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.

Perseverance

The conditions were perfect and set for a 4:00 ride on Saturday with some friends.  I had done some work on my bike earlier in the week to get it prepared for the weekend, and it seemed perfect and ready to roll.  We set off at 11:30 into blistering headwind and an ice-like snow.  The plan was to head out for 2:00 straight into the wind and then flip around and take the tailwind home.  All was well until about 1:20 into the ride, and then I ran into a problem.  If you look closely at the picture below you can se what my issue was.

If you can't quite make out the problem I'll break it down for you- my chain broke.  It just snapped right at one of the links.  Thankfully, I was able to avoid any injury when this happened.  But my ride was over as we were traveling without a chain tool.

Now my goal for the day was 4:00.  With my chain incident, my ensuing pick from the park and a work commitment later in the day, there was no chance that I could get back outside and finish the time.  So my options were three:

1) Ride the stationary trainer at night for 2:40 so I would total the day out at 4:00
2) Flip Saturday and Sunday's training.  Saturday = 4:00 & Sunday = 1:30.
3) Forget about the plan/goal for the day and just accept 1:20 of ride time.

In a recent comment I was asked about my motivation and where does it come from?  There are a lot of areas and ways that I use to motivate myself, and the one I drew upon yesterday/today was my love of setting goals and accomplishing them.  I receive a tremendous amount of satisfaction when I set up a training goal and then work hard to achieve it.  Knowing that about myself there were really only 2 options above that would have worked for me, either #1 or #2.

I choose #2.  I looked at the forecast and Sunday looked like it was going to be similar to Saturday. So late Saturday night I prepared my gear, fixed my bike, packed a chain tool and readied everything so I could head out Sunday when I was done seeing clients.

This time the preparation and the execution worked perfectly.  And it actually turned into a great ride because the snow started falling heavily about an hour into the ride, and I love riding in the snow.  All totaled up, it snowed about 3" in the 4:10 of ride time for the day.

-Jason

Late Night Training

Everyone I know and associate with has a very busy life.  Jobs, kids, social activities and even daily errands suck up most of our time.  And more often than not I have people tell me that their busy lives leave them with too little time to exercise.  To that I say,"make the time!"  There are always plenty of obligations and commitments to keep us from doing one thing or another, but I have yet to meet the person who could not carve an opening into their schedule to fit something in that they wanted to do.  My schedule was particularly busy yesterday.  What that meant was that I was going to have to start and finish my workout later in the evening.  Later was/is starting at 9:15 and finishing up at 11:15.  I didn't think twice about doing it, and I didn't hesitate when I needed to start.  I set aside the time, made a workout plan and executed it.  It was as simple as that, and I would suggest that it could be the same for everyone else too.  Know what you need, make the time and crush your workout.

-Jason

The Elements

I think I can speak for most when I state that last winter was brutal.  Cold, snow-filled and long.  It just didn't give up, and it made training outside very tough.  This year, however, has been great.  We have had very few really cold days, very few snow falls, and even fewer days with the combination of both.  This past Saturday we got a blast of Winter which brought us that bit of both.  We woke up with a fresh 2.5"-3.0" inches of snow and the thermometer pegged at 11F degrees.  It was going to get better though.  The forecast called for the temperature to peak at about 28F degrees.  I messaged a bunch of friends to see who was going to be on board with my planned 5-hour ride and I received 2 firm "Yeses" and a bunch of "No Ways."  The three of us who were committed braved the elements and headed out into what turned out to be a great day and a great ride.  While the temperature never got above 25F degrees, there was plenty of warmth due to full sunlight and zero wind. We rode through Proud Lake, Island Lake State Park, Kensington Metro Park and all around Milford.  It was a fantastic ride and I am happy that I didn't let the elements stop us from reaching our ride goals.

-Jason

What I have noticed

Here are a bunch of pictures of thing's that have caught my attention the past few weeks-

I am not exactly sure why this bike is hanging out of the back of this pick-up? Seems to me that there should be plenty of room in the truck bed.  I don't think I have ever seen anything like this.

I saw a bunch of the back wheel of this bike on a ride.  It belongs to a young triathlete who has some horsepower.

 I raced in Detroit a few weekends ago.  The course was right by Ford Field and Commerica Park.

This is the view I had during my warm-up.  I rode the trainer to avoid riding city streets to get loose.

 Trail work in Kensington Metro Park.

This is where the new trail in Kensington will join the existing trail that goes into Milford.

 Ride prep.  This past Thursday it was 98 degrees when I headed out.  I didn't check the heat index.  You have to be careful in those kind of temps- hence the Slurpee.  I have a lot of experience, and a decent tolerance, so I know how to prepare, and what I can tolerate.  If you are not sure what your limits are then I would recommend contacting me to discuss safe practices.

It is kind of hard to see, but my legs are covered in dirt.  The high temps brought out a lot of sweat.  The dirt sticks to that real well.

 I raced in Flint today.  It really looks nice downtown by the UofM campus.

I thought that this building looked cool.

 Wow! When is the last time you saw one of these?  It was a nasty looking one like this that made me finally decide to get a cell phone years ago.

How do you become a pipe smoking world champion?