I Always Thought I Could Out Sprint a Dog

Actually I felt a little arrogant when it came down to dogs while riding. I was sure a dog could never catch me. Yesterday I met my master, my superior. Then again I have to say that usually the dogs came from the side or from behind. This one came head on. He came at me like a bullet or even better like a cruise missile. I yell at him and he never stops. About a second later he crashes into my bike so hard that my rear wheel lifts up and  takes my bike from underneath me. I do not know how he did it because I was still moving at about 17 mph when it happened. This dog knew his homework. 

I fell on my rear end and believe me it hurts. It hurts so bad my wife was looking for a toilet seat with cushioning today. There are many nice models out there.    

So what did I learn? Never underestimate a dog. A dog can always hit you. Even when moving. 

Dawn to Dusk

I feel sorta like I did when I got ready for my first Cat 5 race.......I am in better shape.   Dusk to Dawn is full(115 solo racers and 100 duo teams....not sure how many coed duos?).   The instructions are all there.   My biggest concern is support and logistics.

We rode 2 laps on the course yesterday.  It is great!  Teenie is a tuff chick as she is still very sore but that did not stop her from setting pace much of the day.   She is still not sure she will ride Sat???   We will see.

If she does not, I am going solo.......yea, that's right, 10 hours in the saddle.  I figure solo, I will do about 112 miles on my hard tail Stumpjumper.

Goals for the day:

* Stay safe
* Have fun and meet some other idiots
* Clean all laps - unclip only in the transition area(my goal, not Teenie's)
* Pace - ride successive laps faster and faster
* Avoid being DFL

Stay tuned!      

Tucson Camp and the Don

As I have gotten older, I have concentrated on relationships.  Often I have thought, that if I could count on just 8 friends??   You know, that is how many it takes to carry a casket.  Don't know if that matters as I am planning on cremation?

This last weekend, I was lucky enough to be hangin' out with some of those 8!

Roger 'The Rocket' Kennedy is one of those 8.  Bird, one of the other 7, recently named him the 'Don'.........very appropriate.

Some of you, who are new to Tucson, will experience the power of Roger's spirit when you come to camp.

Those that have been here will tell to make sure your helmet is on tight!  And your legs are rested.  We don't call him The Rocket for nothing.

Learn Something New Every Day

We had a good time at the Tour de Tucson last week at TEAM headstrong western hq. I'll let Bird tell you all about the racing experience, because he loves the play by play experience. Instead I thought I would focus on passing along some knowledge I collected this week. They say you learn something new every day and I think it was true of the Tucson trip. Here are a few things I learned out west.

• There is something to this trend towards electronic shifting. It's efficient and simple, even though I never thought my mechanical shifters were that hard to operate.
• The dry desert air helps dry up spilled energy drink on your frame like concrete in about 5 minutes.
• Arizona desert roads are paved once every 53 years whether they need it or not.
• Scorpions glow in the dark under a black light.
• 8 teammates can't really eat 6 cups of oatmeal at one sitting.
• The gently rolling (mostly flat and false flat) desert roads are very friendly to clydesdales like me.
• It's good for the ego to spin out of your top gear in a rotating paceline, even if it's compact gearing.
• A 130 pound Colombian professional can make himself smaller than your front wheel when he's pulling at 35mph.
• No matter how many or how few traffic cones they use to control traffic flow, some jackleg is going to hit one on his bicycle.
• Some guys can travel around the country for 20 days a month, training indoors (or not at all) and still rip the legs off you. 
• There is such a thing as an Italian Tamale, and no that is not the nickname of a local rider.
• Some of my headstrong teammates possess amazing secret skills that would really surprise you. Just ask Randall "Thumbs" Maddox about his secret "world class" talent.

I had a great time in Tucson and I want to thank the Maddox's for the hospitality and fun. It's always a blast at TEAM headstrong western hq. I can't wait to enjoy our next adventure in February at 2013 Team Camp.

El Tour de Tucson 2012

Once again, Teenie and the DS hosted a great event at their Tucson home, and we all thank them for their hospitality and making this possible... 

The "Don" (Roger Kennedy) and the DS assembled their respective teams to position themselves and their teams to be on the podium of this year’s El Tour Tucson.   The Don brought in 4 ringers including 3 NYC pros and a Cat 3 diesel to power Team Foundation, whereas the DS brought in 4 rouleurs and 3 top women to 1) sweep the women’s,  2) win the men’s overall and  3) do a 1,2 in the Men’s 60+…. Ambitious goals to say the least….

