How to Train for Cycling Success

There are a lot of respected cycling coaches out there with tested and proven techniques to improve your strength, power and endurance.  But I'm telling you right now its all BULLSHIT.  If you really want to know how to kickstart yourself on a path to cycling greatness follow these however many steps I come up with:

1. Take the longest ride you've done in the last 6 months.
2. Multiply it by 4.
3. Make sure you include several big mountain passes.
4. Only invite strong riders with mid-season fitness due to a lackluster (or in their opinion very luster) winter.
5. Tell yourself before the ride you will keep things reasonable with a century pace.
6. Immediately ignore that plan as soon as you roll out of the parking lot.
7. Take one "massive pull" from minute 0 to minute 6 and then hang on for dear life for the rest of the ride.
8. Hang tough during the first 30mi at not century pace.
9. When the first mountain pass hits hold on for half and then demonstrate how to go backwards on a bike.
10. Enjoy the descent.  Seriously, enjoy it cause you're about to go to a dark, dark place.
11. Think about anything other than the 14mi gradual climb up to the 13% headwall between you and the car.
12. Again, hang tough but this time for far less than half the climb.
13. Realize that those 15-25mph WNW winds the weather man was talking about are now right in your face.
14. Now realize that your legs can't even handle 2% let alone 13%.
15. Start thinking about very confusing and complex subjects like particle physics and quantum mechanics to pass the time.
16. DO NOT LOOK AT THE MILEAGE ON YOUR GARMIN.
17. Get relieved as you see the slow lane forming ahead of you knowing the climb is almost done.
18. Then get horrified as the pitch gets steeper and steeper.
19. Keep your cadence at about 10. We don't want to get too crazy here.
20. Channel the Little Engine that Could.
21. Crest the climb and continue plugging at those WNW winds.
22. Wait for that inevitable and blessed broom wagon.

BOOM. TRAINED.

I guarantee I win Willowdale.

 
So as you can see I had a hell of a time on this lovely Good Friday.  The first 30mi were great. Myself, Ryan LaRocque, Bully, Carl, Art and Andrew were cruising right along making it into Gorham averaging a hair over 20mph.  Even in Glen after Pinkham we were still averaging 19+.  All in all I have mixed reviews on my fitness.  I think for April I'm good.  I was able to hang with a group a tad above my pay grade for 30 in rolling terrain.  I'll take that and conveniently memory erase most of the rest.  What doesn't kill you right? RIGHT?!

Temps were chilly getting started but the sun made it out and things were perfect for the rest of the day.  Except for those damn winds!

I was Living Free and Dying when I took this

Testing the Waters

Got my first harder pace ride in this past weekend at FFD to get a quick gauge on what I can throw down currently.  It was promising, I didn't go completely flat out the whole time I took a few breathers on a trail here and there but when I was getting after it there were several times I thought my legs and heart were gonna give it up but I was able to keep suffering.  Very good signs for March.  AND I racked up a pretty hilarious amount of KOM's for my trouble.




I'm really digging my setup for this season so far.  All my upgrades are meshing really well and I feel really comfortable on the bike already.  I think the decrease in rotational weight is gonna be a really big deal for me this year as well as the slightly smoother ride thanks to 10 less psi.  Add the phenomenal lead into the season I'm getting with this PSU physical training program and I think by June/July I will have made more progress than I have over the last few years.

One somewhat funny side effect of my new setup is with a lighter setup in general and specifically much lighter wheels I have to be a bit more deliberate and mindful of where I put my weight and when.  I literally float on this bike now and I had some issues on semi technical fast climbs where I would pull the rear end right off the ground because my weight was a bit too forward.  I also need to learn to trust the new cornering capabilities of tires at 20psi.  I cornered a few times at speed and the feeling of the rubber rolling over a tiny bit actually kinda freaked me out a bit the first few times because I'm not used to it.  I just need to learn to let the magic happen.

Hopefully the weather stays on its current trajectory and I have a chance to get some good miles in before ss-a-palooza.  Team ride in the Whites this Friday should be a good start.

NEMBA Racing Meet & Greet

Team Meet and Greet rides are great for blogging.  Lots of people taking staged pics all day.  In a few moments I am going to bombard you with sweet pics of me on a bike.  You're welcome.

They are also a great way to kick off the season.  This was my first day on dirt and I was a little worried I was gonna be a bit too rusty to be in a long 'spirited' pace line.  Luckily the trails at Russell Mill are a perfect mix of buff/fast with tech sprinkled in here and there for good measure.  I was able to get my bearings a bit in the pump track and on some of the early fast stuff and only had a few issues here and there with line choice etc.

