Planning for Another 100

This 100^th post was much harder to write than I originally thought. I wanted to get it just right. This is why it has taken this long to complete.

About a month ago, I was sitting on the trainer thinking to myself (as I often do) about how my training regimen would translate into race performance. I had been working particularly hard compared to years past and was hopeful that the strategy would pay off. After my ride I hopped on the scale, as I do about once a week, and discouragingly reviewed my equivalent of the magic eight ball’s response. 240. ERRGGGHH! If only I had the discipline to manage my food intake I’d be able to drop weight with the amount of riding I was doing.

And then, as if I were the Wiley Coyotte screeching to a halt over the middle of a gulley, I stopped and said “Wait. What?!” “If only I had the DISCIPLINE!?” That was humbling. I realized right then and there that something owned me. It explained the shame after eating my box of Triscuits and half block of sharp cheddar cheese. But it wasn’t a comfortable realization.

Discipline, I realized, was more than convincing myself at every test not to give in to an option counter to my goal. Discipline wasn’t trying to push myself into the positive action castle, but that I was defending the castle from an intruder. It’s my house. But…seconds tick, minutes slip away, hours pass, days go by and the disappointment of that realization fades. I concede small battle areas. “Avery won’t eat an entire ¼ pounder; I’ll just add that little bit to my burger.” Before you can blink, I’m numb to the frustration I initially felt.

But this is more than just about food. And at the same time it’s not really about anything important at all, either. It’s just the minor battles I encounter while trying to accomplish my competitive goals. They’re not life or death issues so I need to keep that in perspective. But it did point out that there’s more that I can do in my training.

This past Sunday was the Yankee Springs Time Trial; the first true mountain bike race of my season. I took the entire week off two weeks ago, the week I was supposed to really hit it pretty good before a taper week last week. But I just needed the mental reset. I did fine on Sunday. Not as well as I maybe could have if I hadn’t skipped that week, but just fine.

I’m hoping that these are fairly common struggles of weekend warrior athletes. This week is a good hard week and then next week is another taper week leading up to the Fort Custer Stampede. I’m looking forward to the physical and mental challenges of this season. I’ve spent a considerable amount of time training physically over the winter. I’m planning on a few ‘mental taper’ weeks to help out with the mental strengthening . I’m planning them now so that I can hopefully avoid taking them out of necessity in inopportune times. My new plan is to research and add some mental, sport specific, training. I’m thinking this could lead to some new and different posts over my next 100.

A Return to the Wild

 

Boyne Mountain Challenge 2012

 

Generally speaking, cyclists enjoy being outside. That’s probably what drew them to riding in the first place (outside of possibly a necessity for transportation). But riding in the basement all winter on a trainer can make me forget the joy of riding. And then, all it takes is a bright sunny weekend to rejuvenate my enthusiasm and determination. It probably doesn’t hurt that my first race of the season, The Barry-Roubaix, is now less than a month away.

With temperatures hovering right around freezing during mid-day both Saturday and Sunday, I took advantage of the re-appearing bike paths and my wife’s generous suggestion that I go for a ride. Between Saturday’s and Sunday’s rides, I put in 4 ½ hours (about an hour of that was on the trainer last night making sure I got a good jump on the week). You couldn’t wipe the grin off my face during either ride (even when I stuck my foot in my wheel and ended up on the bike path head first…I literally laughed), and you couldn’t dampen my mood all day today.

I was particularly lost in the day while riding through a section of the bike path that meanders through the pines. It’s a feeling like no other, to me. It’s a feeling I believe humans are meant to feel. Retreating from the concrete jungle’s we’ve created for ourselves to ‘live’ in is very rejuvenating to me. No….I didn’t hug any trees while I was out riding or happen across some ‘funny stuff’. I mean it, though, interacting with nature is therapeutic.

