself and teammates cat up, hoping to be able to stick together as a team through categories of racing! (care to learn more?)
- Sticking to my plan throughout the year (including offseason training) (I've been running recently), coming out in early races strong and finishing the season in a good way
- Continuing my pursuit of a 4.0 GPA at Davenport (more on that later)
- Growing at work and continuing to learn (more on that later (: )
Work has been going wonderfully. I started with Tibble & Wesler CPA in August of this year (does everyone already know this?) When I first started, I was working a lot with tax returns and such as the extension deadline Oct. 15th (did you know you can file your taxes late? with a penalty from our friends at the IRS of course) was fast approaching. I haven't touched too many tax returns since then so it'll be interesting this fast-approaching tax season, especially with the new Tax Cut and Jobs Act (if you have any tax questions, please reach out, I'd love to do my best to help, charlie@tibblecpa.com ) I've been processing payrolls, sales tax returns, unemployment, and quickbooks for quite a few clients, I've made numerous Starbucks runs, I've gone to a few conferences, I've met a lot of cool people, and I'm super stoked for this next year with T&W!
(Let me try to explain the new standard deductions to you, I have some good talking points)
Through KVCC and Davenport, I'll be able to finish my Bachelor's degree in Accounting from Davenport, but never have to leave KVCC's campus (isn't that wonderful?) Not going to a community college anymore has been and continues to be astronomically more expensive (thank you Capitalism), but I'm learning an enormous amount of new things, I finished my first semester with a 4.0 !!!!!!!!! and I've finally got a plan in place to finish my degree in 3 more semesters! After which, I'll begin taking CPA exams, and I'm hoping to have my CPA certification shortly after I graduate with my Bachelor's degree. Exciting times for Kalamazoo's favorite little associate accountant! After college and CPA certification, I'm not quite sure what I want to do (open for suggestions). I hear Manchester United has been having quite a bit of management turnover in recent years, so I'll be open to phone calls from Ed Woodward (;
That's all I've got, please stay tuned for more posts once racing begins in March (: Like I've mentioned, I'm super primed for a super fantastic year ahead, I'm exactly in the right place and things are falling just how they should be.
Now that I don't live with my sisters, I miss them constantly and always look forward to seeing them. We can usually make it at least 24 hours before we are sick of each other now (: Same goes with all my friends, I have a fantastic time whenever I go out with them all now, and I'm super blessed to have all that!
Happy New Year to you and yours! (my new year's resolution list is growing by the hour)
Cheers! CE
