Team Success Starts with Registration

I just recently noticed something concerning the results posted on USA Cycling.  Take a look at the results here from this weekend criterium at Todd Stadium in Newport News, VA.  These are the Cat 3 results:

Men - Cat 3
	Place	Points	Name	City, State	Time	USAC #	Bib	Team
	1	243.99	Nicholas Tempest	Virginia Beach, VA		328886		Tri Power
	2	259.51	John Gray	Chesapeake, VA		256083		Virginia Beach Wheelmen
	3	275.04	S Curtis Smith	Henrico, VA		236138		Team 3Sports
	4	290.56	Josh Moore	Virginia Beach, VA		212047		Atlantic Velo-Virginia p/b Walt's Racing
	5	306.08	Jake King	North Garden, VA		231130		Hot Tubes Development Cycling Team, Inc.
	6	321.61	Timothy Pope	Chesapeake, VA		230804		Fat Frogs Elite
	7	337.13	jeffrey hellner	Hampton, VA		296544		JRVS/American Pride
	8	352.66	Luis Guillen	Youngsville, NC		281805		Constellation Cycling
	9	368.18	Owen Hassig	Arlington, VA		186551		Squadra Coppi / Vapiano USA
	10	383.70	Tyler Cloutier	Charlottesville, VA		360809
	11	399.23	Joe Altomare	Hampton, VA		290623		Celerity Cycling p/b Brooks Systems
	12	414.75	Kenneth Sumrell	Poquoson, VA		304878		Fat Frogs Elite
	13	430.28	jimmy deaton	Virginia Beach, VA		8975		Team Tripower
	14	445.80	Joshua Goyet	Virginia Beach, VA		58274		Virginia Beach Wheelmen
	15	461.32	Tim Shockley	Virginia Beach, VA		60982		Virginia Beach Wheelmen
	16	476.85	Christian Sheridan	Crozet, VA		167388		Charlottesville Racing Club
	17	492.37	Mark LaDow	Camden, NC		344832

The thing I want to point out are the symbols all the way to the left side.  The top three medals are obvious but lower down under myself and teammate Tim Shockley you will see silver ribbons.  These are because we were on the same team as the second place finisher, therefore we got Team 2nd Place.

The Virginia Beach Wheelmen have always been team centered.  We were started with friends who enjoyed racing together and hopefully winning together.  Our non cycling friends would ask many times "how did you do this weekend?"  Our answers reflected the top finisher of our team.  This last weekend, when asked, we answered "2nd place".  Usually the top finisher on a team doesn't get there alone.  Even if he raced alone that day, the support of his team during training had a play in how well he raced.  Therefore my team always takes an individual victory as a team victory, we don't see the difference.

I really don't know how long USA Cycling has been placing these ribbons to support the fact that cycling is a team sport, but I do like the idea.  Now to real point of my post.  Notice the winner was Nick Tempest of Team Tripower.  Nick was led out on the final lap by his teammate who sacrificed himself for Nick's victory.  That teammate was Jimmy Deaton.  Jimmy should have received a gold ribbon by his name but he did not.  The reason is because Nick signed up under Tripower and Jimmy signed up under Team Tripower.  In order to support USAC's attempt to really highlight cycling as a team sport, do your part by discussing with your club the team name that all racers should use when registering for the events.  Its the least you can do to support those who sacrifice their personal glory for the team.  Now, for all to see, there is no question when we answer "we got 2nd place."

On a side note, this race was tough.  We went into it with a team plan to win the race via a breakaway.  If we could not establish a winning break, we had a plan for a good leadout.  For those their I think you can agree our 2nd place was an easy 2nd and we did give it everything we had to come up with the victory.  The winner, Nick, also raced well.  He did not sit in and wait for the sprint.  Actually at one point I bridged up to him to form a two man break and he was riding so strong that I could assist at all.  I had to signal to my team to start chasing.  It was a good race, as always.  Thanks again to the promoters. 

