Fixed Gear Fever

So I’ve been riding mostly my fixed gear since getting back on the bike, and as my taint will tell you, it sucks.  There are a lot of reasons to ride the fixie, and most coaches will blather on about fixing dead spots in the pedal stroke, blah blah blah.  But the main reason as far as Podium Training is concerned is that it makes you ride slow.  Having a limiter on how fast you can go does a good job of keeping both my heart rate and my ego in check.  And as anyone who has done Foodie in November can tell you, I need both.

Not that it’s not fun to be slugging it out with Holy Cal on Foodie in November, but I know the years that I keep it zipped up till January are some of my better ones.  So I’ll continue to ride the taint-buster for at least another month, until I really start ramping up the volume, and then get back  on the road bike.  Our current lack of new bikes might also play a role…

In other news, some guys are already starting their gym work, so guys are just getting rolling again, and some guys are doing serious cross training.  All of it makes me smile.  Luis has been a model of consistancy so far this off season, and I hope for his sake he keeps it up.  He leaves here at 6:15 to go to the gym, not because he is super dedicated to cycling, but because he is super dedicated to Cosmos.  He gives himsef enough time to work out and still have some Cosmos time before work…gotta get your fix!

The Season Domination Seminar planning is going well.  So far we have one scheduled Nov 14th here and one Nov 21st in the SLC.  Actually, it would be more accurate to say Sandy.  And just last night I confirmed Francis Gardner Jackson IV to be a guest speaker at the Utah seminar.  Anyone who has been to a cross race there can tell you how motivating that guy is.  I don’t know the current status of his hair, or whether or not he is currently single, but I do know that he is currently applying Crest Whitning Strips to keep his pearly whites OxyClean white for the seminar…

Wednesday ride back on tap…

The Cosmos ride is back…every wednesday at 8am from Cosmos in La Mesa.  Ride to Alpine and either continue (pro) or head back via Harbinson (dreamer).   All are welcome.  This week I promise to not have a cassette problem that forces the ride to detour past the Global Headquarters of Podium Training.

In other news, plans are coming along for the Podium Training Super Season Seminar on Nov 14th.  It will be held in East county San Diego, with the ride leaving from Cosmos at 8am (sensing a pattern?) for a few hours, returning to Big Ring Cycles afterwards, quick change, some bike fitting, and then a few speakers.  One will focus on nutrition/supplements, one will be yours truly talking about goal-setting, and one will be a suprise. 

This will be free to Podium Training clients, $75 pre-reg for non-clients, $100 day of.  Everyone will get a consultation post-seminar to go over their goal setting, and a bike fit should they require one.  Also coffee provided pre-event from Cosmos and sports nutrition provided from The Center of Healthy Living.  Email tommy@podiumtraining.com to register…

Getting called out…

Ryan Turbo Barrett called me out for not updating…now, in the words of Roger “Max Kash” Worthington, I am going to re-focus.  More updates!!

Things I learned this season…

1) February is sometimes still too early to start the season, even in California.  The Boulevard RR, held in early Feb, had snow this year and temps hovering around freezing.  And it takes place just miles from the Mexico border. 

2) There comes a moment in a race where you have to look inside yourself and decide if you are racing for the win or just riding your bike.   See also: Callville Bay Classic, CA State RR, etc.

3) Houseboats do not have septic tanks.  In fact, what they have is a grinder for a toilet.  6 guys eating 5000 calories a day for three days will exceed the capacity of one of these grinders…and possibly a second. 

4) People with a tiny bit of power tend to want to exploit it.  And by that I mean officials.  Whether it was San Dimas (centerline violation) or SDCVO (you must have your ID to get your money, even though everyone there knows who you are) or Nationals (at least get your officials on the same page), officials/bluecoats/Napoleans/etc were there all season long to make lives miserable.  I know they are doing a service, but they need to remember that without the racers they don’t have a second job.  They are present to provide some semblance of customer service, and if they hate bike racers so much, perhaps they should move on to judging dog shows.  And yes I have volunteered a time or two…

5) Dale Doback manages a baseball team.  We must have watched Stepbrothers 6 times over the week of Tour de Nez.  I could watch it again right now.

6) People must want to help themselves.  You can’t want to help them for them.  When we saw Chad G. at races, I held off clapping, because spots on pro teams are tough enough to come by a first time.  Why not give them to guys who WANT to be there and are working their tales off.  I know so many young guys who are doing all the right things to make it onto a pro team and still living the dream.  Sure enough Chad spit in the face of opportunity again because, like a smart local pro told me, you can’t want something FOR someone.