Anyway, I’m ramping up my training this week. We have some snow in the forecast (the system has not been given a name, yet, which is a major annoyance I’ll reserve for some other time). If it’s on the lower end of th

e forecasted range of accumulation, I’m planning on getting outside Wednesday night for a while again. Saturday I’m riding in a Livestrong Foundation fundraiser for a couple of hours, so at the end of it, I’ll have around 9 hours in this week. I’m not sure I’ve ever ridden 9 hours in one week, so this will be a good test of my current state of endurance. I hope your week is well and we’ll catch you soon.

 

TRAINING SCHEDULE: WEEK OF FEBRUARY 24, 2013
		Total	Completed ?
	Strength Program:
10	10 minute warm up – 30%
12	2 minutes highest gear – sitting
14	2 minutes down a gear
16	2 minutes down a gear
18	2 minutes down a gear
22	4 minutes down a gear
24	2 minutes up a gear
26	2 minutes up a gear
28	2 minutes up a gear
30	2 minutes highest gear – sitting
40	10 minute rest
42	2 minutes highest gear – sitting
44	2 minutes down a gear
46	2 minutes down a gear
48	2 minutes down a gear
52	4 minutes down a gear
54	2 minutes up a gear
56	2 minutes up a gear
58	2 minutes up a gear
60	2 minutes highest gear – sitting
70	10 minute cool down – 30%	70	Sunday
	Strength Training – Upper Body
	Outdoor Fun Ride:
	Lakeshore Loop in the snow	110	Sunday
	Recovery Ride:
	Easy spin	60	Monday
	Sprint Intervals:
10	10 minute warm up – 30%
	15 second on – 100%
20	15 second rest – 20%    –   20 total reps (10 minutes)
25	5 minute rest – 40%
	40 seconds on – 90%
35	20 seconds off – 40%    10 total reps (10 minutes)
40	5 minute rest – 40%
	15 second on – 100%
50	15 second rest – 20%    –   20 total reps (10 minutes)
55	5 minute rest – 40%
	40 seconds on – 90%
65	20 seconds off – 40%    10 total reps (10 minutes)
70	5 minute rest – 40%
	15 second on – 100%
80	15 second rest – 20%    –   20 total reps (10 minutes)
85	5 minute rest – 40%
	40 seconds on – 90%
95	20 seconds off – 40%    10 total reps (10 minutes)
105	10 minute cool down – 40%	105	Tuesday
	Strength Training – Lower Body
	Strength Training – Upper Body
	Outdoor Lakeshore Ride:
	Wherever; just at 75-80% effort for 90 minutes	90	Wednesday
	Strength Training – Lower Body
	Strength Training – Upper Body
	Ultimate Cycling Challenge:
	Ridgepoint – Pick a Strategy	120	Saturday
	TOTAL	9.3

 

Michigan Mountain Biking: The Training Chronicles

I’ve been busy. Lake Tahoe was fun. This past week was a terrible week for and of training. I don’t have a ton of time to update my blog right now, so I was forced to be efficient doing two things at once: ride my bike AND create a blog post at the same time. Here’s the result:

 

And here’s the kids sledding down the hill:

 

Talk to you soon….

Technology Test

This post has been done entirely using my iPhone and apps for YouTube (Capture) and WordPress. I first took the video on my phone using the Capture app, uploaded it to YouTube through the app, and the copied and pasted the video link to my WordPress page using the WordPress app. I may not have been the first person to do this, but I wanted to know how it would work and how easy it would be. It took me less than 5 minutes which is good because now I need to get my butt on the bike trainer and make up for the ride I didn’t do last night 🙂

Ride on, ride hard…..

Year End Review

Everyone’s doing it which makes this either really annoying, or simply accepted blogging practice. In any regard, I’ll make this year end review short. 2012 was a good, fun year of riding and racing. I look forward to more riding and meeting friends on bikes in 2013.

My 2012 totals were the highest yet with 2,716 mountain bike miles, 592 single speed miles (also a mountain bike, but I separate it out in my spreadsheet), 476 road bike miles, and 53 running miles for a total of 3,798 miles of training/exercise/thrilling adventure. As you can tell, I don’t like to run.

