The Myth of Coaching

I've been meaning to go on this rant.  Now, it seems more appropriate than ever.

You don’t have to look very far these days for evidence of the biggest fraud in professional sports since the Chicago Black Sox; Lance Armstrong was finally unveiled as not simply a cheater, but a character corrupt enough to use his considerable resources to unbalance nearly every aspect of competition.  Almost lost in the shuffle is the minor industry of cycling coaching spawned, in large part, from Lance Armstrong’s association with Chris Carmichael, founder of Carmichael Training Systems.  Carmichael’s books were a careful blend of obfuscation and motivational rhetoric that served up online coaching for cycling wannabes worldwide.  Jumping on the bandwagon, USA Cycling offered B-team and regional pros the chance to earn some much-needed cash on the by certification according to “the book”.  But as quoted from Floyd Landis, through Tyler Hamilton (and co-author David Coyle), in The Secret Race, “I don’t recall Lance ever mentioning Chris’ name or citing a piece of advice Chris had given him,” writes Hamilton. “By contrast, Lance mentioned Ferrari constantly, almost annoyingly so.” Landis is more pointed, calling Carmichael “a beard.”

Now, I don’t mean to throw CTS or any of the other coaches under the bus, coaching does have value, and when followed appropriately, can achieve improvement.  But it’s worth noting a couple of things about “the book” of cycling coach-ology: 1) Coaching, as most frequently practiced, is designed to achieve maximum results from a given rider over a short period of time, three to four months.  2) Coaching methods tend to work best for riders with a specific genetic makeup and muscle development.  Why?  Let’s go back to high school, or little league, or wherever your childhood or teenage sports memories take you.  The coach’s job is to win (OK, Caltech’s basketball coach is a notable exception).  To win, the coach needs winning players.  And the coach must find his or her winning players and get them ready to compete in a couple of months’ time.  The coach doesn’t win by using every single person who shows up for the tryout, not even by using all who survive the tryout.  The coach wins by finding the players (or runners or riders) who have the ability to play, subjecting them to a rigorous training schedule, and finding those few who are ready to compete.  The rest are weeded out.  That’s the coach’s job, also…to get rid of the players who aren’t ready.  Does that mean those of us who didn’t make the cut are destined to be losers?  Maybe…or maybe not.  All of us can benefit from coaching, but we may need a different type of coaching.  We need long-term coaching that focuses on developing physiology and skills that the kids picked ahead of us were born with or were developed before ours could be.  You won’t find this type of coaching from “the book”.  If you want to be fast for a race in three months, go hire any USA Cycling certified coach, it’s your best shot.  But if you got your ass handed to you and you want to be faster next year, an internet coach might not be your best investment.

When you hire a coach, you’re skipping the tryout; you are paying to be on the team.

Consider a few things before you hire a coach:

Benefits

Accountability – it’s easy to skip training rides; it’s even easier to skip once you’ve started skipping.  The weather sucks!  I’ve had a bad day at work!  Mmm…beer!  You know all the excuses.  But remember, you’re paying for this!  Not only are you going to get yelled at, you’re paying to get yelled at!

Variety – One of the keys to being fast is to vary your training from day to day; to work on different aspects of speed, intervals, endurance, strength, etc.

Organization – Coaching inevitably involves keeping a diary of your training and training data.  Sometimes, to some people, this can be useful.

So what?!?

Nothing listed above should be news to anyone who is interested in racing enough to consider hiring a coach.  Nothing listed above isn’t already available for FREE on the internet, or if you want more detail, available in concise, printed form for less than $20 on Amazon.com.  What’s more, you’ll get advice beyond the short-term – cross-training and weight training for things you may lack that won’t be included in your internet coaching regimen.   And, unlike Chris Carmichael, it comes without all the syrupy, creepy, awful motivational mantra.

Internet coaching is really just another of Lance Armstrong’s myths.  You can be fast(er), and you don’t have to follow Lord Voldemort or Stephen Covey to get there.  As Eddy Merckx said, “Ride lots!”

Tour of California

As far as epic rides, the route taken by Stage 7 of the Tour of California has to be in the top five toughest I've ever attempted.  With over 10,000 feet of climbing in 78 miles, it's equivalent to many of the mountain-top stages in the Grand Tours.  Yesterday, I started from home (adding another 10 or so miles) and tried to ride it, and except for the section of 39 through Azusa Canyon (Saturday traffic from a host of alcohol-guided vehicles chased me to the safety of the support car for 15-20 miles of relative flat road with no shoulder), I finished...although not without a great deal of difficulty.

The climb starts up Euclid and quickly gets steep as it climbs up the Mt. Baldy road, topping out after 4000 feet of grinding on Glendora Ridge.

What follows is one of the most enjoyable pavement descents I've ever ridden, 20 miles of twisty asphalt that doesn't require over-braking.

After jumping in the car and shuttling to Glendora Mountain Road, Part 2 of the climb began.  6000 feet of total climbing, with about the last 2500 feet scrunched into the final 3.5 miles.  If not for the support and encouragement of my family, I probably would have abandoned...

Yeah...that's what it felt like.  This was my favorite view:

Knobby Time Finals

Let me start off by giving a huge congratulations to Steve Sealy, who had never raced a mountain bike before this spring.  It's been great having you participate with us in all these rides, your enthusiasm is infectious, and you've improved tremendously!

