My 2 Greatest Personal Cycling Discoveries

As we go through life... we collect information... lots and lots, of information.

Some of it is valuable, some of it... well... not so much.

I started out as a runner. Cycling was not my first sport... I wish I had discovered it sooner... it is without a doubt, my greatest passion.

I was forced out of running at the late age of 30.  After foot surgery I was put on a bike to rehabilitate and the rest as they say... is history.

Some of the valuable information I learned early on was....

• If you wear underwear under your cycling shorts.... that's a total Rookie move. You are suppose to go commando in cycling shorts. That's not only how the short are designed to be worn... it's by far, best for your body and hands down most comfortable! 
  
  
  Plus... you'll be ridiculed by everyone you are riding with... and who the hell needs that?? The ride is hard enough, without getting crap from other riders! 
  
  
• Remember when your mother use to tell you to leave the house with clean underwear???  The same holds true with a clean kit! Wear a clean kit every time you ride. Never ride in the same set of shorts or jersey, regardless of how short or easy the ride may have been the prior day.... it's not healthy.  The chamois in a pair of cycling shorts is a bacteria play ground after you've ridden in them... need I say more???!   If you don't have access to a washer... hand wash your shorts in a sink for God sake! 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
   Bacteria waiting to hang out in your chamois
  
  
  
  
  Plus... the folks down wind in the pace line from you, would appreciate the fact that you washed your kit the prior day as well.... BROTHER!
  
  
• A T-shirt is a crappy base layer.  In the Summer, it turns into a sponge holding perspiration/moisture and later in the ride, it translates into a mosquitoes magnet.... HOW FUN FOR YOU AND THOSE IN YOUR CYCLING ORBIT ?!!

The "not so valuable information", I learned was...

• Since I totally suck at bunny hopping... I have learned to never try to bunny hop anything twice the size of my head or larger.
  
  
  
  
  
  This is a new variation on the game of limbo.. I plan on going to bunny hopping school some day!
  
  
  
  
• The game of “Identify that road kill”,  is a useful means of entertaining oneself on a long training ride... If you are in a group ride, keep score of how many you ID.. the winner gets a beer at the end of the ride (after the 30 minute window we discussed last week of course!). 
  
  
  If you want to make the game particularly challenging.... Try  to ID said road kill, by only the body parts available... for example... just the flattened tail.  The body parts gets double points, but only if you can all agree on what animal the part belongs to!!!! :)   
  
  
  
  
  
  BTW... This would qualify for 10 points!!!  Ok... I'm taking a Mulligan for showing bad taste in posting this picture!!!

         This dude clearly didn't brake for the squirrel.   Opps... I'm taking another Mulligan.  For lack of 
         empathy... sorry!!!  Anybody got any spare Mulligans... I seem to be running low on them????!

• The dilemma.  Sitting on a good wheel... but that person is in pair of cycling shorts purchased in 1990... and... the shorts are so thin in the rear end... that you can actually see the riders.... uhhhh.... button hole!!!!! 
  
  
  The dilemma... do I sit on a great wheel and stare at their, YOU KNOW WHAT FOR 30 miles or get on a sketch wheel?????  I normally sucked it up and stayed on the good wheel... I just tried to avert my eyes as best I could.

In all seriousness. Let's talk about the 2 things I've discovered, that have had the greatest impact on me to date.  

After 10 years of competitive racing, I found that I felt a bit flat. 

Up to that point in time, I had won 1 National Title, but that was a few years earlier and I was getting thrashed by my competitors and was consistently coming in either 2^nd or 3^rd at Nationals and didn't see another win in my future.  I knew I needed to change something in my training.

So... discovery #1....   I hired a coach. Yup... up to this point... I was self coaching or getting assistance from friends, no formal coaching.

I wasn't training with a HR monitor, nor did I have a written training plan. I was just going out every day and riding... sometimes alone, sometimes with others.  Translation...  I was a ship without a sail.  

 

A coach gave me that critical outside, unbiased and unemotional, perspective that I needed in my training.  My coach turned my riding life upside down.  I'm still with the same coach to this day.... over 15 years later!!!!   

Yes... even though I have enough experience at this point to coach myself ... I still want that critical outside, unbiased perspective in my training... and I'm willing to pay for it.

Discover #2

LISTEN TO YOUR COACH

TRUST YOUR COACH

TRAIN & REST

The 3 toughest lessons for me to learn as a athlete, training under a coach were:

#1. Trust my coach

#2. Follow the training plan to the letter (no more, no less)

#3. Rest when I'm suppose to rest

It's funny... we pay a guy (or gal) to train us... then we second guess the hell out of them by asking everyone and their brother their opinions. WTF???? 

If you hired the right coach... you don't need to second guess them!! But it's hard not to do that... I know, at first I did the same thing.  But I don't anymore. Now...Whatever my coach says, I do... without question... 

The training plan... is the training plan. No cheat training, no skimping either. If you monkey with your training plan or your rest... the only one you are hurting, is yourself!!!

REST IS A CRITICAL PART OF YOUR TRAINING... get that into your heads!!

That was THE HARDEST thing to get through my thick head at first... but then, it was like magic.   I learned that rest is part of the critical rebuild process that allows us to get to that amazing next level... so, now I embrace my rest period.

Finding the right coach is key... keep in mind, results don't happen overnight. 

The coach is your guide and will help get you there...but, you are the one on the pedals.

Have Fun Out There, Ride Safe



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