The new wheels are great so far.  I can really feel the drop in weight and having 10 less psi is pretty nice.  Just that extra bit of 'suspension' that I needed for me to keep my speed up in the rough stuff.  I think it could be just what I need to be up with the big boys on some of the courses this year.  I guess time will tell.  Pace never got too crazy but the legs felt good and I felt much more home on the bike than I thought I would in late March.  We've got a great group this year and I can't wait to get things kicked off next month at SS-a-palooza.

I also got a bit more acquainted with my new whip, the Fit.  We're gonna get along just fine I think.  I put it to task with a trip to the dump prior to heading down to MA to ride so it was loaded up with both cycling and REcycling gear.  I still have to figure out some efficiencies about loading and unloading, it took me a second to get it to all work but once I get a process down it's gonna be nice.

And now to please enjoi the SHRED.

I tried getting tricky to embed PK's photos here but for some reason blogger was upset with the URL's his site uses so just follow these old school links.  You may or may not get Rick Roll'd.

http://singlespeedphoto.com/p615027954/e379cf046
http://singlespeedphoto.com/p615027954/ed2ec7f
http://singlespeedphoto.com/p615027954/ecdda9c6
http://singlespeedphoto.com/p615027954/e742bc5b
http://singlespeedphoto.com/p615027954/e2b3b0869

One Word. ILLUSTRIOUS.

 It is with a heavy heart that I report the eventual passing on of the Echo.  It has reached a point in it's existence where its prolonged life will only cause it and me grief and I have decided to actively start the replacement process.

Illustrious is defined as: "Well known, respected, and admired for past achievements"

I can't think of any other word to better summarize the Echo's career.  While many liked to poke fun at my car (including me) it never let me down.  I have driven this car for 7 years and never once has it left me broken down and stranded or in a snow bank.  We were a good team, very frequently inducing head scratching and questions like "how did you jam all that shit in there?!" or "how the hell did you make it here in this weather?!" or "why are you going so slow up this hill?!"

It has been a steadfast companion and strangely enough I think I'm going to miss it a lot.  These last few weeks the Echo has burned bright but ultimately too hot.  I fear that its demise at this time is most assuredly due directly to what I have put it through lately but I am glad that some of my final memories with the Echo will be 4hrs of white knuckle driving trying to get to Sugarbush for a powder day.  Passing stuck SUV's and Pickups along the way.  It's time to put that 4 banger to rest, you've earned it.

Play this.

Then look at these.

 

Thanks for always delivering me to awesome.  You'll be sorely missed.

Post Powder

Winter continues its late push (although as I write this its doing a short 180 and pouring rain), PSU was closed Thurs due to a nice little storm that dumped probably an easy foot at the house, unfortunately a bit less up north in the Whites but I'll take it.

It was snowing hard just about all day Thurs and it was all the Echo could do just to get Gina to work let alone Cannon.  As it was I had to get out and push a bit while Gina drove to get over a little hill back by the house and then once we finally got to the shelter I decided I was going to volunteer for a half day so we only had to make the drive twice.  So I hung out with a bunch of dogs all day (whats up Maverick, Dillon, Sorbet, Clover, Sammi, Derby, Vanessa...).  With the impending thaw on the horizon I figured I had to put in for Friday off to try and at least get seconds and hope that there were a few lines people skipped Thurs.

Per usual skiing is always the right call.  Lucked out and bumped into Jim in the lodge and Joel and Craig second chair and we got to business as a foursome.  It reminded me very much of the last few years when days like this were the norm.  Every weekend just show up run into the regular crew and get straight to business, didn't matter where you went it was all good.  We aren't quite at that point even now in March, I still managed to brutalize my skis a bit but I've got no other choice, what am I gonna do? Just stay on Gremlin the whole season?

There were indeed at least a few lines, often skipped or missed by the masses, that were still pretty good.  My go to, Candyland, was great although still a bit thwacky.  We traversed over to lower Gunsight from Kinsman and it was in surprisingly good shape.  Part of me thought that was a death mission but it ended up being ok.  The foursome started to diminish in the afternoon so I spent some time messing with the GoPro and mounting it different ways to see what I could get.  Some of it was interesting at least for little segway shots...I think the edit came together pretty well.  Although I learned a lesson about Vimeo uploading, should have waited until tomorrow to upload it because my free account can only upload one HD video a week.  If I had waited until tomorrow I would have been fine but now it is crappy quality.  Maybe I can update it later or something, I'll have to look into that.  Until then, ENJOI.