A Life Lost Too Young and a Ride to Remember

This morning riders from the Tidewater area rode in memory of "Little Ricky" Young who passed away this week at the age of 16.  The 7:15 am ride leaving from Laskin Road was a controlled remembrance ride.  I was not able to make that ride because I didn't get off work until 8 am, but I did meet up with group, got my blue ribbon tied to my bike, and rode hard as the ride became its normal "Saturday Stage Race"

What follows is the obituary which was printed in the Virginia Pilot:

Richard Allen Young Jr. VIRGINIA BEACH - Richard Allen "Ricky" Young Jr., 16, passed away suddenly on Aug. 21, 2010 in Sentara Virginia Beach General Hospital. Ricky was a student at Princess Anne High School where he played on the junior varsity baseball yeam. He was a writer for the school newspaper, served on the homecoming court, and was an honor roll student. Ricky loved sports, played golf, and was a fan of the Cincinnati Bengals and the Atlanta Braves. He was a member of Church of the Ascension Catholic Church. Survivors include his parents, Richard and Gisselle Young; two brothers, Tony and Joey Minozzi; a sister, Jennifer Austin; grandparents, Raymond and Elaine Iglecia, all of Virginia Beach, Herman Young of Ottumwa, Iowa, and Eva Tyler of Hot Springs, Ark.; stepparents, Richard Clark of Virginia Beach and Carol Grantz of Chesapeake; and a very special friend, Andrew Stone of Virginia Beach; as well as numerous aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews and numerous good friends who will miss him deeply. The family will receive friends from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 27, at H.D. Oliver Funeral Apts., Laskin Road Chapel. A Mass of Christian burial will be held Saturday at Church of the Ascension, 4853 Princess Anne Road, Virginia Beach, at 11 a.m. by Father James Parke. Interment will follow in Colonial Grove Memorial Park. Online condolences may be made to the family at www.hdoliver. com.

Who is Ricky Young?


I don't know.  I didn't know him.  I never got the chance.  However Bill Conoscentii described him as a "rising star" before the beginning of the ride.  With over 75 riders meeting up this morning to remember him and to ride in his memory, well he must be special.

It was not him that I knew.  I know his dad, Rick Young.

Rick is the Manager of Bike Beat at Hill Top.  Here is what the website says about him and the level of impact he has on the cycling community:

Rick Young an Iowa native, got his riding start in Virginia Beach after graduating from Truman State University in Missouri.  He started working in the bike industry at HDK Cycles in 1999.  As a road and mountain bike racer, Rick knows all about high performance bikes and gear.  He's also very experienced with with fitting, and graduated from Michael Sylvester's Triathlon Fitting Clinc.  So if you're looking to tweak your fit, or want to be fit right on your new bike, come see Rick!

To Rick, I am truly sorry for your loss.  To the cycling community, thanks for coming out in numbers and showing your support.  The extended family that is offered by your friendship will surely help the Young family through this difficult time.

A Change in Focus for Next Year

I alluded to a fact that I was going to slightly change focus for next year.  This year I focused on crit racing.  I had a really good off/pre-season and was able to maintain form throughout the year without any real peaks or valleys.  I did better this year than I ever have.

One of the junior racers that I am coaching is turning 17 next year.  He is at the age that if he wants to do something with cycling he has to make his move now.  Even if his goal is a college scholarship, he needs to race something other than crits.  So I told him that I would train more for road races and travel with him a few times during the year.

I have not picked out events yet to race with him.  However, I have picked out a race to focus my entire season on.  It is a late season race held in New York in late August:

http://2011wpfg.org/

The World Police & Fire Games are coming to New York City August 26 through September 5, 2011. Come join us for ten days of sports competition and specially planned events, which will respectfully coincide with the ten year remembrance of September 11, 2001.
The New York City Police Department, The New York City Fire Department, The Port Authority Police Department, and the New York City Department of Corrections are inviting you to experience our City and participate in the most memorable World Police & Fire Games ever. Spread throughout the five Boroughs, the city that never sleeps will be the setting for the world’s largest multi-sport, Olympic style event. As many as 20,000 full time firefighters and law enforcement personnel from 70 different countries are expected to compete in 65 sports.
Bring the family and experience it for yourself. See the lights on Broadway, the neon signs in Times Square, Central Park, Wall Street, Rockefeller Center, Radio City Music Hall, the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building, and so much more. Life is not a spectator sport and neither are the 2011 World Police & Fire games in New York City.