Nutrition for Better Performance: The Pre-Workout Meal

I am going to start this post with a couple of questions:

• Do you have a pre-race meal that you eat?
• Do you have a pre-workout meal that you eat?
• Are they the same?

A couple of weeks ago I had a client who decided to go on his endurance ride in the evening and the last time he ate was breakfast in the morning.  When he reported his ride back to me he stated he felt a little tired.  He then explained the didn't eat because he wanted to burn more fat during his endurance ride in order to lose a little weight.  Does that sound like anything you have every done?  I would have to say that most endurance athletes have thought along those lines before.

Back to my originally three questions on this post, do you have a standard meal for training and racing?  Again I would probably say that most racers do have a standard for pre-race but not for pre-ride.  Why?  I would guess it is for the same reason we swap wheels to race, it makes us faster.  We want to be as prepared as we can for the race and that usually means not playing around with our diets and eating something that we know will work for us.  Then why not do the same thing for training.  The point you really need to focus on here is what is the goal of your training session.  It should never be the goal of training to go out and bonk.  Therefore your pre-ride diet should be as important if not more important than your pre-race diet.

Let's say your coach has given you a ride for the day that included some sprints in the early part of the ride and then a tempo and endurance segment at the end for a total of 2 1/2 hours.  If you chose not to properly eat and during the form sprints you completely exhausted your glycogen stores and had nothing left for the remainder of the ride, did you get the most out of the workout.  Come race day, will you be the best prepared.  The answer of course is no.  If you don't properly prepare and take every training session seriously you won't get the most out of your training.

What I attempt to do is to fuel myself about 2 hours prior to the start of my training session.  This then requires planning of my day.  This meal or snack that I will eat prior to my ride will be about 200-400 calories depending on my ride I have planned.  Now I am not much of a calorie counter so I may be slightly off when it comes to this.  The goal though is to eat enough to fuel me for at least and hour ride.  Anything more than an hour and I am eating while riding as well.  Don't think that if you are training for 3 hours that you need to eat 3x the food.  You want most of the food out of you stomach prior to riding.  Otherwise it will just sit in there as blood is diverted to the working muscles.

A typically pre-ride meal will consist of food from the moderate glycemic index.  This could be fruits, oatmeal or my favorite Shredded Mini Wheats.  The idea is to create insulin release to store the sugars as glycogen but you don't want to create a spike that would occur with high glycemic index foods.  I will also usually add a little protein in for good measure.

A typical breakfast for a morning ride (410 calories):

• bowl of Shredded Mini Wheats with Skim milk ( 340 calories)
• Beet Juice (70 calories)

This is usually eaten 2 hours prior to riding.  If I am feeling a little hungry before leaving I will eat a banana.  The cereal gives me a lot of good carbs that are moderate on the glycemic index.  The milk will give me some protein.  I use skim milk to keep the calories down.  The beet juice, well the reason for that may be for another post.  Now I am good to go and will be ready to accomplish the goals of my workout.

What is your pre-ride meal?

Bike Handling Skills: Bunny Hopping

Part of my Junior Training Program is to ensure they are taught how to handle their bikes.  It was actually something I was never taught to do even though I started racing at the age of 12.  I want to make sure that these young athletes have the skills to be proficient and safe.  Of course it does not end there, everyone can benefit from skills training.  If you think you need skill training then you probably do.   If you don't think you need skill training, then you definitely do.

