I know that downtime, transitional periods and times off the bike are important for staying sharp, motivated and keen to train for the next big race but it’s hard not to panic when I look at that black line that shows my fitness rapidly declining since that moment I climbed off my bike on top of Mt Hotham ten days ago.
All my hard earned fitness … is vanishing!
As I write this there is a glass of French red wine sitting next to me. Earned! The sleep-ins? Well deserved! The Italian cheese earlier? Definitely worked for that one!
The last ten days were taken up by cleaning and preparing the house for my parent’s arrival, the turmoil of my parent’s arrival, the purchase of a new car, tour guiding and chaperoning my parents around in the new car and getting some Christmas preparation done. Notice a distinct new theme?
This paragraph does not include any of my usual words as per my twitter cloud for 2009: ride, time, coffee, training and morning!
So let’s fix this: While I’m not starting my training tomorrow, I will meet with friends early in the morning to ride to McAfees and we’ll have coffee in Ashgrove afterwards. A friend sent an email around earlier today that we should get together before everybody breaks up for the silly season.
I can’t wait and hope that lots of people will show up!
Next week I’ll sit down and work on my training plan for 201o … and next year I’ll start training again.
For now I enjoy my holidays and ride when I feel like and try not to worry too much about that fitness graph.
Tonight I remembered a story in a cycling magazine that I read a while ago. The author, and I’m quoting very loosely here because I cannot remember, which magazine it was, wrote that ‘it didn’t matter what place you finish in a race but as what person you roll over the finish line’.
While I like the notion, I thought of it as a real ‘looser statement’. Come on! “Sorry, I didn’t win but I’m a much better person for trying”. Of course you are, we are, everybody is! It’s stating the obvious.
But.
We line up to win!
Alberto asked me on that long drive back from Bright to Melbourne what the most memorable moment was of this year’s Tour of Bright. Crossing the finishing line on top of Mt Hotham, of course, was just as emotional as last year but there were a few experiences along the road that will stay with me for some time to come.
2009 has been a rollercoaster year and the 2009 Tour of Bright was some sort of culmination of great challenges and some unexpected achievements, extending past who I think I was and what I was able to do, and not just on the bike.
I didn’t win and I don’t know whether I’m a better person now but I stepped up and that’s the most memorable thing about the past couple of days and maybe the past 12 months. 2009 wasn’t a bad year at all and the 2009 Tour of Bright … well, I’m still trying to find the words to describe this amazing experience.
Boo Bicycles owner Nick Frey piloted his Boo R (SRAM Red, Edge Composites 1.68 carbon fiber wheels, and Edge Composites bar, stem, fork, and seatpost) to a convincing victory at the Vuelta Miami out of a final break of six, outlasting a trio of Team Coco’s riders as well as Yosvony Falcon, a new rider for the Bahati Foundation Cycling Team.
Out of a field of over 150 riders, Frey was able to cruise his bamboo and carbon-framed Boo R to the front and create a decisive break of 13 in a cross-wind section, then whittle the break down to six in the return trip. After a hard headwind section, Frey was able to make the jump from the final two-rider selection to solo in for the win.
“It tugs at my heartstrings to have Boo Bicycles seeing the big time,” said Frey. “We’ve spent two years refining bamboo bicycle framesets, transforming them from a curiosity into a bicycle capable of winning big races. It is every bit as comfortable as a titanium frame, yet just as stiff as a top carbon bike. Bamboo has a one-of-a-kind road feel that works for everyone serious about riding. It is snappy yet smooth and inspires confidence through corners.”
Frey is in Miami for training as well as visiting local bicycle shops through November 17th and will be riding in the upcoming Horrible Hundred Century on Sunday, November 15 in Clermont, Florida.
It was an incredibly windy Sunday morning in western Miami, a tepid 75 degrees and sun, and I was ready to race my Boo R (with Edge 1.68 wheels, bar/stem/fork/post, and Sram Red!) after a couple months without a number pinned.
The race instructions were entirely in rapid-fire Spanish, so I went just decided to follow a bit, see what the rules were like, and enjoy the event. That said, I set out to WIN–this was a huge deal for me because it’s the first and last race I can do with my Boo R after I must ride Jamis starting January 1st, 2010. Oh, I forgot to mention the SEVEN THOUSAND DOLLARS CASH on the line
The neutral was an actual NEUTRAL, unlike most crashfests before kilometer zero, and it was great because we started at 8AM and I had just rolled out of bed and suited up about 90 minutes before. Unfortunately I was without coffee, but I had a couple Espresso Love Gu’s and I was awake.
