The next great sprinter

Check out this guy. A week ago, he was on a tricycle.

We bought him a little 12" bike and I took the training wheels, crank, pedals, and chain off. He's picked it up really fast and really enjoys it now.

Cool.

-Scott

Don't Waste the Opportunity

I do 85% or more of my training inside. In fact, there are weeks when the only time I ride outside is in a race. Even then, I’ll warm up and warm down on the trainer. With family obligations, I need to be efficient with my time.

Knowing this, a buddy with a growing family asked how I manage to do this without going insane. How do I stay motivated in the basement when it’s nice outside. I’ve been thinking about this for a few weeks but it finally came through on Saturday night. Saturday night was the Newmark Crit. It’s a nice little race close to home. If you want the standard race report, check http://olympushomescycling.blogspot.com/2008/06/newmark-crit.html.

So I love racing my bike. But bike racing is not real family friendly for a time standpoint. A lot of people (the number keeps growing) have to make sacrifices so that I can train and race. Some of the sacrifices are pretty obvious, such as the Coach* changing extra diapers or trying to keep three year olds from running out on the course. Some are less obvious. Some I’ll never even know about.

What does this have to do with motivating me on my trainer at 5:00 am? Simple, if I blow off my workout, or bail out in a race, not only have I wasted my time (not a big deal) but I’ve wasted everyone else’s time and effort. That is a big deal. When my son asks me to not go ride my bike so we can read a book, how can I go ride and then waste the workout? (This happened last week. I almost cried. Coach saved the day.)

So on Saturday, it was really storming as I was getting ready to go to the race. Would the race still go on? Would it be raining and crappy? Would start times be delayed? If the family went with me, it was going to be a lot of work for the Coach.

As things went, we did race, a little late and a little wet. But as I started I realized that I need to make the most of this. Pick your cliché: “win or die trying”, “win one for the Gipper”, etc.

Just don’t waste the opportunity. A lot of work went into it. Very little of it was mine.


Thanks for reading,

Scott



*Coach – I’ll talk more about her in some later post.

I'm a big fan

I'm a big fan of big fans.

A. The Spees boys run hot. We sweat buckets.

B. I train inside all year round.

A + B = Big Fan

I just picked up this baby from Walmart and it rocks. It moves about 10 times more air than that crappy old box fan I had. Plus, it's quieter. Bonus!!!

I do almost all of my training inside. From a time management standpoint, there's no other way. No stop signs. No bad drivers. No need to worry about the weather. Just focus on the workout and get the job done.

On Wednesday we had big weather roll through: lightning, thunder, tornado warnings. But I was in the basement with my new fan.

Now if I could just get my trainer to stop screwing up....

Call up

I got the call up this weekend.

Now, I’ve gotten it before, and at bigger events. But never when there was a bike involved. I loved it when I was a swimmer. I was the anchor leg on the relay. I loved it when I could shut down a 2 or 3 body length lead and out touch ‘em at the wall.

This was the first time I was ever told that the team would be riding for me.

“Shut down all the breaks, we set up the sprinter.” It’s funny, though, because I’ve never considered myself a sprinter. Not a pure one, at least. My results in field sprints are mostly due to learning the tricks of the trade, which wheels to follow, who to mark, how to take the last corner. But I’m no specialist.

Did they shut down all the breaks? Yeah, they did. And it was awesome. I was hanging out in the back, just watching the Mean Green Team eat everything up. A couple of very dangerous moves started to develop and then the boys would bring them back in. The flyer at 3 to go, gobble, gobble, gobble.

There’s a certain type of pressure you feel when people make these kind of sacrifices for you. The little voice says, “Don’t screw this up, Scott. Don’t miss the move. For chrissakes, don’t crash.” It was starting to get a little loud in my head. Then with about 3 to go, the voice stops and the computer turns on. It becomes analytical, scientific, calculated. The pushing starts, people are bunching up, I’m not giving up this wheel. And when the drive for the line starts, I’m on it. It’s single file from the bell. 5th position through turn 1. 4th position through turn 2. The other team’s leadout is still up there, but he’s bogging up through turn 3. Down the third straight, everyone starts to jump. I’m moving through to the front when They start coming, The Specialists. These guys are pure sprinters. It’s McEwen and Petacchi coming over Backstedt. Just not enough pure speed to hold them off. A bump and a push but keep on going. And the race was decided at the last corner. Third through the corner, third at the line.

It wasn’t the storybook ending we hoped for. But it was a great start.

The video:http://www.vimeo.com/1102432