The bunny hop is probably the simplest and most critical skill to practice.  I teach it in 4 parts:

1. Front wheel over the obstacle:  At slow speed approach the obstacle and compress your handlebars down to "load" yourself.  Then "spring" up and take the front wheel with you over the obstacle.  Once this is proficient, we move to the rear wheel.
2. Rear wheel over the obstacle:  With clipless pedals, the rear wheel could almost be pulled up from the pedals.  However, some of the best bunny hoppers are BMX riders not using clipless pedals, they are using momentum.  So even though the pedals are a tool, try and use momentum.  This is accomplished much like the front wheel.  Approach the obstacle at slow speed.  Ride the front wheel over it, then compress the rear wheel to "load" by standing and bending your legs.  "Spring" up and lean your body forward to bring up the rear wheel.  The wheel only needs to clear the obstacle, not high enough to endo yourself.
3. Both wheels at slow speed:  When doing slow speed bunny hops, you will do the front wheel and rear wheel separately as stated above, but in one pass over the obstacle.  This is like timing a slow speed climb up on a curb.  Approach the obstacle, "load" and "spring" the front wheel over then immediately "load" and "spring" the rear wheel over.
4. Both wheels at speed:  Now it is time to put it all together.  Approach the obstacle with enough speed to clear it.  When you approach it you will "load" the front and back wheel at the same time.  This is done by standing with pedals parallel to the ground.  Bend your arms to load the front and your knees to load the rear.  Spring them both up at the same time bringing your body slightly forward for momentum.  You only need to jump enough to clear the obstacle.  No need to get "sick air" here.  Try and land with both wheels at the same time.

Claire pulling too much from the rear and landing heavy on her front wheel.

Claire correcting the problem and landing perfectly.

 You can clearly see the difference in the above photos.  When you load your bike and then spring up and slightly forward, it truly is slightly forward.  To much forward movement will result in the rear wheel coming up too high.  The faster the approach, the less forward shift is needed.  Also you can see in the second picture Claire has returned to a lower position, shifting her center of gravity and thus making the landing safer.  She still has room to compress her landing so she doesn't hit too hard.

These skills, especially with young juniors, are best done in a grass field.  She is still using her road bike to practice.  I use a piece of PVC pipe for her to jump as the obstacle.  In one session she made an extreme level of progress.

Feel free to leave comments, questions or suggestions.

Nutrition for Better Performance: Post Workout

Many athletes will train hard, buy the best equipment, analyze their power files and develop training plans for optimal performance.  Recently I have taken a serious interest in a very overlooked component of performance which is nutrition.

The focus on this post will be eating after your workouts.  You should strive to eat your recovery food immediately after training.  For cyclist, this could mean getting extra chamois time.  The window really is 20 minutes, therefore your post workout food should be prepared prior to your workout.  When doing some research as to exactly what this food should be I ran into some contradictions.  It is widely accepted that the food should contain carbohydrates and protein, but how much of each?  I was taught that if you were mixing a drink for fuel during a workout it should contain a ratio of 4:1 carbohydrate to protein.  For recovery purposes it should be a ratio of 2:1.  Many suggestions today that can be found state the same, however there a plenty of studies that have shown that it should be a 4:1 ratio for recovery as well.

The purpose of this recovery meal is to replenish the stored glycogen that is found in your body and that was used during the workout.  Immediately following your training, you body is the most susceptible to replacing the glycogen.  The carbohydrates will be converted to the glycogen.  The added protein will double the insulin response and will increase the restoring of the glycogen.  In a study there were 100% increase in the glycogen restore in those that took a carbohydrate protein meal.  When doing a search as to what ratio was better, the studies that suggested a 2:1 were more strength related training while those that suggested a 4:1 were endurance related.

The post workout meal could be broken down into two stages, the snack and the meal.  The snack needs to be immediate and start the process of storing glycogen.  The meal needs to follow and be consumed within the 2 hours after the workout.  Here is a thought:  Within 2 hours after a workout you should consume 0.3-0.6 grams of carbohydrates.  I will take me for instance.  I weigh 185 lbs currently.  If I go out for 1 hour doing intervals I probably am closer to needing the 0.3 grams of carbohydrates.  That is 56 grams I would need to consume.  If I went out and performed threshold efforts for 3 hrs, I probably need to replenish more on the level of 0.6 grams per pound which would be 112 grams of carbohydrates.  Then when you add your protein in, it means, in keeping with the 4:1 or 2:1 ratio you will need to consume 14-28 grams of protein (4:1).  Lets say than I decide after my workout to eat 2 hard boiled eggs (12g of protein) and 1 banana (31g of carbohydrates).  I would then want to consume the remainder of the meal within two hours. 

