Warming Up in Providence 2006My journey back
Just over one year ago I attended - as a spectator - the 2005 U.S. Cyclo-Cross National Championships in Providence, RI. I knew the course location well as I ran x-country in high school at the park. My parents still lived in RI and I decided to fly up with one of my children to give her some grandparent time. It was over the 2 days of watching what has been described as an EPIC championship course and conditions that I decided I had to get back in the saddle and race cross.
Biking all my life
I have always ridden a bike –my Dad probably had no idea when he taught me to ride that it would be more than a kid’s thing to do for me. I was the kid who when he got his driver’s license – didn’t give up the bike and continued to ride it to friends houses, for fun and to school. After college and during the Lemond era of US cycling, I decided to try racing - upgrading to Category 3 before I was off to graduate school and other priorities that took away from saddle time. I rediscovered the bike again when I moved to Virginia but did not race – instead riding for fitness and commuting to work as well as with a local touring club. But again – other priorities came along – in the form of two girls and a boy – over a 5 year period - and I no longer rode my bike as much as I would have liked.
Out of Shape
In 2004 and 2005 – I went on 2 biking trips with some friends – mountain biking in Zion, Utah and Sun Valley, Idaho. We are a pretty competive bunch and always challenge each other – but during these ‘challenges” I discovered my fitness was terrible, was overweight and ultimate frustrated – as I was the pure cyclist in the group – only dreaming of how I used to ride. None of my friends thought I was riding poorly but I knew I was....and it was pretty humbling....
A Coach
Well, a week after I made the decision to race again, I happened to be in my local bike shop shopping with a friend for a bike for his spouse and met Susan Hefler as she was testing some road racers and inquired into the test as well as the CompuTrainer setup she uses for winter training. After that discussion I attended a few off session classes and signed up for Session II with Susan.
It was time
They say timing is everything and the bike gods aligned things well for me – providing me a sport that brought me back to being a kid, a personal goal to reach for and a person who could take my needs/desires and mold them. The sport was ‘cross’, the goal to get back in ‘racing’ shape and the person was Susan Helfer.
Now what?
After the winter computrainer sessions and lots of spring saddle time without any sort of specific program other than simply – GO RIDE - I kept in regular contact with Susan and incurred a 2nd VO2Max test to see if the GO RIDE training was working…..it was….my numbers were on the rise. So it was then time to start a more regimented program to put me back at the 2006 CycloCross Nationals - but this time as a participant. From June - November – Susan sculpted me a program to reach that goal – testing me again, riding 5-6 days a week for 1-3 hrs a day, forcing me to ride in Z4 for much longer than I thought I could. I also needed to get my racing skills back in shape and entered several local mountain bike races over the summer– as these were much more similar to cross races in terms of length / time / intensity vs. traditional road or criterium races. Showing continued improvement in each race I entered I looked forward to the Fall ‘cross’ season – having bought a cyclocross bike over the summer.
CycloCross – What’s that?
Originally created as a way for Euro-Pros to stay fit over the winter – Cross has found its way to the US over the past several years as the fastest growing part of cycling…over road and mountain bike racing. The ‘cross’ season runs about 3 months – late Sept to early Dec – and you never know what it will be like – fast/hard/warm or slow/muddy/cold. It was mostly the former for the races I entered. Again – with Nationals as a goal – I raced a variety of classes to get a sense of competition as well as my own fitness – I had a couple good races and one very bad race but Susan kept me focused on the final goal. I learned to dismount and remount my bike (why would you get off a bike during a race), learned how to run with it over my shoulder (why not ride it), learned to hop barriers that you could not ride over (barriers?) and that riding at Z4 for 40 minutes was very very painful but that at minute 41 it provided one with an awesome feeling.
Nationals in Rhode Island
So come mid-October – Susan put the eye of the tiger in me and focused me 100% on racing in Providence. The training / the races / the diet / everything was focused on my goal – simply returning to the beginning of how this story started – to participate. So I loaded up the car with more bike stuff than most folks own and drove 8 hours to RI – using my parents home as team headquarters. I donned the green and blue of HPC List and gave it my all in the 45-49 age group on Friday(won by Steve Tilford) and the 35+ B Masters on Sunday…..riding my best races all year in terms of effort. The end result was minor compared to the journey back. My parents came to watch me race…..for my mother it was the first time as she was always worried about a crash…but I guess at 44 – she figured I knew what I was doing….and in the end said that “I must be in awful good shape to do that” and was equally impressed with the telephone call from Susan the night before my race on Sunday…..
End of Journey…or just starting on one!
So where am I now? Well physically I am in great shape – it took a lot of hard work and time over the past year but I am easily over 15 lbs lighter, have a VO2Max at least 10 points higher, a resting heart rate of 48 down from 62 and pants that fit again. My results were satisfying but Susan reminded me that 2006 was a rebuilding year – to get my body back in shape, tune the engine, fix things and to not focus on results that they will come.
Its already January and I am eager to start the cross season next September. I look forward to having Susan join myself and one of her Junior athletes at the cross races in the Mid-Atlantic region. I am eager to continue the path I have started on again – with Susan’s guidance – I know I can continue to improve. And I just learned that the UCI may bring a World Cup race to Providence in October 2007 – now wouldn’t that be awesome – to race on the same course that not only the best in the U.S. raced on but now the best in the World…..I hope there is a race for us lowly Master Amateurs that weekend…..else I’ll have camera in hand and see just how the world’s best tackle that runup…..