These miles took 274.8 hours to complete, which is only 11.5 days, so there’s room for more 🙂 Compare that with the Race Across America record of 3000 miles in just over 8 days and I’m in the hunt! The estimated total number of calories burned for the year was 370,560 which translates into 106 lost pounds. This is where I can really get better this year.

Because my weight was the same at the end of the year as it was at the beginning; and that at 235-240lbs I still have a few I could lose (I’m doubtful at 6’3 and a stocky build I’ll never be under 200), I could really focus on my diet a bit more and become more competitive. I’ve always said that its easier, cheaper, and more beneficial to take 3 lbs off me than my bike. I realized this a couple of weeks ago and started back on my monitoring via myfitnesspal because there was no sense in waiting until New Years to start a resolution. I think if you figure out you need to change something, change it once you figure it out, don’t wait for another arbitrary day like New Years to start. You’re just delaying the inevitable and possibly causing more damage to yourself and others in the meantime.

But enough with the deep thoughts….its off to start my 2013….with a scheduled day off of riding (though it’s been tempting to join one of the handful of area group rides going on today). I know. It’s just the way my schedule turned out. No worries, I’ll be back on the bike tomorrow.

Self Taught

After my ride the other night, I revisited my stack of exercise articles that I’ve printed off over the years and visited a few YouTube sites for tips. It’s amazing what you can find if you really look. I haven’t ever hired a professional coach or personal trainer for bike training. It’s not that I don’t see their value; rather, it’s just not in my weekly allowance budget. Therefore I’ve had to rely on what I hear other riders doing and what I can find on the interwebs.

I am sure that the business of coaching is gratifying, but it has to be a tough one these days with everything that’s available for free on the web. Even though most articles and videos are only teasers for more developed programs, there’s enough information collectively to put together a pretty decent training program. I know that my scheduling and drill structure would be tweaked by a knowledgeable trainer, but I’m also finding that part of the fun in developing a training plan is exploring, finding, and creating on my own.

I’m taking my training program more seriously this year. I am jumping from the ‘Sport’ class to the ‘Expert’ class as defined in Michigan (other states use the ‘Cat’ system).  My training plan for the past two winters was simple: ride outside. Often. After watching a couple of riding buddies really take some strides through a disciplined training plan, I figured it could only help if I was more intentional about it this year.

I don’t claim to have the greatest training plan, or even one that’s going to work. But, if I can offer anything here, it’s my training plan from week to week as I’ve posted, and links to two trainers I’m subscribed to on YouTube (I am not affiliated with them at all, I just found them interesting). I’m providing the links to their websites, but you can look up their YouTube channels as well for some of their free tips to get started. I’d love to hear of some other training tips or resources if you have any.

http://www.bikejames.com

http://www.cyclo-club.com/public/main.cfm

I’m also working on my cross-training this winter with body-weight strength building exercises (push-ups, pull-ups, split squats, etc.). I’m choosing to do body weight stuff to help build core strength at the same time.  I’ve also found that trail building provides a good all-around butt whooping, so I’ve been helping the past few weeks with a local trail that’s being built. Call it a triple bottom line project: a personal work-out, social support, and faster access to a new mountain bike trail :). Here’s the trail so far:

 

 

I’m looking forward to seeing how my plan works out next year. I don’t have any visions of grandeur or expect to improve so much in one off season that I compete for 1st in my new class, but I do want to see some improvement, and 2^nd or 3^rd would be acceptable 🙂

A Little Bit More About Me

I love putting video montage’s together. Nerdy love, too. I had worked on this video to share with People for Bikes in response to their question: ‘what does biking mean to you?’ I really hoped I would be able to put up a 1st place victory at Iceman to put punch into the ending of this video, but 2nd was all I could muster. Anyway, I’ve posted it here from my YouTube account. Enjoy

Economics of Mountain Biking

I’m just going to warn you, this is a long blog post. I thought about summarizing to shorten it, but I was worried that I would neglect some important concepts of my thought process. Also note that this is purely a Monday Morning Quarterback perspective of something that’s really a great and successful activity. So now that I’ve made you not want to read the rest of it….

