PREPPING FOR OUR NEXT BIG CHALLENGE

We just can't get enough of France, the Pyrenees, Barrouse Bales (BB is a cyclosportive race) or Pyractiv (our accomodations).

We are headed back for a three-peat in August.   To the right, is a great podium pic of Christina in the Women's Masters 50+ last year.  She was also 5th in women's overall.  Her French competitors were very gracious.

This year, our batteries are charged and we are on track.

Today we start a 17 day nutritional block designed to bring us to 'race weight'.   This block will not only allow us to shed a few unneeded pounds but also fill our tanks with jet fuel.  We kicked our training off with a 135K ride that entailed some climbing.   I am still injured and inhibited from standing climbing so we must delay our steep climbing training just a bit.  Rain turned us around and we are reset for tomorrow.

Our race is on August 10th and we are currently discussing/clarifying our race goals but I think there are two things on which we can improve, along with being in the 'shape of our lives'.
1.  Start closer to the front.   There are two distances and each have about 600 competitors.   We need to start closer to the front and get in a faster pack going out to the first climb, which is about 30 miles.
2.  Descend faster.    We are going to practice the tricky descent on the Port de Bales prior to the race.  Last year Christina and Helen were passed by 2 women on the final descent and it would be good to avoid this again.

Our training looks pretty simple:

*  5-7 big climbing rides w/race pace climbing efforts
*  4-5 SCTAC - C20+ added miles on front and back.
*  2-3 training races or hard Saturday group rides.
*  Lots of endurance pace stuff.

Chris and Helen Balfour, our hosts and friends, are joining us in the race.   These guys are doing the
L' Etape du Tour (an amateur race of a TdF stage) on July 20th.   They are in crazy shape.   Helen reached the podium last year in the BB (and was 6th women's overall) but I think she can win the 35+ this year.   I do not yet know her goals or Christina's, but they could be 1-2 in the women's overall.  Chris just turned 50 and will certainly be a top finisher in that AG.

This whole journey includes the same vital elements I use for any challenge in life:

*  Set clear and specific goals.
*  Plan my preparation.
*  Execute my plan.
*  When it gets to the 'day of reckoning', trust my preparation, myself and my team mates.
*  Go all out……if I fail, I fail.  I don't leave anything out there.

I will keep you posted.

See ya out there.

The Tough Guy is Not So Tough This Time Around

When I was at A&M(1 Million Years BC),  I was tough as heck.  While I played varsity football there, I maybe missed 1 or 2 practices in 3 years.  I missed ZERO games.  I played 'hurt' most of the time.  I can remember setting alone in my room in tears, just thinking what I might be able to do if I could just be 'all well'.

In the years I spent in business with my partner Jim Landino, we said our most important attribute was that we showed up……no matter how bad things were.   We showed up.   We were tough guys.

Well, my latest tough guy test came at NC State RR.  As many of you know, I crashed with no one to blame but myself.  I knew I was hurt the second I pulled my face out of the dirt.  I took off on Sunday but Monday found me out for about 2 hours…. wrist brace, ibuprofen and bandages and all.  Once again, I was proving I was a tough guy, if to no one other than myself.

By Wednesday, I soloed a 131K ride for my June Strava 130K Granfondo Challenge.   No doubt, I overdid it.  Pain and exhaustion followed in the next days.  

On Saturday, our family vacation started.   Usually, I am leading the charge.  Our family consists mostly of folks who take a rest AFTER their vacation.  This year, I have not been able to hack it.  I am unable to mountain bike on single track, water ski, wake board or paddle board.  Oh sure, I have done a couple of 2 hour road rides on the MTBs and a short hike, but mostly the kids and grandkids are asking if they can help me…….  They are carrying and lifting things for me.  I am taking a lot of naps. I am struggling with feeling like I have aged ten years since our last vacation, one year ago.  Then, I mountain biked rugged single track for 3 hours and helped carry a small child over a mountain and back on a hike……..in the same day…..in 100 degree heat.

I have been here before and come back.  I will come back again. Maybe just not as fast as a tough guy would like?

Right now, I am working on being less physically tough and more mentally tough.   I am working on enjoying my family more in a cheerleader role than a leader role………..I am a fortunate guy.

My granddaughter, Aly, ask me what it felt like to 'have created' this group.   Answer:  GOOD, VERY GOOD.  I love this team more than life itself.

See ya out there.