7) I would rather have 10 Matts on my team than 10 other guys.  He was the best teammate I have ever had.  In every race.  He did all the races the team asked him to, never bitched about lack of support, not getting stuff, always wore his sponsor flair, and didn’t take prize splits that weren’t his from guys on the team.   He was always professional.

Rudy eats more than me.  A lot more.  And he is a lot bigger than me.  His arm muscles are impressive.  Matt has gatrointestinal problems.  Travis is loud all day long, but it’s lights out at 9pm…kindof like a puppy.  Josh wears a lot of hats, both literal and figurative.  Ashley likes to help out a lot. 

9) Last but not least, I have great clients.  I would certainly like more of them, and need more of them, but the ones I do have are great.  Mike Q is great at keeping me posted and providing feedback.  Mike M does everything I say without question.  Troy has a super positive attitude and wants to learn.  Greg helps me in ways I don’t deserve and serves as my bidness mentor.  Stefan is like a sponge.  Luis keeps me on my toes and forces me to try new things.  Matt P provides good feedback and does whatever he can to help.  Moises follows direction, tries to learn new things, is open to change, and gives me blog material.   Bryson and Dave coaches me in life.  I love them all.

The 7 P’s

Most of you will know this already: Prior Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance.  How many times have guys been gluing tubulars the night before a race, wondering if they will hold, or not racing all together because they started flailing and gave up?  Their tires has a cut in it at the start line.  Pedals are loose.  Creaky bottom bracket.  Shifting poor.  Forgot their shoes.  Forgot their bibs.  Forgot their helmet. Etc, etc, etc.

I have personally done some of the above, most notably forgetting my shoes once, my bibs once, my helmet once.  Since then, I have packed a bag of “older” stuff and left it in the trunk of my car.  While this does not prevent a future flail if I am driving with someone else, it at least addresses my tendency to be forgetful at times.  I am also a huge list person.  Ever since a few flails in a row when I first moved to Cali, I made a master list of what I need for every race, and I run through it as I am packing my bag.  This helps prevent me from forgetting something crucial to competing.  While I might still forget my phone charger, or iPod, or something not totally necessary, I never forget the essentials (as long as I use my list).

I see people fixing bikes in the parking lot before races.  Especially time trials (Matt).  If it isn’t done before you leave the house, it isn’t getting done.  Don’t worry about swapping computers, lowering or raising bars, etc.  Do it before you leave home, preferably several nights beforehand, so you have time to ride and test out whatever changes you make.

Again, plan ahead of time, or you plan to fail.  Another thing my dad used to say.  Along with “you can always find a reason NOT to do something,” those are probably the two most oft quoted phrases from Papa snowfugger that I utter to my clients.  He said a lot of smart things, and the older I get, the more smart things he said. 

So make sure your bike is shifting well before the race.  Make sure your race wheels are totally dialed in (as is don’t ride them for the first time race day).  Run through your list.

I can’t believe the number of people, kids mostly, who “plan” on going to races yet expect others to set up their housing and travel arrangements for them.  Sorry Lance, I didn’t realize I was the one at fault here.  If I really really wanted to go to a race, I would make damn sure that everything was in order before hand.  This would extend further than “so, umm…what is everyone doing for xxx.”  I would ask the powers that be how I might go about getting to said race if the team is carpooling/flying, or better yet, offer my own vehicle with other people to pile in.  What a novel idea?  You mean my car can drive?  More than 25 miles?  Huh.

Host housing.  I never have this problem with the masters guys.  They are dialed in.  But why would you just assumethat there is some married, established family out there in nowhereville that is just dying to have you come over and eat their food, sleep in their little Johnny’s or Jane’s room, stink up the joint, use all their toilet paper, make a whole load of laundry in towels and sheets, complain about the cats, and leave bike grease on the garage floor.  All with perhapsa thanks while squealing tires out of the driveway?

Leave no trace.  That old boy scout motto, applies well in this instance.  You want to make sure that these people would want to have bike racers back in the future, potentially ME!  So make sure you leave a good impression, get them a thank you card, maybe make them dinner the last night, hang out with them, etc.  Remember, they let you stay there because they think what you’re doing is super cool, so be sure to engage in some conversation with them about why you got dropped 5k into the race. 

If all of this seems elementary, and like common sense, and like a bunch of stuff your mother should have taught you…you’d be surprised!