This "Olympic" style event is held around the world every two years.  It is competitive and I am looking forward to competing it them next year.

Top Notch Racing--The Chesapeake Weekend

Over the past month I have missed some really top-notch racing.  I couldn't make it to the Blacksburg Weekend for two reasons:

1. Lack of money.  Just couldn't afford the weekend.  It sucks but is definitely a legitimate reason that most of us have faced.
2. Lack of skill on hill climbing.  Training this year was definitely focused on crit racing.  That will change for next year but I will leave that for another blog.

Then I missed the Page Valley Weekend.  Now even if my excuses for the Blacksburg Weekend had changed, I had a brand new excuse for missing this weekend:

1. Couldn't get off of work.  Actually I ended up having to work extra.  I was going on a trip with the family the next week and needed to do a trade in order to get off work for that.  So I work 24 hours Friday, 12 hours on Saturday and 24 hours on Sunday.  No time for training or racing.

So two high level, high caliber racing weekends and I was no where to be seen.  So I was hungry for this weekend in Chesapeake.  Due of the amount of money offered in the Chesapeake Crit on Saturday, the P123 field was staked.  With no Cat 3 only field, I chose to race the P123 instead of the 30+ race.  For the Virginia Beach Wheelmen (VBW), Kevin Horvath, John Gray, Jon Nisbet and myself raced in the Pro/1/2/3 race.

Photo by Dan Gibson: From left to right, John Gray, Jon Nisbet and Joshua Goyet

Like I said, I was hungry for racing and the last race I did, Bryan Park, I got 2nd place in the 3/4 race.  So I had some confidence and I believed I belonged in this field.  However, I was also aware of my strengths and weaknesses.  I was not going to try and work too hard for at least the first 20 minutes.  I have done that before and killed myself for the rest of the race.  I figured I would stay attentive and maybe look at a good positioning for the sprint or a well placed break.

 Photo by BJ Samuel:  Hard Racing in a very fast Pro/1/2/3 field.

Here is the summary of the race:  Less than half way into race there was a crash in the final turn heading into the final stretch.  A number of riders went down and a split occurred in the field.  I personally was behind the crash (real close, the rider in front of me went down) but I had no problem getting back into the group.  My teammate John Gray buried himself to make sure we didn't get separated.   That was actually going to do him in, so I really appreciate his effort.  During the crash four riders got away.  It is unclear to me if they attacked before the crash or after, but they made their move and took advantage of a disorganized field.  The four riders were probably some of the best in the race.  They got a gap and at one point was over 30 seconds.  I thought for sure they would end up lapping us.  I knew we were going fast but I didn't think we were steady enough to catch them.  I even gave an effort at the front to chase them down but ended up forming a gap at the front.  I guess some riders were content to sprint for 5th place.

As the race continued, we kept closing the gap, but it was not to be.  They ended sprinting for 1st through 4th and we went for 5th place.  I was in great position with 3 to go but lost it in the bell lap.  I tried to regain but couldn't get up to where I needed to be.  I came across in 25th position and Kevin Horvath led the team in 14th place.  Jon Nisbet and John Gray gave sacrificing efforts for the team.

The next day I raced in the PLT TT.  I have neglected my TT bike this year so I have not really cared that much about my TT performance.  Next year will be different, but that is for another post.  I warmed up well and decided to simply go out smart and race hard after that.  Simple right?  The wind was to my favor, in that there was a head wind out.  So my building my speed up and not going out too hard would be into the headwind.  Once I made it to the first turn (at mile 6) my average speed was 23.9 mph.  My goal will be to do a TT with average speed of 25+ mph, but I have not been close to that lately.  During the first PLT this year I think I ended the race with a speed of 23.8 mph.  So I was actually pretty happy with this speed so far.  I was able to pick it up for most of the rest of the race.  A few headwind sections hurt me a little but otherwise I felt pretty good.  I just wanted to do the 23 miles (actually think it is a little less than that) in under 55 minutes.  I came across the line in 54:58 (according to my clock), but I wasn't able to stay around to verify the time because I had to get to a cornhole tournament (maybe another post).  My average speed was 24.2 mph when I crossed the line.