The Strategy…..after countless hours of discussions on and off the bike, the Bake mediated the final strategy ……..Keep our noses clean… stay in the lead pack and make the play in the final 4.5mile run in….

Net/Net....

Mark Schleihs riding for TEAM Headstrong 4th overall

Bird 12th... 1st 60+

Emily 21st ... 1st Woman 

Greg LeDoe.. riding for TEAM Headstrong 29th

Sam ... 61st... 2nd Woman

Steve... 2012 Chase Award.... towing Sam to 2nd...

to read the whole play by play click on...  Bird's Narrative

TEAM Goals

During the days our here in Tucson, Emily, Sam, Teenie, Bake, Bird and I, took a couple of hours to work on TEAM business.   We have developed some goals and these will be important for you to embrace or come back with challenges and comments.  We won't have these complete until you can support them.

Here they are:

*  Fully subscribe and hold camp in Tucson and tour in the Pyrenees.
- Fun
- Safe
- Specific training or race goals for each event

*  Hold 4 skills clinics and have every rider complete 2 or more
- Handling - Dec 9 @ 1:00PM (Day after our Christmas party)
- Cornering - Jan 13 @ 1:00PM
- Sprint clinic - at camp in Tucson
- Focus to be announced - Mar 24 @ 1:00PM 

*  Field a TEAM of at least 13 people at key races
- SC Crit Championship - April 22 - 2 days of crits in Charleston
- SC ITT Championship - June 2 - 1 day in Charleston - 40k
- SC RR Championship - June 9 - 1 day at Fork Shoals (we sponsor this race)
- Mass start Grandfondo style race to be announced
- Barrouse de Bales - cyclosportive we will be racing in the Pyrenees

Of course each of you will have personal goals outside of these and we hope to support you in achieving those.

Please give us feedback...........I hope you can get excited about these.   We will have other info coming out of this meeting to communicate soon.

See ya out there. 

Tour de Tucson Preview

Tomorrow we ride the 30th annual Tour de Tucson. We're out here with some teammates to enjoy a fun weekend with about 9000 of our new friends. We're entered in the 60 mile ride and we have some pretty big goals in mind for tomorrow. We're shooting for a win in both the men's and women's race tomorrow, so we'll all be giving it our all. Here's a little clip we made after this morning's spin. It's all over but the racing now.

Noboby says it better than Joe!

While reading Joe Friel's blog, this post hit home!  I hope you enjoy it.

Seriously?

I spoke at a cycling camp offered by Aspen Sports Performance this past weekend in Moab, Utah. The riding was spectacular and the athletes were all quite impressive, especially given that it was the “off season” (whatever that means) for most of them.

On Saturday during a break in the ride at Arches National Park  (what a beautiful place to ride!) I talked briefly about the purposes and methodologies of training. This prompted one of the riders to ask if he should be “serious” about training year round. I don’t think I’ve ever been asked that exact question before, but a lot of athletes have implied it. Here’s what I told him.

How serious you are, which I take to mean how focused you are on training to improve race performance, depends on a couple of things. The first is how challenging your race goal is. It’s okay to take a long break and have a low-key season occasionally in which you do races—if any—just to have fun. If they’re only social outings and you don’t care about the outcomes then there is no reason to be serious with training. In fact, it may not be “training” at all as that implies having a focus on outcome. Instead, all you need is an exercise program. Do what you want, when you want. Totally non-serious.

For seasons in which you are focused on achieving high goals, your level of seriousness can depend on periodization. This following table provides a rough guide as to how serious you might be during each period (see my Training Bible books or search this blog for more details on periodization). In this table, “serious” means, to me, doing workouts that are laser-focused on performance. Not every workout in each period needs to be that way. In any given period some may be 100% focused and others not focused at all. So if half of them are focused the serious-non-serious balance may be 50-50. The non-serious workouts are, essentially, “play.” You’re simply having fun by exercising with friends, exploring new territory while riding or running, exercising in ways that are very much unlike your sport (for example, a cyclist who runs or a triathlete who XC skis), or even taking a day off just because you feel like it.

