Confidence

This is a picture of a freshly graded dirt road I rode my mountain bike down last week.  The picture does not do justice to the difficulty that is had when trying to smoothly ride over this kind of surface.  The thickness of the soil and the stickiness of the dirt just sucks the speed right out of your bike.  It was tough work to ride through this for 2 miles.

I just talked to a client of mine who did course recon this weekend on the Barry-Roubaix route.  Barry-Roubaix is a dirt road bike race that is happening next weekend.  He spent 2 days riding the route- 62 miles each day- and he was pleased with how his body felt and responded.  He was also observant about how the course looked.  He told me many of the roads were freshly graded and that the going was tough and slow.  But, he finished our conversation on a positive note.  He said,"Yah it was slow, but it will be slow for everyone out there."

That is a confident person.  He has worked hard all winter and he is pleased with his fitness and form.  He knows that the conditions can massively affect a bike race, but he also knows that his preparation will allow him to overcome anything the race can throw at him.  We should all prepare well so that we can roll with confidence.

-Jason

Cycling Coaching

Back in 1990 I took the class, and passed the test, to become a certified USA Cycling Coach.  Once I was certified I used my knowledge to coach many individual riders and also 2 cycling clubs- The University of Michigan Cycling Team and The Flying Rhino Cycling Club.  I enjoyed working with cyclists and helping them improve their skills and work towards their goals.  But as my personal training business and commitments increased, I spent fewer hours on the bike and fewer hours around cyclists.  Eventually it was so few of both that I retired from racing, and I let my coaching license expire.


I wasn't able to stay retired from racing for too long.   Eventually I made my way back to 1 race, which became 2, which became an entire season's worth. And eventually, actually this past year, I was asked by a number of different riders to help them with their winter training plans.  It had been a while since I had written out any structured cycling training plans- except my own- but I happily agreed to help everyone out who asked out.  As I got deeper and deeper into developing and writing up the training programs, I realized I had to make my work "official" and become a certified coach again.  So in 2012 I read the book, and passed the test, to become a certified USA Cycling Coach.  I am very excited for the work I have done, the clients I am helping and the plans I have for the coming months.

-Jason

Jupiter Florida

A good friend of ours has insisted for years that we go down and stay at her condo in Jupiter Florida.  We have always had one reason or another why we couldn't make it, but this year we decided to fit a trip into our schedule.  I did some research on riding in the area and was undecided on which of my bikes to bring. There seemed like there were pluses and minuses to both my road and mountain bikes and I was back and forth with which way to go until I got my new road bike assembled.

Once I had this beast together, the choice was made.  The new bike had to make the trip.  I rode the heck out of it for 5 days, and ended up with just short of 18 hours on it in that time.  Through all of my riding I saw stuff like this:

This is the only pink building I saw.  It was awesome.  I just kept on thinking about Miami Vice whenever I passed it.

These guys were everywhere.  And they apparently grow very fast.  There were landscaping crew everywhere cutting down and pilling up the stalks(?)

This was taken on Jupiter Island.  It is a 10 mile island that is a pleasure to ride.  Low traffic, low speeds and high dollar views.

I ran into a couple of these on my last ride.  I got stopped by the same boat twice at 2 different bridges!

Relaxing post ride.