If you take anything from this post it should be to treat your post workout meal like you would a critical interval within your workout.  Find out what works for you, whether it is a drink, food or a mixture of both.  Do some research on your own and play with different combination of foods.  Lastly, leave comments on this post as to what works for your and what are your favorite post workout meals.

 

Richmond International Raceway Cat 3/4 Race

I have really enjoyed this race for the simple fact that we tend to have large fields.  In the past 2 years we have had 100+ in the Cat 3/4 race, this year was smaller but still had 60+ riders start the race.  Of those 60+, two of them were from Virginia Beach Wheelmen.  With only two of us we know we would not be able to 'control' the race, but we still really wanted to race aggressively.

John Gray and myself got in a good warm up:

Photo taken and enhanced by Dan Gibson.

We lined up ready to go, and we needed to be ready:
 

Photo taken by Dan Gibson

This seems to be a hard course to get away on, but I didn't want to rely on history, so if it looked good, and we missed it, I was going to chase it down.  Right off the bat, Jake King and a rider from Richmond Velo Sports took off and got a little gap.  Jake is always dangerous off the front and since Richmond had like 15 riders in the race, I figured they could shut things down if needed.  I chased it down.  The chase down told me my legs were feeling pretty good.

I'm not in the best shape yet, but John has been having a stellar year so far.  The thought was this, if we missed a break that need to come back, I could chase it down before it got too far out.   If the pack did not go with me and I caught them, one of two things could happen.  If I felt good, join them.  If I didn't think I could stay in the break, then I would slow them down and break them up.  John then kept an eye out and attacked to join or establish breaks in the hope to get him away. 

With just a handful of laps to go, a small break was up the road.  It was close enough that we should be able to catch them on the run into the finish, but far enough away that if we didn't make the move they could slip away.  With 2 laps to go I decided I needed to attack to chase them down.  The pack would either come with me and give John a chance to sprint for the win, or I could join them and sprint for the win myself.  As I approached, two of the three riders gave up, but the third, Kristian from Fat Frogs, kept going.  I was catching him, but it was taking a lot out of me.  As we rounded the first embankment on to the back straight away the pack caught us.  John was near the front and as the pack slightly slowed, he attacked.  It was a good move to try and go for the win.  The pack reacted and I was unable to get back into the top 10 riders so decided to just sit up.  It was a good move on my part considering the riders that went down in the second embankment.  John's move put him in great position, but it was a little too long and he was swallowed at the line but still managed a 10th place finish.  I came across, safely, in 47th place.

Our moves didn't pan out in a win this week but we were proud of our racing.  I have told John that you must want the win more than you fear the loss.  Of 60+ riders in that field, even the non sprinters think they have a chance to win or place high if it finishes in a field sprint.  That is why a lot of times the fly away move with a couple laps to go will tend to work, because no one wants to sacrifice themselves to catch that late move, even when they have teammates.  For us, a win by one is a win by all of us.  No one on our team has a problem with sacrificing for the team.  We know that sometimes, if you want the win you have to go for the win and not just settle for a field finish.  That is what we did this weekend.  Both John and I made our moves to win the race, it just didn't happen, but we can hold our heads high.

Race Review: Snowball Crit #1 A-Race

This year there have been a number of early season training races.  However, for the Virginia Beach Wheelmen, the Snowball #1 was our first of the season.  John Gray, Tim Shockley and myself represented VBW, each with our own specific goals.  For me, build confidence.

It has been a rough cycling year for me.  Fighting my back injury meant inconsistent training.  Whenever I thought I was good to go, I would have to take some time off.  My off season pretty much consisted of high intensity cross training on the Concept 2 rower and Versa Climber.  I rode as much as I could but limited most of my training to solo rides or team rides.  My fitness level is good, I have been posting some decent power numbers.  My weight is a little higher than what I wanted but that is because I didn't do much in the way of long base miles.  Overall I really didn't know what to expect from today's race.