Oh, I almost forgot….here is the Totally Radical Slalom Skiing Grandmother Dude!   She's holding up the Grandparents on this vacation.   And, I did a paddle board run this morning so maybe I am not ready for the grave, yet?


  

TEAM = Modry Evergreen Masters Race Team

Look up the word 'team' in the dictionary and it says:  See Modry Evergreen Masters Race Team.   On the way home Saturday after the NC State Championship Race, Bird (Jon Limbird) and I discussed that many people have long years of experience on teams.   I said, "yes, some played pro soccer or college basketball…".  Bird's observation and comment was that the Modry guys start sentences with "WE" vs "I".

I met Lee Reavis and Michael Berry prior to the race.   We only exchanged a hand shake but I felt a certain warmth.  I looked into Lee's eyes and felt the welcome and respect.  It was the same feeling I have gotten from my other new team mates.

Riley allowed me to call the shots as far as bringing Bird in to race with us.   Peter Leousis was going to be formidable.  He had beaten me by about 4 minutes in the last 40K TT in which we competed.  I figured it was going to be 3 against 1 and Peter didn't know my name.   Maybe we could sneak up on him?  I was not intimidated.

We had the race totally under control and about 8 miles in, I over ran a wheel…flew into the dirt about 30 feet off the road...just an awful rookie move.   Riley and Bird were shaken and the pack slowed to see that I sat up.  I got in the wheel truck.  I knew my crash would wear on my team mates…Bird and I go back a long way.   I ask the driver to go up past the field so I could let them know I was OK but he wouldn't.   I got out at the start/finish.   Later, Bird dropped as his back was hurting, but I know my wreck was a factor.   I think Riley was negatively effected beyond my physical absence.  He told me later he felt like crap for not stopping…he did what he should have done.

I cleaned up my wounds at the ambulance and soon the 50-59 guys came by entering the bell lap.  David and Lee were off the front about 25 seconds and Chris Dietrich was second wheel, blocking.  I was setting under a tent, beat to crap, beaming with pride.   Shortly, came the 60+ finish and Peter was first.  Riley came in 4th, a pretty long way back.   He was very disappointed but Bird said that Riley had certainly earned his respect and I know Riley did all he could.  Without Bird and I, he was in gunfight with a knife and the same would have been true if it had been just me or Bird.

We waited and the 50-59 pack came charging up the road.   David and Lee had been reeled in but Chris Steele put on an amazing sprint off a Chris Dietrich lead out.  He won the 55+ NC State Championship.  Lee was 4th in the 50-54.  When I saw David at the car, I thought he could barely stand up.  His legs were shaking.  He had given the break his all and was last in the AG.  I couldn't have respected him more, if he had won.  As hurt as I was, I felt inspired by what they had done and that included Bird and Riley.

Soon they were all checking on me and offering their concern.  They knew how I felt!  When you've hit the deck, seeing your team mates concerned faces helps.

Despite our disappointing outcome in the 60+, we had another great Modry weekend.  I think we have some good racers individually but when you put us together, we are a lot more than good.   We are an awesome force and one to be reckoned with.  We are race makers.

I am planning on a rematch with Peter!

<<<<<<As far as me, see that place right there?   The one I am pointing to?  That is the place on me that is NOT sore.

See ya out there.

Quitting

A friend recently asked me to check out a BLOG in Freakonomics on The Upside of Quitting .  As a blogger myself, I realize that the quality of what gets written, recorded and posted does not match the quantity.   To be more to the point, there is a lot of crap out there.

Maybe you will take a minute to scan or listen to the article, but I cannot recommend much investment in time.

Quitting is a subject that brings out great emotion in me.   A person of tremendous power in my youth, branded me a quitter and I have spent the last 45 years proving him wrong.   I believe Winston Churchill was right when gave his famously short commencement speech.  He got up and said, "Never, never, never give up!" and sat back down.

First, here is what, I think, quitting is and what it's not.   Quitting is not the same as stopping.  I routinely stop doing things.   I change directions.

Quitting has to do with bailing on a commitment.  To me, the most important commitments are to myself.   I literally make them to myself.  A commitment may also be made to others and while I worry about them, I NEVER want to let myself down.   If I can't trust me, how in the heck can anybody else trust me?

With this in mind, I am careful as to what I commit.  It is not always to 'win' or even finish.   An important thing is to know the exact commitment before I get into the journey.   Sometimes, I 'up' my aspirations during the journey but I do not let myself lower aspirations.