 

In thinking about doing some writing about my ride last Wednesday night with the group I found myself re-visiting a conversation I had with my friend Mark after our ride a couple of weeks ago. After talking about attendance at the various mountain bike race events throughout Michigan during the year, I shared my observation about why Mountain Biking seems to be behind in popularity from running events, triathlons, and road biking tours. Even the adventure races like Tough Mudder have experienced faster growth over the past few years than Mountain Biking. The fact of the matter is, that mountain biking is not a great fan sport. Because mountain biking is generally best experienced in limited access natural locations (the middle of the woods), opportunities for comprehensive or even decent vantage points for fans are limited. Finding your way to a good vantage point is even harder.

To be fair, the sport of Mountain Biking is growing. Race attendance at many events has been on the rise over the past few years. More race organizers are putting caps on participation to keep events manageable and many sold out races are drawing more and more regional and national pros. But mountain biking is still primarily an experience sport. The only way to really enjoy it is to participate in it. So the question becomes: “So what? Does it need to be commercialized to be successful?” There’s a cake saying that I can’t quite put my finger on that might apply here.

A whole new understanding of ‘sports as a business’ hit me this past year after the Iceman Commeth Challenge in Traverse City, MI. This sold out epic of a race drew international pros this past year along with the national household names that have been attending for years. The thing to remember about Iceman, though, is that what might be an epic challenge to the average rider is really only a mild training day for a pro. It’s relatively short at 30 miles, the hills are many but manageable, and much of the course is two-track (faster and typically smoother than single track).

Most of the pros are interviewed after the races for cyclingdirt.com and what struck me was how many of these riders were heading down south directly after the race to compete in a cyclo-cross race the following day (I was thinking food, beer, hot tub, more food, sleep, and then don’t touch the bike for a week). Cyclo-cross is a popular sport in itself and has experienced success in Michigan in recent years. KissCross Cyclo-Cross, for example, has developed a very successful race series in the greater West Michigan area that happens in the fall.

The other thing that struck me was how many of the riders mentioned the purse as one of the reasons why they were at the race. The winning pro for each gender received $5,000 for first place. Follow that up with $3,500 for second, $2,250 for third, and another $4,385 for 4^th through 10^th places. Even for all of the sport categories, average joe’s (yes, I’d consider myself average in this aspect) get paid money for a top 5 finish ($175 for 1st). On top of that there’s raffle prizes and drawings. That equates to big money in mountain bike racing terms. In contrast, the Leadville Trail 100 MTB Race offers no prize money at all but it is known as one of the most grueling mountain bike races in the country.

But, in order for awards and prizes to even be feasible, race organizers need to be able to fund them. For that, there are three primary revenue sources: Race Entry Fees; Vending; and Sponsorships. Race entry fees vary by event, but most of the races I’m entering this year will cost $25-$40 to participate. Obviously, the more participants you have, the more revenue you generate. But if you cap the number of participants, you have to start increasing the entry fee in order to increase revenue.

Vending includes clothing (t-shirts, race jerseys, socks, beanies, etc. with that year’s race artwork on it), knickknacks (pint glasses, bottle openers, etc.), and possibly food sales (I’m not sure if the food vendors pay a fee to be there or not). Again, it would be logical to deduct that the more participants you have, the more vending revenue you’re going to generate. The more challenging your event, the more proud participants will be to buy and wear the t-shirt (again, look at Tough Mudder and Warrior Dash).