Good weekend, good racing.  Really looking forward to September 10 and 11th weekend in Hampton.

Training with Power, The ibike

Remember this post almost 2 years ago?

Power Meters. What's your opinion?

I was struggling with the idea of sticking with an ibike power meter that had been given to me or go with something more street tested like a PowerTap.

While what I decided was to stick with the ibike:

Mine doesn't look quite like that one.  I have one of the first generation ibike.  Like I was saying, that question and opinions were given nearly 2 years ago.  Since then I have been using the ibike.  Let me rephrase that, I have been riding with the ibike.  I say it like that because I haven't truly trained with power like a lot of racers do.  I don't believe in using power as the only tool, but I have started to really buy into it as a very valuable tool.  I once heard someone at a time trial claim that they didn't know why they did so poorly,  after all he kept his power numbers exactly where they needed to be.  That was someone who was using power as his only tool.

Real recently I went out and bought the Hunter Allen book:

One of the primary reasons I bought it was to get a better understanding on how to use power to train some of the racers I coach.   Especially going into this next off-season I wanted to have a good understanding and control over the proper amount of work needed to prepare for next racing season.

What this book did for me was to open my eyes to the possibilities my own power meter could do.  I understood my power and had a pretty good understanding and grasp of my own levels.  I also had a good understanding about how to train those levels.  What I didn't know was the features that would allow me to do this better.

I just discovered that the ibike has an interval feature.  I simply put my intervals into the computer and send them to my ibike.  When I am ready to perform them I push a button.  It tells me what watts I need to maintain, whether I am high or low, and time remaining of the interval.  Simple.  No worrying about trying to remember the numbers yourself.  The only thing I wish it had was sound (and maybe it does and I haven't figured out how to turn it on yet).  I wish it would have beeped me to tell me when my interval was done.

The book I bought gave me a lot of information about how to analyze the data.  I was excited to try some of this but discovered that the program that comes with the ibike doesn't do a great job at some of the stuff.  It does not do a distribution of power graph.  Also something that surprised me a little was that when I down loaded the data after my interval training today, the data was not separated or even marked where my intervals were.  I know that it is easy for me to see based on the graph so that was not a problem, but I also had a subtrip on this ride.  The first part of my ride was with one of my young junior racers and the second half was my intervals.  So I did a subtrip.  I assumed that when I down loaded the data that the place of the subtrip would have been marked.  It was not.  Once again maybe not a big deal because I could look on my computer and see exactly what time was dedicated to the subtrip and highlight that time.  I guess it is the little things.

Now that I am excited about training with power and I have a huge amount of possibilities with workouts to train different systems I think it is time to upgrade my ibike.  I will probably stick with the ibike but I want a wireless with HR and cadence.  I also would like to upgrade the head unit also to be able to put two profiles on it so I can get a second set up for my TT bike.  But for now the priority is the rear mounted sensors so I can use the trainer function for the upcoming cold months.

If you have any tips or comments about the ibike please feel free to leave them.

Junior Development Program

For those that don't know who I am let me tell you a little something about me.  I have raced bikes since I was 12 years old.  I started racing with my brother in Hawaii.  When we moved to Virginia Beach I was 17 years old and got on the Tidewater Bicycle Association Junior Team.  Their coach, Peter had just recently died.  Pam Zimmerman took on the responsibility of driving us around the country and mentoring us the best she could.  At the age of 19 I was pretty much done with the sport and took up weight lifting.  I became a firefighter in 1999 where I thought my weight training was being put to good use.  I did very little aerobic training at this time.  In 2002 I started breaking away from weight lifting and got into running.  Right off the bat I started running half and full marathons.  I simply had a goal of a sub 4-hour marathon.  For someone at 200+ pounds, this was a big accomplishment for me.  It took 5 attempts in a 2 year period to get my 3:54 marathon.  That was it for me.  I then decided to try my hand in triathlons.  One season of swimming, cycling and running, I fell in love with the bike again.  In 2006, at the age of 30 I started racing again.  I got my old junior team back together and we formed the Virginia Beach Wheelmen.