Here are a couple of examples:

My 31 year career -  During that long career, I went through about 4 or 5 periods when I reevaluated my options (including leaving), set new goals and committed to 'bring home the bacon'.   These periods of commitment tended to be about 5 years but the goals and milestones were what was important, not the time.   The last time I reviewed my options, I decided to stop working……….I really did not feel like I was quitting.   We had reached the goals I had set and I felt both I and the company would be better served if I moved on.

A bike race -  Seems easy, right….win!  It is not so easy.  This weekend, team goals superseded me winning and it was a two day effort.  First day goals:  Assist my team mates in winning and do whatever that took.  If I got so tired, I was 'off the back', pedal in without finishing.   Save my legs for day two.  If that happened, I would DNF (Did Not Finish).  Second day goals:  Help my team mates win in the 50+ bracket and if that could be accomplished, I could strive to win the 60+.   Never quit, never stop, never slow down until it is over…..no matter what.  I could rest Monday.

So, let me sum it up.  I make my commitments carefully.  Once made, I pedal the bike or pedal in life until I fall over in order to 'make good' these commitments.   I never quit, renegotiate, down grade, or give up.  I don't even think about quitting during the commitment, as that uses energy and causes self doubt.  To repeat a well known phrase:  Quitting is not an option.

The 'cool' question people ask these days is, "So, how's that working for ya?"   Answer, "Pretty darn good!"

See ya out there.

A Blue(Modry) Weekend

Christina and I had the pleasure of hosting 3 of our Modry team mates for the weekend.   The attraction was the State RR Championship on Saturday and a crit on Sunday at Greenville Pickens Speedway.

We had great results both days, really dominating the 50+ fields.  Despite rain on Sunday, we had a great morning and a lot of fun.  Christina garnering some results, was icing on the cake.

I have to be honest, I was pretty focused about my debut with the team.  They aren't the NY Yankees but they may be as close as I will ever get and this weekend seemed a little like 'tryouts', to me.   Chris Steele, Chris Dietrich and David Moore are bike racing fools.  It was the best team racing I have been part of…….we were joined by some other strong members Saturday, but Sunday it was the Fab Four.

The guys were great in their support of Christina, who despite many training interruptions lately, brought home 3rd place in Masters Women 30+ on Saturday and laid down a heck of an effort.  After making the break, she cracked on tough hill and rode about 25K solo.  The main field caught her about .5 K from the finish.  She mustered a strong sprint and was just exhausted.

The cycling was not the highlight this weekend, though.   We had great camaraderie, meals and a lot of talk about the future of the team.   These guys are wonderful people and we share a lot goals, aspirations, and values(about life, family and things in general).  As they spoke of the team next year, so many things were similar to what we expect out of a team experience.  I think this meant even more to us after coming away from last year, when we felt really out of step with many/most of our team mates.

The journey from last August, when we decided to leave TEAM headstrong until this weekend, has been a good one.   It has been confirmed that leaving was right for us.   I hope it has worked well for the wonderful folks that migrated to Greenville Velo.  I hope that the wind is always at their back.

Being on our own has been super………but being a part of something bigger than us, is really motivating.  As I have said before, I am team player and have been for about 57 years.  I have almost no experience in individual sports or individual anything.  Christina and I have supported each other strongly, but this was more and better.  She felt strongly about it also.

The guys have asked us to be part of their 2015 plans.   We don't know what those plans are, exactly, but we are sure we want to spend more time with this bunch.   So, barring them deciding to be a bowling team, we are looking forward to racing/riding/socializing and just generally being part of Modry.

Next weekend offers another opportunity for me to contribute.   We are headed to Fayetteville, NC for the NC State RR Championships.  I have already tightened my chinstrap.  I have the World's on Tuesday and a crit on Thursday, to make me ready.

C and I are already scheming about next year!  We hope to be part of making Big Blue better than ever.   For now, I can tell ya that we are already damned proud to be pinning numbers on with these guys.

Oh, C has some bold goals she formulating…....but you will have to talk to her about them.

See ya out there.

Myths of Race Training and Other Things

My ole friend, Lou Tice said, "It ain't what you don't know that will hurt you, it is what you know that ain't so."   Of course, he was talking about life in general.    I have always used sports as tool to teach myself and others, things we could apply to our lives in general.