Sponsorships, though, seem to be the cake icing of race revenue. Build up a great event, and sponsors will be easier to find to headline your race…and pay more money to do it. Sponsors in mountain biking should take a look at their involvement no differently than their involvement in advertising anywhere else. Put your name in front of as many people as possible at the lowest cost per eyeball. I don’t want to make light of the fact that there is also an element of simply supporting the sport through sponsorship as well (some races raise money for charity or trail maintenance for example). Rather, what I’m proposing is that once you move beyond a certain threshold of sponsorship for support’s sake, you enter the realm of sponsorship for advertising purposes. Are you beginning to see it? There’s a challenge that mountain biking economics presents.

Without a significant amount of fan attendance, you only have your race participants to advertise to. That’s definitely a targeted audience for brands related to biking, but you really need a larger (and possibly wider) audience for more general brand inclusion. Meijer had sponsored Iceman up until last year when Bells took over I’m sure in part because of the high level of fan attendance. Aside from the fact that the race included a higher than average number of participants, each participant represented 1 of maybe 2-3 overall participants as most riders will bring their family and friends to watch the race and socialize with their rider after the race.

Aside from being a great endurance challenge to most of the sport riders that make up the majority of the participants, Iceman offers several great spots to watch and encourage race participants. With a starting route that cuts through 1-2 miles of Kalkaska streets and public parks, a halfway point that intersects a paved and easily accessible forest road, and a nasty hill climb (at least it feels nasty by the time you get there) that is within a few minutes’ walk from the finish but a several minutes’ ride from the finish, friends and family can encourage their favorite racer, feasibly from at least 3 different locations during the race.

So what does this mean for race organizers who want to grow their event? I think there are a few options. Before you read them, though, please understand that I have a great appreciation for race organizers in the work they currently do. Most of them that I know of have other full time jobs that they hold down and these events take an immense amount of time and effort to put together. These are just some observations that I’ve made about what seems to work well.

1. Include entertainment/activities at the start/finish for non-racing participants. This doesn’t have to be elaborate, but make sure there’s music playing (live or otherwise). Have some community gathering areas like a bon fire or a picnic area for congregated eating. This also could include events for kids and parents.
2. Make the start/finish line as accessible as possible to fans. The idea is to allow for friends and family as many opportunities to watch their racer in action.
3. Include directions and instructions on how to access available vantage points on a race course. If there are roads or hiking paths that would allow fans to access the race action and don’t interfere with the race course, make sure everyone knows how to get there. Include that information on the info page of your race website and send it out to all of the riders before the race (as early as possible) so that appropriate planning can be done in advance.
4. Contact local media outlets 1 month, 1 week, and 1 day before the event to try to get as much coverage as possible. Notifying the local community before might draw additional fan participation, and a race summary story with pictures just goes to build interest in the event for next year. It’s also a great way for race participants to read and re-live their experience at the race.
5. Make sure the professionals get paid. This might be debatable. However, I enjoy watching the pro’s shred my time like wet paper and it adds to the excitement of the race day to be able to watch them hammer out a trail. But, they need to be at the race in the first place. Posting some good prize money for the top Pro/Elite riders should entice more pro/elite riders to attend. There are thousands of races that go on every year and I know that the pro’s have their favorites that they’re going to attend, but if you could pull even 2-5 regional pros that haven’t traditionally attended, I think you’ll make the race exciting to watch and give the rest of us something to shake our heads in disbelief about. This also means that the pro/elite race needs to be scheduled at a time where all of the other racers are able to watch them ride as well.

This by no means is an exhaustive list. There are a ton of other great ideas that make mountain bike races very successful. Not every race is going to have the ability to incorporate these ideas, either. Course enjoyment can play a part as well and that is far less manageable by the race coordinator. I do think there is a snowball effect, though, once you start enhancing a race’s fan access and finish area activities.

So why does the sport of mountain biking ‘need’ to grow? Well, the short answer is that it doesn’t, really. I have fun doing it, I love the health benefits of riding, and it satisfies my competitive itch. I don’t need more riders to compete with; I can’t keep up with all the riders in my current group. Bringing more participants to the sport might negatively commercialize it or dumb it down. However, I look at other sports and see that where there’s a good pro circuit and fan participation, there’s increased sport participation.