Just over one year ago I attended - as a spectator - the 2005 U.S. Cyclo-Cross National Championships in Providence, RI. I knew the course location well as I ran x-country in high school at the park. My parents still lived in RI and I decided to fly up with one of my children to give her some grandparent time. It was over the 2 days of watching what has been described as an EPIC championship course and conditions that I decided I had to get back in the saddle and race cross.
Biking all my life
I have always ridden a bike –my Dad probably had no idea when he taught me to ride that it would be more than a kid’s thing to do for me. I was the kid who when he got his driver’s license – didn’t give up the bike and continued to ride it to friends houses, for fun and to school. After college and during the Lemond era of US cycling, I decided to try racing - upgrading to Category 3 before I was off to graduate school and other priorities that took away from saddle time. I rediscovered the bike again when I moved to Virginia but did not race – instead riding for fitness and commuting to work as well as with a local touring club. But again – other priorities came along – in the form of two girls and a boy – over a 5 year period - and I no longer rode my bike as much as I would have liked.
Out of Shape
In 2004 and 2005 – I went on 2 biking trips with some friends – mountain biking in Zion, Utah and Sun Valley, Idaho. We are a pretty competive bunch and always challenge each other – but during these ‘challenges” I discovered my fitness was terrible, was overweight and ultimate frustrated – as I was the pure cyclist in the group – only dreaming of how I used to ride. None of my friends thought I was riding poorly but I knew I was....and it was pretty humbling....
A Coach
Well, a week after I made the decision to race again, I happened to be in my local bike shop shopping with a friend for a bike for his spouse and met Susan Hefler as she was testing some road racers and inquired into the test as well as the CompuTrainer setup she uses for winter training. After that discussion I attended a few off session classes and signed up for Session II with Susan.
It was time
They say timing is everything and the bike gods aligned things well for me – providing me a sport that brought me back to being a kid, a personal goal to reach for and a person who could take my needs/desires and mold them. The sport was ‘cross’, the goal to get back in ‘racing’ shape and the person was Susan Helfer.
Now what?
After the winter computrainer sessions and lots of spring saddle time without any sort of specific program other than simply – GO RIDE - I kept in regular contact with Susan and incurred a 2nd VO2Max test to see if the GO RIDE training was working…..it was….my numbers were on the rise. So it was then time to start a more regimented program to put me back at the 2006 CycloCross Nationals - but this time as a participant. From June - November – Susan sculpted me a program to reach that goal – testing me again, riding 5-6 days a week for 1-3 hrs a day, forcing me to ride in Z4 for much longer than I thought I could. I also needed to get my racing skills back in shape and entered several local mountain bike races over the summer– as these were much more similar to cross races in terms of length / time / intensity vs. traditional road or criterium races. Showing continued improvement in each race I entered I looked forward to the Fall ‘cross’ season – having bought a cyclocross bike over the summer.
CycloCross – What’s that?
Originally created as a way for Euro-Pros to stay fit over the winter – Cross has found its way to the US over the past several years as the fastest growing part of cycling…over road and mountain bike racing. The ‘cross’ season runs about 3 months – late Sept to early Dec – and you never know what it will be like – fast/hard/warm or slow/muddy/cold. It was mostly the former for the races I entered. Again – with Nationals as a goal – I raced a variety of classes to get a sense of competition as well as my own fitness – I had a couple good races and one very bad race but Susan kept me focused on the final goal. I learned to dismount and remount my bike (why would you get off a bike during a race), learned how to run with it over my shoulder (why not ride it), learned to hop barriers that you could not ride over (barriers?) and that riding at Z4 for 40 minutes was very very painful but that at minute 41 it provided one with an awesome feeling.
Nationals in Rhode Island
So come mid-October – Susan put the eye of the tiger in me and focused me 100% on racing in Providence. The training / the races / the diet / everything was focused on my goal – simply returning to the beginning of how this story started – to participate. So I loaded up the car with more bike stuff than most folks own and drove 8 hours to RI – using my parents home as team headquarters. I donned the green and blue of HPC List and gave it my all in the 45-49 age group on Friday(won by Steve Tilford) and the 35+ B Masters on Sunday…..riding my best races all year in terms of effort. The end result was minor compared to the journey back. My parents came to watch me race…..for my mother it was the first time as she was always worried about a crash…but I guess at 44 – she figured I knew what I was doing….and in the end said that “I must be in awful good shape to do that” and was equally impressed with the telephone call from Susan the night before my race on Sunday…..
End of Journey…or just starting on one!
So where am I now? Well physically I am in great shape – it took a lot of hard work and time over the past year but I am easily over 15 lbs lighter, have a VO2Max at least 10 points higher, a resting heart rate of 48 down from 62 and pants that fit again. My results were satisfying but Susan reminded me that 2006 was a rebuilding year – to get my body back in shape, tune the engine, fix things and to not focus on results that they will come.
Its already January and I am eager to start the cross season next September. I look forward to having Susan join myself and one of her Junior athletes at the cross races in the Mid-Atlantic region. I am eager to continue the path I have started on again – with Susan’s guidance – I know I can continue to improve. And I just learned that the UCI may bring a World Cup race to Providence in October 2007 – now wouldn’t that be awesome – to race on the same course that not only the best in the U.S. raced on but now the best in the World…..I hope there is a race for us lowly Master Amateurs that weekend…..else I’ll have camera in hand and see just how the world’s best tackle that runup…..
Of course none of this would not have been possible with out the unwavering support and encouragement of my wife Patty - putting up w/ my "I have to go ride" comments every weekend and boxes of cycling gear arriving at the door on a regular basis as well as Carrie, Laurel and Eric's support of me at the Reston Capital Classic....one rides faster when 3 little voices are yelling and ringing cowbells.....Love you guys so much!!
Pilot and Stoker
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