Period	Typical Length (in weeks)	Purpose (in common order of importance)	% Serious	% Non-serious
Transition	2-6	Rejuvenate	0	100
Preparation	2-6	Prepare to train	60	40
Base 1	3-4	Skills, force, aerobic endurance	80	20
Base 2	3-4	Aerobic endurance, skills, force, muscular endurance	90	10
Base 3	3-4	Muscular endurance, aerobic endurance, skills, force	100	0
Build 1	3-4	Race-specificity	100	0
Build 2	3-4	Race-specificity	100	0
Peak	1-2	Maintain fitness, shed fatigue, race specificity	100	0
Race	1	Shed fatigue, maintain fitness	100	0

Now you can be serious all the time, if you want. I know many athletes who do that. I tend to be that way myself once I get into the base period, so I understand. But if you are this type you need to closely monitor your psychological status. Burnout is common with such athletes. For whatever reason, I’ve met a lot of Ironman athletes who are this way. These few triathletes don’t merely train seriously, they are serious all the time. They wake up thinking about training. They eat thinking about training. They think about training at work. They go to bed thinking about training. And I’m not just picking on Ironman triathletes as I’ve known a couple of other athletes who are this way who aren’t triathletes. Ironman seems to attract highly focused people. And, again, that's okay. Just be sure to monitor yourself. It's easy to dig a deep trench if overly serious.

So, does having this table mean you have to follow it? No, not at all. It’s just my thoughts on how to train if you have set high performance goals for yourself. The key idea here is that the higher your goal, the more serious you must be in regards to the training purpose column above. This becomes critical in the last 12 weeks before the race. During this time you must be serious if you have a high-performance goal. But if you feel the need to take a break from serious training, even though it may be Build 2 and you’ve set very high goals, then by all means just “play” for a while. You’ll race much better if you are enthusiastic and highly motivated but not quite race fit than if you are the other way around.

Remembering Lou Tice

Teenie and I just had the closet in our master bedroom redone and it made me think of my dear friend and mentor, Lou Tice.

Lou had a million great stories and one of them was about his friends who worked for 3 days to organize and clean up their home because 'company was comin'.   It seemed that it wasn't long until the home returned to it's previously untidy state.  Lou's question was, "How come you don't keep it that nice and tidy?  Aren't you good enough to live in a place that organized and clean all the time?"

My closet was not nearly as tidy as you see it before the remodel, to be honest.   You will remember possibly, that after Lou's death, I promised to redouble my efforts to make the world a better place.   Keeping my closet like this 'all the time' is going to serve as symbol for me.   I want the world to be a better place 'all the time'.  And, I/you/we deserve it.

I know I may wear you guys out sometimes when it comes to being in full gear..........the full team kit.   But, to me it is like the closet.   You/we deserve to look like the elite athletes you are.  If you are yet to be elite, then you are preparing to be elite or you are on the wrong team.   So, "Act as if, and prepare for", as Teenie says.

We deserve the best in clothing, skills training, team rides, camps, races, etc., etc.  For me you see, "Good enough, never is!"

Your question, "In what ways can you help organize and clean or TEAM closet?  your life closet? your world closet?"

Lou is proud of me for asking this!  Lou, I will never forget you

EL TOUR DE TUCSON - Chapter I

Truthfully, we have been preparing for many weeks.   The Tour Team will be in Tucson in a few days.  Emily, Bake, Sam, Bird come in from home.  Mark Schleihs and Greg Ladoe come in from KC and Houston respectively.   Mark and Greg are long time supporters of TEAM headstrong and bring great strength to our event team.

Teenie and I have been here for almost 2 weeks and training like mad.  The weather is typical....sunny and warm with today getting cooler.

The whole city is a buzz as the population gets ready for gridlock.   Unlike anything I have ever seen but Cape Argus in South Africa, this baby rolls around and through the city.  No country routes here.

Roger got in late last week with Sandy marooning him for a few days in NYC.   Craig, his son, arrived today and their team will trickle in and be 10 strong on race day.

The promotor is expecting 9-10,000 folks.  Over 2000 will be in the 60 mile version, we are racing.  Anyone wonder what our goals are???   Guess!! 