In the end, increased sport participation amongst adults is a good thing for both our health as well as our psyche. In my mind, growing the fan participation along with the racer participation in mountain biking will ultimately grow the overall sport. It’s taking some great strides already and I hope that mountain biking just continues to be successful in growing overall participation in the future.

Two-a-Day’s

My new definition of a two-a-day: Limiting yourself to only two thin mint girl scout cookies a day.

Two-a-days are really hard.

 

Jus’ Playin’

I was talking to a co-worker at the bank the other day and I mentioned that I’ve been running to cross train for my mountain biking. I explained that it was helping me drop a few pounds and increase my endurance and lung capacity. I mentioned the word training and she immediately, but innocently, asked me what I was training for. She knew I raced, but for most people they do one or two races a year. I laughed at first, a little unprepared to answer that. Training for just one event? I thought about pointing her to my blog post from a few days ago, but instead I just explained that I was essentially training for ALL the races I plan on riding this year. But after thinking about it for a while, that’s not exactly true, either.

What I began to realize is that while I’m training, I’m actually enjoying the activity of the sport itself as well. When I ride a certain route with certain intensity in order to work on one or two angles of my riding, I am still, at the end of it, riding the bike. Sure, I always have in the back of my mind the group Wednesday night rides during the summer with friends, competitive races throughout the year, and leisure rides with the family. But, the training IS a part of the enjoyment of the sport for me.

This notion that training is in and of itself fun, enjoyable, and rewarding led me to another thought. What if this idea of ‘sport’ is bigger than just some endurance nuts pushing themselves to their limits? What if the activity of sport was really all about Adult Play? It seems to me that there has been a resurgence of adult sports activities over the past several years. Only where it used to be summer softball leagues, rec basketball, and bowling league; it is now bike teams (both cycling and mountain biking), running clubs, and crazy competitive events like Warrior Dash, and Tough Mudder.

I happened to be on a run when I started asking myself: “Is Adult Play important?” “Is there a connection between Adult Play, enjoyment of life, and realization of self significance?” “Has anyone studied this?” As soon as I got home I Googled “Adult Play” (I was a bit nervous at what might pop up, but then I added “research” to my query) and my answer of course was, yes there is research, yes they believe it is important, and yes they believe there is a connection. Stuart Brown gave a TED talk a few years back and seems to be a popular researcher on the topic:

Some strong points I took out of this 20 minute video are:

• Engage in play it for its own sake,
• Play is born by curiosity and exploration,
• Play is social,
• Your own personal play history is unique,
• We all have an internal narrative that’s our own inner story. “Explore backwards as far as you can go to the most clear, joyful, playful image that you have….and begin to build from the emotion of that into how that connects with your life now.”

Kevin Carroll wrote a book called ‘Rules of the Red Rubber Ball’. In it (as I hear), he talks about the importance of sports and its role in social innovation. It’s a book I’m going to read (and may comment on further afterwards).

It is easy to see that as we grew older, play became a secondary activity to school, work, and family. As we matured, play became synonymous with immaturity, and immaturity is seen as a lack of personal progression. However, while balance in life is still absolutely important (we cannot simply increase play at the detriment of the other components), accepting the fact that we have behaviorally eliminated play out of our schedules can’t be accepted. In general terms, I think Stuart’s research focuses on the concept of ‘playful behavior’, which would include sports, but also non-athletic play. What I believe should be highlighted, though, is that the ‘Adult Play’ aspect of sports is just as important as the physical exercise.

So, when I think of my ‘off season’ training, the concept of Adult Play starts to explain why I don’t really think of it as a grueling, dreadful, necessity in order to do well during race season. If it becomes that, then I believe I begin to miss the whole point of sport. So the next time someone asks me what I’m training for, I think I’ll be able to honestly say ”just for fun.”