I decided that I needed to finish today's race in the pack.  I wanted to get comfortable in the pack, in the turns and really work on shifting gears and accelerating out of the corners.  This training race was just that, good training.  I had not ridden in a pack since last racing season.

John Gray has really been training well and was using today's race to see how aggressive he could be and attempt to establish himself in a break.  I kept an eye on his efforts and moved to the front to help cover or block when he made his moves.  Some of the breaks he got in had some serious promise but unfortunately he missed the winning break.

Tim, much like myself, needed this race to establish a level of racing confidence that he has lost by not racing much in the past few years.  He did well, moving around the pack and even putting in an effort or two at the front.

John ended up in 6th place and Tim and I rode in somewhere in the pack.  Although it may not sound impressive, it was a victory for all of us.  We know what we can do, now we need to show how far we can push ourselves. 

I am already looking forward to my next event:  Snowball Crit #2 A-race.

The Bike Fit

For those that have been following my posts, you know that I have been dealing with injuries for the past year.  It has essentially been low back pain, though the origin of it is more complicated.  I have come a long way, but not healed yet.  One part of my recovery was to make sure that I was sized properly on my bike.  I wanted to be sure that my bike was not adding to my problem.

In mid-December I went to East Coast Bikes in Ocean View to have Iesha Shipp size me.  Iesha is a certified bike fitter, plus with her extensive knowledge of anatomy (yoga instructor), she was perfect to be able to get me set up properly.  After an extensive interview she took notes and measurements on my body, including my flexibility ranges.  Aaron assisted Iesha by taking all of my current measurements I had set up on my bike.  After all of this I got on the bike for rest of the evaluation.  With no changes to my set up at this point, this is what I looked like (take a minute and look at these photos before scrolling down, can you tell what needs to be changed?  Leave your guess or opinions in the comments):

Seat height?  GOOD
Plumb line?  GOOD, slightly back but within a good range.
Stem height/angle?  That needs to be discussed.

The best picture to see my problem is probably the first one.  It is not an issue with my bike, but its an issue with how I ride my bike.  You always hear that you should keep a flat back.  Do you know what is meant by that?  Where does the flatness of your back originate?  What should have caught your eye is the angle in relation to my saddle that is made with my sacral.  It is essentially straight up and down.  The back bends at the lumbar, thus not creating a flat back.  Not only is it non-aerodynamic, but it has put a lot of pressure on my back.

If everything on my bike is good, how then should we fix this problem?  The answer is to learn how to ride differently.  When I told my teammates about this issue, Tim Shockley told me that his former coach, Peter Teeuwen used to always tell them to roll their hips to put their sacral at a 45 degree angle.  Its funny, been riding for decades, no one ever told me that before.  Its hard to evaluate yourself so most of the time, things like this go unnoticed.

Ieasha thought that a different stem my make it easier for me to transition.  Using the stem adjuster, we tried it out:

Better, but quite awkward.  In reality, it was not going to be easy to change riding position, because any change would feel strange.  I just had to bite the bullet though and make a conscious effort.  We put back my original stem and I tried it out:

 
Here is a side by side:






I would like to report that prior to getting this fit done, my back would hurt and my left foot would go numb within 30 minutes of my ride.  After consciously changing my riding position, I have not had any foot numbness on the bike.  My back pain is not gone completely, but it actually feels like a tiredness not a pain.  Because of the change in position, I need to strengthen and stretch certain muscles before this because really comfortable.  It gives me a lot of hope that my issues are going away.

The bike fit that only dropped the nose of my saddle down a hair, seems like it could change me as a racer.  Thank you Iesha, Aaron and East Coast Bikes.

Please feel free to leave opinions and comments, I would love to hear what you think.