  

Sunday 11/11/2012 Brevard Ride

Time...........10:00am
Distance... ~60mile
Terrain... ....flat with some rolling hills
Pace: ......... 20 +or- mph
Start: ...........Quotations on Main St.
Parking.........behind or next to Comporium on Main St.

anyone welcomed to attend...  Brevard Mills River Training Loop

IRONMAN WORLD

Enter the world of Ironman, truly its own extraterrestrial planet. 2,500 athletes who have trained for months for the hopes of achieving the coveted title of Ironman. I felt at home on this planet as I became not an anomaly but a fellow cult member. This is a place where going to bed at 9pm, wearing your calf socks to lunch, and talking about power taps and perceived exertion was the norm. This is the place where everyone held Starbucks coffee in their hand and beamed vibes of human sunshine to all those that approach. ok, I'm getting carried away, but it was AWESOME!!! Even World Champion Mirinda Carfrae wished me good luck!

All of this positive, can-do, inspiring camaraderie quickly changed like the tide as we approached the swim start Saturday morning at 7am on the beaches of Panama City. My fellow comrades became quite unsettled as we approached the rolling waves and deep swells to enter the depths of the Gulf. It became war as I fought for position with hoards of men who outnumbered the women 3:1. I was in a washing machine of fury as we completed the 2.4 mile swim. I had never swam 2.4 miles, much less even swam really in the ocean. I maintained good composure and fought for my position. The best part of the swim? Having my wetsuit yanked off with one good pull by a strong man on the beach. Never in my life have I been able to remove that wetsuit so fast!

The bike was a lollipop route of 112 fast and flat miles. We had varying winds throughout the day, overall really good roads, and well manned aid stations. I managed to meet up with one of my best friends when I stopped for a quick potty break. She wasn't feeling very well so I rode next to her just chatting like a songbird. I even verbalized that I was sure to get a penalty....and no sooner did those words come from my mouth that I got a red card flashed to me by a ref on a motorcycle for blocking.... I would now have to go to the penalty tent! My friend went too for moral support and because she really needed to sit down. I had to stand and hold a stopwatch for 4min as they slashed my number with a Sharpie and recorded my name on a sheet. I tried to call my mom from the tent for fun, but none of the refs would let me use their phone....oh well.....

I have to give a HUGE shout out to teammate Brian Myrick who helps direct Ironman Florida. It was so awesome to have a familiar face out on the course and to know that if I had an emergency, he would offer his help. THANK YOU! I managed to run into Brian on the 2nd lap of the run course and posed for a pic....

The run was tough, but was everything I wanted and needed it to be. I wanted it to be mentally and physically challenging  so that it would push me to new limits. I wanted an Ironman challenge....and it did not fail to test me. I ran, I walked, I almost passed out. My mouth was so dry that eating a pretzel became like chewing bubble gum. A man ran up to me and asked was this the way to the finish? I thought he was joking, but he had just come out of a porta potty and was so disoriented he wasn't quite sure which way on the out and back course was really the finish. Fit men were walking. People were dry heaving. Ambulance sirens abounded. Inspiration was all around as we became comrades again, united as one, doing the Ironman shuffle. Whatever you could do to make forward progress was done. No one judged our missteps, side leans, or gas passing :). Nighttime caught us and we shuffled along in silence and in bad form. Some would not make it and fall casualty to a cut off time of 12 midnight.

But, I made it. My goal was to get to the start line healthy and my other goal, to finish my first Ironman. And I did it. I did it! In honor of John "Blazeman" Blais who completed Ironman Kona with Lou Gehrig's disease and died 2 years later at 35yrs old, I rolled across the line, something he had done at Kona to offer hope to so many. Thanks Blazeman!

I did not want to leave Planet Ironman for Earth's reality of cyclical work, hopelessness, depression, and fatigue. After all, I was an Ironman. I was changed! How do you come down from such a high of inspiration? Watching a 78yr old man lean across the line, seeing a firefighter in turnout gear complete a marathon, cheering for a woman who finished 10min after the cut-off still getting cheered in by 1,000 people who waited on her to finish! Is there a pill for this? If so, I want everyone to take it. As a nurse, I want to offer that hope and inspiration to all, to see eyes and hearts burn with life. It's never too late to do something epic. Seek your own Planet Ironman and take those around you with you.

I think I'm tough.......

.....I go out for a 50 mile hard group ride.   I think I am bad to the bone because I am riding 10 miles to the start and 10 miles back.   I know it is going to go 21-22 mph with hard hill efforts.

Then I meet Jen.........who has had cancer.   She is training for El Tour de Tucson.  Sure, the domestiques with TEAM COLLEEN push her some and she gets very tired, but the 30-40 person peleton never attacks her.  She maintains 3rd-5th wheel most of the ride.  She is all smiles at the end.

I revise my definition of TOUGH.