I have realized lately that there are many examples, of people operating on untruths, in cycling.   So, I thought I might uncover a few myths.  Of course, I am coming at this from my perspective……65/8-9 years in the sport/racing….you know the act.

MYTH:  TRAINING ALL THE TIME

Several times a year someone tells me they just can't train all the time, they just like to ride.   Christina and I really only adhere to scheduled training a few weeks a year.  For 9-10 months a year, we just ride our bikes.   Eddie Mercx once gave a tip to a person wanting to become pro, "Ride your bike….a lot!"  We do as we like riding…….a lot.  We ride solo, in groups, fast, slow, climbing…..you name it.   Make no mistake, we are not noodlin'.  Each ride has purpose……..fitness, fun, recovery, sight seeing, coffee, whatever.  We try to know what we are doing prior to clipping in.   Even though this is loosely scheduled, it does serve as practice and therefore deserves focus.

MYTH:  YOU NEED A COACH

Coaches can be valuable, particularly if you are a multisport athlete………..triathlon training is complicated and wasting effort is not so good.   Cycling is simple.  You don't really need a lot.   Unless you have coach or you are willing to learn power training, forget a power meter.   You won't know what the heck to do with it.   As, I just stated, most of the time, you just need to ride a lot.   Why do you need someone to tell you that.  Save your money and find a partner with which to ride and train……someone that mostly shares your goals.

MYTH:  RACE TRAINING REQUIRES A STRICT SCHEDULE AND AWFUL INTERVALS

Actually, Christina and I do very few intervals.  If I want to be at the top of my game, it takes 4 weeks.
Three weeks I train and one I taper.   This is really intense and that is why we only do it a very short time.   I start the 4th(taper week) Monday for the SC STATE RR/NC STATE RR.  Here is what I will have done during the 4-5 weeks:

*  5 Tuesday Worlds Championships
*  2 Speedway training crits
*  1 - 20K TT
*  2 Park Hill rides - we do laps with 3 hill sprints in each that are 20-60 seconds long.  Usually 3-5 laps which means 9-15 sprints.
*  4-5 hard long rides - 50-70 miles each.  These contain efforts like FARLEKS that fit the terrain…….the Watershed in SC or Twin Peaks in Tucson.   I do several of them in each ride and they vary from 2-30 minutes in length.  I go about 90% so the short ones are more intense than the long ones.  I like to make these longer than the races and in similar terrain.   Since I am not going race pace, the longer distance brings the total training load for the workout to that of the race.  When I did the 3 days at Tucson Bike Classic, I thought the races were easier than the training………not a bad way feel in competition!
*  Other rides are just recovery, easy, fat burners or fillers……because I like to ride.
*  I rest a lot.

NOTE:  Christina is in New Hamsphire and she will do a couple of Spin bike workouts this week…short and intense.

I think the key to our training being effective in this month period, is the training races.   Racing is the best training for racing.  My actual scheduled SC/NC events will be 3 races and I want training races that look very much like them.   I love this stuff.   I would much rather do the Tuesday World's than go find a hill and ride up and down it!   The race training is much more effective.  In Tucson, the DOGS have a couple of rides that simulate races and there is Saturday morning world famous SHOOTOUT.  Every place has these.

It shocks me that most folks just don't understand the need for training races.   You can not go out and represent yourself competitively in any event when your prep consists of just riding.   I have tried it.  All the sports in which I have been involved are similar.  Competition is the most effective training.

MYTH:  YOU CAN DO THE SAME THING AND GET BETTER

In fact, I call this insanity:  Doing the same thing and expecting different results.  I recently ask a racer how effective doing the Tuesday Dogs Hill Ride, in Tucson, 50 weeks a year was for him.   He said he did the ride differently from week to week.  OK, this is the best training group on the planet (in my opinion) but give me a break.   Can you imagine a runner doing 8x200m on Tuesday every week for a year??  Confusion is one of the key training principals………you must mix it up or the body adapts.  Besides, when I do this ride as hard as I do it, I nearly kills myself.   I can only suffer like this a few times a year.  I would rather go to prison than go this hard every Tuesday for a year.  Well, that may be an exageration?

I suspect many of you are limiting what you are accomplishing, on and off the bike, based on what you believe that is not necessary so.  Check your self out on this……..I do every day.

For these upcoming races, the hay is in the barn……..some race training efforts left in taper but that is just to 'keep the edge' while I rest.  I have it…….it comes down now to 'doing it'.

See ya out there.