The Wednesday Group Ride

I haven’t decided what this ride will be called yet.  We follow the Stadium Ride route, but it isn’t the stadium ride, since we don’t start there.  We need a meeting place, but first we need more people.  Today we had Mike M., Scott Baker, and myself.  Pablo has been riding with me some Wednesdays.  I’ve had some interest via e-mail.  I keep telling people, this is going to be the premier training ride for San Diego in the winter…hoping to build a critical mass.  The problem with starting a group ride is that you have to be there EVERY WEEK until it is self sufficient.  I won’t be there next week because of the Bend trip.  However, I am committed to getting this ride off the ground, as we are sooo short of group rides in eastern SD.  Plus this is the best riding in socal.  All those peeps who think north SD county is where it’s at…you are SORELY mistaken.  I’ll take the empty roads, mountains, etc. over no bike lanes, angry rich people being impatient while driving to Starbucks or soccer practice, and 1 freakin’ mountain any day of the week. 

And yes, I know Palomar is awesome.  But that is 1 mountain.  We have mountainS.  And heat.  I like heat.  Sun, empty roads, less cars, dirt trails to explore, etc. 

And today I won the sprint for the Dehesa sign.  I sat up and pretended to call my sponsor with a fake air phone.

Downshifting for a big event…

Kenny Rogers showing his ticket to the Gun Show

All of my athletes know how to approach their normal race weekends.  Typically, although this varies from person to person, they will have their most resftul day two days before the event, and a good honest ride the day before, with some efforts to “open the legs.”  This works well for events that the athletes are “training through” on their way to bigger goals.  A problem I see a lot of the time in observing athletes is that they are always “training through” and never reaching a goal.  This comes from a number of problems, most important of all being improper goal setting.  My athletes will tell anyone who will listen how huge of a deal I make goal-setting.  We have long drawm out conversations about it, we put them down on paper, and I remind them of their goals constantly.  That being said, once the goal is approaching, it is time to downshift and change things to reach the full potential.

Commonly known as a taper, a term perhaps brought to us through swimming, it is usually more appropriate to apply in a triathlon, marathon, or some other type of endurance event, rather than a bike race.  A time trial, however, is a special type of race, and if you want to race it at your best, you need to change things up.  This is not to say that we don’t “taper” somewhat for a big stage race…rather we “freshen” while our bodies absorb our training like a brand new sham-WOW. 

How does the taper work?  We’ll focus on a time trial taper here.  First, most athletes can’t just rest leading into their race.  That leads to flat legs and crappy performance.  This is where the coach is crucial…he has hopefully learned the athlete’s individual recovery needs, and can let their legs breath long enough and far enough away from the event that they can do some sharpening workouts and arrive fresh, fit, and fast.  After their recovery period, which includes some training, but mostly zone 1 and 2 riding, they go back to workouts.  Only this time, the workouts are short, sweet, and to the point.  The junk miles are gone.  The frequency of training remains the same, but the % of intensity has gone up, because the volume has decreased. 

These workouts are usually arranged in blocks, but this varies from athlete to athlete with their individual recovery needs.  The purpose of the workouts is to sharpen the top end, while at the same time keeping the athlete intimately familiar with the threshold.  A common “block” in the 10 days before a big TT might include some micro intervals, one threshold workout (shorter than usual) and a “long” day, which is really just a zone 2 ride, and perhaps half as long as normal.  The rest of the training would be recovery rides to keep blood flow happening, as well as plain ol’ rest.  I usually give athletes the day off, then a day of hard riding, then the TT.  The hard workout varies with terrain, length of TT, individual athletes, etc. 

As long as you keep your goals in mind, with the help of your coach, you should have no problem coming to the line ready to give your best effort on that day.  Keep as much dat

One last ride…

My next ride with Hippstar was supposed to be this weekend.  On the way to OR, I was gonna stop in Redwood City, ride with Hipp, and then we were gonna road trip it to OR together.  Stay at the Labor Love Lodge.  Just the Labor boys.  Roger, Hipp, me, Walker, Floyd.  It was gonna be awesome. 

My last ride with Hipp ended up being the SLO crit two weekends ago.  When I raced with Hipp, he was like my shepherd; guiding me around, keeping me at the front, while I kept sketchy riders away from his wheel.  I floated back early in the race and asked him what he was doing back there.  He said “I feel like crap.  I’m gonna pull out. ”  Not Hippstar.  This is the guy who says “don’t ever quit…who knows… you might come around later.”  So I told him “no way man.  Just give it 20 min.  Come on follow me up to the front,” and proceeded to marshall Hippstar to the front of the field. 

He finished 14th, which for me in a field sprint would have been great, but it was not vintage Hipp.  I know he was disappointed, but he just tried to get me to grab some food with him.  I will regret saying no forever.  I told him I had to start driving to get home to SD, but I would see him in two weeks. 

I know it’s silly to feel guilty for stuff like that, because you can’t see into the future, but that doesn’t change the fact that I do.  It should serve as a reminder to all of us…kiss your wife/husband the next time you see them.  Don’t let that car that cut you off ruin your day.  Go throw the ball for your dog.  Call your mom.  Go do that big ride you’ve been wanting to do.