Before I became a firefighter I thought I wanted to be a doctor.  My first few years at Old Dominion University were spent majoring in Biology and minoring in Chemistry.  A drop in medical field desire and some other distractions like marriage and starting a career in the fire service saw my formal education start to suffer.  I changed degree programs to applied mathematics and then finally Exercise Science.  Once I settled on Exercise Science, I became focused and motivated.  I finally graduated with my Bachelor's Degree in 2009.  Also in 2009 I became certified as a Strength and Conditioning Specialist through NSCA and started training athletes at HybriFit in Virginia Beach.  In 2010 I got my Coaching License (Level III) from USAC and started coaching Junior racers in the area.

My career in the fire service has taught me one very important lesson:  Mentors Make the Difference.  If I look back at my life I see that I had some very good mentors.  My parents were extremely supportive as was my brother.  In cycling I seemed to have good mentors, but never a coach.  I never had a coach that truly evaluated my style, skills and abilities and focused training and racing towards me.  When I was weightlifting, my mentors and coaches were magazines and word of mouth quick gains from other people in the gym.  Never focused.  Running was the same way.  No coaches to get me on the right track.  In the fire service, many times your mentors are your coaches.  I had some very good "fire coaches" and that has shown in my very focused and thus far successful career.

Obviously I feel coaching at a young, or any age for that matter, is vital to success.  You can read, listen and ask all the questions you want from experts, but unless the plan is tailored for you, success won't come as easy.

I have started coaching junior racers in the area.  Unlike many coaches, I will take young athletes at the age they can first get their racing license, age 10.  I am currently working with two athletes of this age.  The most important aspect here is not a training plan, it is skill development, comfort on the bike and above all fun.  Most of the time a coach can get through to kids better than parents can.

For the older athletes one of my specialties is strength training.  Not just any strength training but functional, cycling specific strength gains.

I am really trying to build on this junior development program.  If you know of any junior racers who would be interested please send them my way.  The more juniors this program has (to a limit of course) the more fun and beneficial it will be for all.

The Things We Won't Do.

I don't remember exactly what I was doing when this idea came to me.  I think I might have been sitting around, eating hamburgers, playing cornhole and drinking beer with some friends.  That is when I thought about the things cyclist WON'T do in the name of their sport. 

Have you ever heard a cyclist say they won't run because running slows down your bike.  Of course triathletes will disagree, but there are discussion boards all over the internet with no scientific proof that running slows your cycling.

How about someone who won't lift weights because the added bulk will slow them down.  While that idea may have some merit, what about the addition of overall fitness and overall strength?

What are some other things you have ever heard a cyclist say they won't do because it will slow them down?

Why do I bring this up?  Well remember what I was doing when I thought of this.  Running will slow us down, but beer won't?  Weight lifting will add extra weight, but the cookouts with hamburgers and hot dogs won't have an effect?

Just think if you have ever said or heard one of those statements from someone who will indulge in things they like but will use the sport of cycling to stay away from things that are good for you but may not be as enjoyable.

Smithfield HAMmer Fest 2-Man TTT: The Story From the Promoter

The 3rd and final road event that I am promoting this year is in the books.  The Smithfield HAMmer Fest 2-Man TTT is a fun non-BAR event held in Smithfield, VA during their Olden Days Festival.  Why do I call it a fun race?  There are many people who don't consider it a real race unless BAR points are awarded.  That somehow defines a training race and a real race.  When I came up with the idea of a 2-Man TTT, I wanted it to be non-limiting.  Meaning I didn't want you to have to pick someone from your team, your category or your age bracket.  Making the race a BAR race would require the BAR categories to be followed.  Also, the individuals wouldn't receive points, just the teams.  So we made it simple:  Men's Women's and Coed.

But there is even more than that.  This is a challenging 26.7 mile course (last year it was a 27.7 mile course).  Actually this seems like a good time to tell one of the side stories.