Take a look at Steve showing us how to take the S-bend in the singletrack, he got through it quicker than any of us:

I'm very proud of the boys this weekend, despite the heat and an extra lap, they hung in and capped a great series.  Jeff fought back from going out a little too hard on the start and finished second in the race, and third in points for the series.

This was a tough course for Sam...heat and endurance.  The winner in his group was riding a 34x30 gear, if that tells you anything.  But he stuck it out...and was rewarded by winning the Open SS overall for the series!

My race...fast for 3 laps, then detonation.  I was 39 seconds out of the lead, then just couldn't suffer anymore.  The last 2 laps were hell, and I just finished, getting passed by the sport riders.  I ended up second in the series overall, and I have to say this was tough, but REALLY fun!

Ergon Bar Ends

OK, just let me state right up front that I'm an old fart, and this probably is painfully obvious to everyone else, but these things have had me befuddled for some time.

The Ergon bar end/grip combo GC3 (now replaced by the GP5) has an aluminum ring on the inside with 2 different diameters.  The inner ring (larger diameter) fits over the grip handle, and with the plastic sleeve, it feels like you've pushed it on the handle bar all the way.  Don't be fooled like me.  No matter how tight I wrenched it down, the bar ends were still loose (one time the whole grip came off in Jeff's hand while descending!).

It's the damn outer ring that clamps to the bar, but the diameter is significantly smaller than the standard XC bar, so you need to pound a screwdriver into the expansion slot to get the ring to open up enough to slide over the bar.

When installed correctly, the expansion slot, is...well...really expanded.

Damn I'm old!

Venus Transit at JPL

Fortunately, my job gives me the opportunity to play a little.  One of the astronomers brought three of his personal telescopes to the lab and set them up for all to enjoy yesterday's transit of the sun by the planet Venus.  The work part meant researching filter densities and examining a home-built solar filter for pinholes.  The fun part was getting a great view.

Bonelli

To my legs, this was a tough course.  What felt like a momentum course wasn't, or at least I couldn't carry much momentum.  Possibly too much caffeine pre-race, because I felt awful on the start and got mired in traffic for the first section of singletrack.  Time to install the new tires, too.  I've been putting it off, but I had no traction on the rear, either up or down.

But enough about me (who cares anyway?): Sam and Jeff both had great nights and have caught the racing fire again!  We guessed correctly on Sam's gear (32x19) and he powered the climbs and took home his first podium finish.  Jeff just missed the podium in 4th, but is doing great as a JV rider against the varsity kids.

And he got the photo finish of the day, captured by the Queen:

Pavement is definitely more dangerous than dirt!

Progress

Feeling a little better, though not losing any weight.  Racing at Glendora is definitely a great way to train.  I kept it in middle all four laps going up the pavement climb and cut 5 minutes off my race time.  Two other riders were racing me the whole way, one caught me last lap right at the top of the pavement, but I snuck past him going into the singletrack and was gone.  He ended up getting passed on the downhill by a guy on a hucker bike; I ended up 3rd out of 5 riders in Expert 35++.  Omar is definitely putting on a good show.

Rode 50 miles of flat dirt yesterday, got sunburned, but generally felt OK.  Two laps, plus climbing up from the museum twice, then riding to Gramma and Pop's had me ready to hit the grill.  Maybe that's why I'm not losing any weight...

Glendora Downhill Video #2

The second clip shows from the top of the pavement climb down to the park.

Both videos can be viewed in HD on YouTube at (#1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEO-6SpES2E&feature=plcp, or (#2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yd1LH_kLDfs&feature=plcp.

I should give some cheers to Omar at Cycle Events Company for putting on a very well-organized, fun race series on Thursday evenings.  The new trail that has been cut is excellent!



Glendora Trail, 1st Downhill Video

Riding behind Sam & Jeff on the first downhill section at South Hills Park:

As the trail gets more torn up, the grip went away.  With Jeff riding Small Block 8s, he skidded through the switchbacks.

Back After 2 Years

Back on the pedals after two years away...Sam, Jeff and I took the start at Glendora Thursday evening, but without the familiar "Goooooooooo!" from the Don.

The course at Glendora is short, 3.3 miles per lap, but with two big climbs, four laps was plenty.  Q signed me up as Cat 1, so I was in for it.  All good, though: even with relatively sparse training, my average lap time would have put my on the podium in Cat 2 for my age group.  Demi's support was awesome; I had asked for a gel shot at the end of lap 2, and she had another ready for last lap, without which I would have bonked.

Sam was overgeared and undertrained, and will stick to the high school category from now on.  Open SS is where all the fast guys ride.  Buddy, we're heading out today for a ride to get you back in shape!  I know how fast you really are.

Jeff was on his new Voodoo from Mountain Outfitters for maybe the third time this spring.  You'd have never known it the way he rode...wow!  His lap average was only 30 seconds off my pace, I've got a feeling I'm going to be watching him disappear in front of me VERY SOON!

Steve took the start of his first-ever MTB race and came in fourth in his group, just one spot off the podium.  I'm hoping he had fun...he's doing really well.