Race Tactics

I (Coach AP) am the mentor/coach of the Rocky Mounts Women's Cycling Team and I must say, it is very rewarding.  Before my first cycling race, 7 years ago, I had never even seen a bike race (other than the Tour de Frace on TV).  I had no idea about race tactics, training, or strategy. I was just excited to race hard and try to win.  Unfortunately, I had a lot to learn about racing and training before I was even able to think about winning a race.

It's for this reason, I am so happy to mentor the Rocky Mounts Women. On days like yesterday, when we go ride a local crit course together to practice race tactics, riding in a pack, and cornering skills, I am able to teach the women how to race as a team and, most of all, how to get the most FUN out of each race and ride together.

Now, when the team goes to their first race together, they'll not only know what to expect in the race, they'll have a plan on how to EXCEL during the race.  For me, that is a rewarding feeling.

First Race-with athletes

This past Saturday, was the Frostbite Time Trial north of Ft. Collins.  This was the first chance to test my own fitness for the 2011 race season, but it was also a great chance to get to race with a few of my athletes.

As a coach, there is only so much I can do to get an athlete ready for his or her races.  Once at the race, the athletes are on their own.  I can't be at every race for every athlete and I certainly can't control the dynamics the outcome of the races. What I can do, as a coach, is to get each athlete as prepared as possible for each race.

Such was the case at the Frostbite TT.  Not only did I get to watch each athlete race, I got to warm-up with them, I got to go over the course and race strategy for each, we got to ride and cool-down together, and we car pooled together.

It was a great bonding experience and reminded me how much I enjoy coaching and riding my bike.

The Mountain Flyer Magazine was covering the race, and here is a nice write up about about the race, and the results.

The four of us came home with 1 win, 2 seconds, and valuable experience gained.

Honesty-with yourself

Honesty.  Ever since you were a little kid, there is a good chance your parents and teachers told you to always tell the truth.  Over the years, we all have learned honesty is the best policy.
For the most part, you tell the truth to your parents, to your kids, to your spouse, and to your loved ones.  But how often do you tell the truth to yourself?
How honest are you with yourself?
How honest are you with yourself and your training, or your nutrition or your energy levels.

Each of our body's talk to us.  It's up to us to listen to what our body is saying and then to be honest with it.

Maybe your body is run down and telling you it's tired, but your telling it to shut the F up because your training plan has 3 hrs on it for today and that's what you're going to do. 

If you're caught lying to a friend or family member, they usually get mad at you and you feel badly for lying in the first place.

If you keep ignoring your body and/or lying to yourself that you feel fine and everything is good, soon your body will get mad at you and tell you to F off.  Then comes the sore throat, the cough, the stuffy nose, the fatigue, etc.

Be honest with yourself and be honest with your body.  Listen to what it has to say and decide the best plan of attack from there.  Maybe it's rest, maybe it's less sugar in your diet, maybe both of you need a swift kick in the ass, but you'll never know unless you tell the truth.

Tis the season to be un-fit.

December...tis the time of year to be unfit.  And you should be unfit for fitness comes from un-fitness. Tis the time of year to build, to get stronger, to improve upon weaknesses and to enjoy other sports besides the bicycle.

I (Coach AP) did my Functional Lactate Test today and the results show that I am very much in December fitness season.  Though the numbers are slightly (VERY) ego crushing, (158 lbs- 225 watts LT) I know I can only get better from here and through each bike ride, skate ski, and Pilates session I'll gain fitness and continue toward my goals for 2011.

Here is my graph from today's test done at FasCat Coaching in Boulder, Colorado.

Double check yourself and your training to make sure you are in the correct fitness season.  Tis the season to be un-fit.

Have a Plan

"Fail to plan and you plan to fail". This saying has more importance than you realize.

In order to be successful at anything in life, especially sports, you must plan for it. Amongst other things, you must plan out your race schedule, your training schedule, and your training times. Then you must plan on the best way to make everything happen. "Winging it" only works for so long. The best athletes are the ones who have planned their success.

What's the first step in this planning process? Goal setting. You must set realistic yet challenging goals to keep you motivated and on track.

An example of a goal would be -
Eat healthy

That's a great goal, but how do you eat healthy? What are the steps to eating healthy and how do you know if you are doing it?

You must break your goals down into more goals and tasks. If your goal can be broken down, you are not finished making it.

In order to eat healthy, you must know what eating healthy means. A better goal would be-
I plan on buying more fruits and veggies to have on hand at home for snacking. I will stay away from highly processed (packaged, sugar filled) foods and buy more "natural" foods that have not been as processed. When I will always remember to eat a healthy snack (ie banana and milk) after my ride. Etc, etc.

The same goes for training.  Do you know what you're training for and why you're doing what you're doing this time of year?  Know exactly what you're training for (your goal), then break it down into smaller pieces and train for each piece.

Goals have to be broken down, and down, until all you have to do is follow the steps.
Plan to succeed.

Alabama Cycling Camp

It's official.  ALP Cycles is headed to Alabama in February for the Alabama Cycling Camp.
Join Coach AP the weeks of Feb. 5-12 and/or Feb. 12-19 for amazing riding, training tips, race tactics and an overall really fun time.

The roads in Alabama are perfect to get in your early season miles. Time spent here is an excellent way to start off your season. After riding a big amount of miles in the rolling hills, you're ready to put in the intensity that will turn into race wins in the coming season.

Check out the website for more information.  It is fun and productive, plus we're looking forward to riding with great people.

Injuries

Unfortunately, injuries are a part of athletics.  They are also a part of living and of life.

Obviously, prevention (stretching, strengthening, massage, rest, etc) is the best way to avoid injuries.  But sometimes, no matter how well you have "prevention-ed", injuries still happen.  In this case, there are two ways you can go about healing your injury.

1.)  Take some IB Profen, and call it good.  Option #1 people continue their activities despite the pain/injury.  They half-ass the activity because it hurts, and they half-ass their healing by doing the activity.  In this instance the injury lingers.  It could take days, weeks or even months to recover from this at one time, not so bad injury.

2.) Rest until injury no longer hurts. Option #2 people understand they would rather rest/heal today to exercise tomorrow, and the day after, all while being pain free. In this instance, the injury has time to recover and to heal and the overall duration of the injury is shorter.

Injuries are your body's way of telling you something is not right.  Take time to listen what your body is saying and take the necessary measures to fix that problem so it never hinders you again.