I got word via Facebook that three miles of the course had recently been milled for paving.  This was Monday before the race.  On Tuesday I got another Facebook message telling me the same thing but gave the exact detail of which road.  So Wednesday I went out and sure enough, there was a three mile section covered in sand and gravel.  So I had to divert the course around.  This actually only changed the course by 1-mile.  It was actually a big deal since we offer a sub-1 hour prize of $100.  Last year the fastest time was 1:00:35.  So 1-mile shorter was sure to be broken.

Back to the categories.  Along with competing in the three general categories, your team make up or equipment could put you into contention for other prizes: 

• We had a 100+ prize that went to the top team whose combined age was 100 years or greater.
• We had a family prize.  You could compete in this one if your teammate was related through birth or marriage.
• We had a young rider prize that went to the fastest team whose combined age was 40 or less
• We had a Merckx prize for those who wanted to compete on road bikes.
• And we had the sub 1-hour and new course records.

Fun? yes.  Restricted? No.  Still a lot of money to compete for, plus there seemed to be a lot more side bets and smack talk than you would find at regular individual TTs.

So there was no question as to whether I was stressed on the numbers of racers we were going to have.  I know this is not a money making event.  It actually falls on a bad weekend.  The Working Man's Classic is during the week and Reston is on the next day.  So this is the easy race to miss.  We keep it on this weekend because it is part of Smithfield's Olden Days festival which is less then two blocks away from the start.

The Virginia Beach Wheelmen and volunteers from Vanderkitten and friends of ours got out to the course early.  Jenni got registration set and Mike, John and myself hit the course to mark, sweep and put up cones.  We were ready to go.  All marshals had their assignment and were off.

Issue #1:  Prior to the start we were advised there was a big dog on the course near the beginning.  We sent someone out to find it and try to get the owners to take care of it.  On Wednesday I had passed out notification to residents along the  27 mile course.  One thing on the notice was to secure your dogs.  I am thinking that as it got closer to 10am, these owners heeded my request.  We couldn't find the dog and no one saw anything more of it.

Issue #2:  A resident on one of the corners was quite upset.  The corner marshal called me a little scared maybe.  I went out and encountered a completely unreasonable resident.  He did not like cones in the street or the corner marshal in the street.  Basically, we were not disrupting his life in the slightest bit, but he was angry.  In his and he held the notification I had passed out.  He was waiting.  Had I not notified him of the race, he probably would never had known.  He even called the cops on us.  Which helped since we had their permission to be there.  Isle of Wight Sheriff Deputy took care of the problem and the racers never knew about it (until now).  This is not the attitude of the residents of Smithfield though.  Everyone else was excited and asked question and seemed to really enjoy the event.  There always has to be one to take the thrill out of the day.

Issue #3:  A team took a wrong turn.  Cones, arrows, and marshals were placed on all corners.  Some marshals rushed to their turns, others knew they had 30-40 minutes until riders would even reach them.  This course only had two small sections in which riders would be on the same road in opposite directions.  The right hand turn that put riders back on the road had cones set for the right hand turn.  Well coming from the other direction, it apparently looked like you should make a left hand turn there.  Even though there was an arrow pointing straight, the cones were the most obvious.  Because that was straight in one direction and a turn to get back on the road many miles later, the corner marshal was not set up properly yet.  He was not expecting someone to turn there.  He saw him turn but could not stop him.  Essentially that team road the back half of the course backwards.  We stopped them and told them to continue on but they were obviously DQed.  I felt bad and and marshal felt bad.  But like all TTs the course description is sent out to all racers and it is racer responsibility to know the course.  I'm not saying that I wouldn't have done the same.  I am sure that next year though, there will be all marshals at their corner when the first rider leaves.

Well the hour was broken and new course records were set for all categories.  The winning time was still just 59:15.  Tough course, great scenery and good times.

Thanks to all who came out.  I will post results soon.

Here are some more pictures taken by Kevin Horvath and can be found on his Facebook page.

This is a Coed team.  Ask Gene how a women's Chamios feels.

Thanks to a dedicated volunteer ensuring no one else goes the wrong way.