Hippstar…8/6/1961-7/14/2009

The man, the myth, the legend...Hippstar

 

Hippstar,

 

Man, you could’ve just told me you didn’t want to drive up to Oregon with me…you didn’t have to go and blow yourself up to get out of it.  I don’t know what to say Chris.  Hoverhawk said it best after observing me coming back from an adventure ride to Pacifica with you: “He had a profound affect on you.”  You were a philosopher, a geo-mapper, a photographer, a nimrod, a great bike racer, an egghead, a genius, and a friend. 

 

Everyone knows about the little things…the IDIOTS, the Nimrods, the 12k Dreamer jargon.  What I got from you was beyond that.  I carry an old water bottle on my bike with the nipple cut off with my tools in it because I saw you doing it.  When I was thinking about moving to Northern California, you were the first person I called.  I wanted to know about teams, riders, fluff, etc.  You told me something I’ll never forget, and apply to the rest of life outside of riding…”If you want to move up north you need to do it because you want to move up north and everything else will fall into place.”  So simple, yet so profound.  In a world of facebook and email and blade servers, you knew how to make the tough choices in life, because for you they were never that tough to make…just making up your mind to do something and letting the chips fall where they may.

 

This past weekend at Foodie, upon stopping to look at some goats in Laguna canyon, Dave reached in my back pocket and pulled out my camera.  That camera was there because of you.  You taught me that a bike ride isn’t about “training,” rather it is an opportunity to take in all that the world has to offer, and to capture what we see while out living life, and share it with those close to us.  That was the beauty in the adventure rides…we could take pictures of the places we went, and share them with our friends who weren’t actually with us.  By us sharing, it brought us closer together, it made us feel like we were there too…like we had taken part in the ride.  A ride wasn’t a training ride to you…it was an event.  Whether it was the “wrecked-em” ride or foodie or an adventure ride through Pacifica, you were documenting your life while at the same time involving those who appreciated it.  You also knew that it was ok to value a group ride as much as a race. 

 

I remember sitting in the chair next to you while you showed me photos of a closed off road from 60 years ago and the same road today.  That is the stuff that mattered to me…it made me go find closed roads once I moved to SD…and take pictures of it…and call you to look at the places on google earth.  Remember Mt. Woodson?  You told me “there’s all kinds of roads around there that look bad-ass.”  You really did have a profound affect on me.

You once told me that to be a pro in this country you have to find what it is that you are good at, and be better than everyone else at that one thing.  You weren’t just talking about bike racing…everything you taught me applied to both bike racing and to life. 

 

Hippstar, I know you went doing what you loved…and you wouldn’t want people just moping around.  I also know that you chose to live life rather than be confined to the computer terminal 24-7 and be safe.  That would have been really dying to you…by not living.  I also know that it is selfish of me to want you still here, ready to drive up to OR with me next week, ready to crash at the Labor Love Lodge, and be Idiots with the boys.  But even though I know all of those things, and that there are people like Lorraine and Roger and Dave who have a much longer history with you, I can’t stop crying when I think about you not being here anymore. 

 

I took that picture of me holding the Labor fist I found on the side of the road because I knew you would get a kick out of it.  I told Klown “Hippstar says hi, go to hell,” because you were my friend.  And because he is a huge douche, but mostly because you were my friend.  I carry a camera in my back pocket because of you.  I have at least 5 pictures of you taking pictures of me.  Two idiots taking pictures of each other taking pictures.  You had a profound affect on me Chris.  I will never forget you.

 

Snowfugger

MBGP

Manhattan Beach…the hardest race to stay away, the easiest race to sit in.  Our team went with the goal of having a visable presense, considering there were three of the fastest sprinters in the US, and they were all on the same team, and we have no field sprinter.  We do have Rudy Napolitano, ex-Rock pro, who is an all around bad-ass and a very strong sprinter, but not punchy like Rock’s current cast.  However, in a bar fight, I want Rudy on my side because he is built like a truck.  Did I mention he is a bad-ass?

So true to Tommy Dream form, I was in a few serious moves, with Floyd, Nic Sanderson, Ivan Dominguez, Rory, etc…yet nothing stuck.  I attacked with 5 to go and was out for the better part of 2 laps before being joined by Steve Reaney, from Cal Giant Strawberries, and we plugged along for another lap and a half, before being unceremoniously mowed down by the rock train.  At that point, bell lap, I tagged onto the back and floated in.  I did, however, get my name announced multiple times, so I’ve got that going for me…

Up next…San Luis Obispo.  Land of Neil Shirley.  I’m sure he’ll be fired up for the racing this weekend, so there’s one guys to watch.