The wind was SERIOUS–30-40mph sustained–and blowing east to west. And the race had a net elevation change of 7.3 feet. DEAD flat. So when the neutral was cruising along at 30+ going west, and I saw the race start and the lead vehicles turn right up ahead, I made SURE to sprint up the left and get in the front.
After a couple attacks in the crosswind, I was carrying momentum from about 30 back and decided to roll it at 95% in the gutter. Sure enough, that was all she wrote, and our selection of 13 was off and rotating. It was never easy, but never super hard, just LONG and BORING because there was absolutely no resting. I was breathing through my nose the entire time, and the legs felt pretty good, thank you very much Colorado!
It was a windy course through a grid the had a turn-around 35 miles in, so it was good because I knew what was coming after the turn-around. Sure enough, a couple of the 13 rolled off about 40 miles in and got 50m. I decided to drive it in the gutter and bridge up, and that was probably the hardest part of the race, but it was fun just taking three guys with me and getting the group down to just six.
The six of us rolled quite well, and the only guy I knew in the group was Yosvony Falcon, an excellent rider who was with Toshiba in 2008 and will be on Bahati’s new team in 2010. VERY smart and quick rider, so I was a bit worried about him. Three guys were on the same team, Coco’s, and another guy in a Pro Bike Kit jersey and black shorts. It was a good group that worked very well together from mile 40 until just before the finish at mile 72.
Coming back in, I knew I had great legs and started to get my internal smile going–I knew it was my race to lose, I just needed to be smart and not play my hand until everyone had gone all-in. A Coco’s guy attacked with a couple miles of INSANE headwind left, and I bridged up to him and rolled it as hard as I could to get a larger gap. He sat on, having two teammates behind, but he also said in broken English, “No spreent, no spreent!”. I’ve definitely heard that before, and although I believed him, I made sure he rolled through in the headwind a couple times.
With the finish in site, but a LONG last kilometer, I had him get in the front for 20 seconds and then I jumped and sprinted and came in solo.
The win meant a lot to me because I could tell it was a huge event for the local fans and riders, and because I really showed that Boo is a great race bike that can WIN. It’s very stiff and efficient, and being able to jump hard into a crosswind to latch onto another rider is so important in a race like the Vuelta Miami. Mostly, I am just happy to be able to come to dealers now and say that yes, it’s not just a pretty face–this thing can be ridden FAST.
Having Tyler Wren up at the Cycle Smart Invitational, battling Adam Craig for 10th until the unfortunate final-lap flat, is great as well!! It tugs at my heartstrings to have Boo seeing the big time
I got attacked four times during a short two hour training ride to McAfees lookout. That was a week ago.
Twice by busses on Waterworks Road and once by a magpie. The forth attack was something else, a grey bird, a touch smaller than a magpie and after some googling I believe it was a Butcher Bird.
Last weekend I did the same ride and stayed well clear of the aggressive busses but had an unexpected close call with a soccer mum driving her son to school. She just wouldn’t allow me an inch of the road.
I was, however, prepared for my friend Bully Butcher Bird just before the bus depot on the bottom of the climb.
I kept my eyes out for him when I hit the slight incline that, from my experience, marked the start of his territory. I kept looking up above and behind but could not spot him.
Just last week I had read a brilliant article about the habits of swooping birds in the most recent Australia Geographic magazine and according to their research you are less likely to get attacked when you face the bird. So here I was head up in the air, waiting for the attack and - nothing. Half way up and no bird in sight.
“The research is right or he might be still asleep” I thought to myself when the familiar wings flapped around my ears and my helmet got tapped by his beak. Even having anticipated it, it gave me a little scare. I faced him and he flew off, just like the article had said. I kept looking up and behind but no bird in sight? Little shit! And again - tap tap - on my helmet. How come I could’t see him in the shadow on the road? I could see my own shadow as the sun was behind me but not the bird sneaking up on me from above. From above? And then I spotted him, right behind my rear wheel, flying just inches above the road.
What a smart little cookie, he’s got it worked out, drafts on you like a Pro and then flies up from below. And I swear I saw a big grin on his little face.
He had fun and so had the school kids that were waiting at the bus stop across the road.
***
Here are some interesting facts from the Australian Geographic magazine:
1. Only up to 12% of magpies are swoopers.
2. They are very specific about who they aim for, 11% only target postal workers, 8% only target cyclists and 52% swoop pedestrians only. Some even target only specific individuals, e.g. one family member, and leave others in peace.
3. Nearly all swooping magpies are male.
4. There are two recorded deaths caused by magpie attacks. In 1946 a 13 year old boy died of tetanus after an attack and a man died in Outback Australia because the beak penetrated the neck and cut his spinal cord.
5. Most birds swoop from behind to intimidate. They keep doing it because most of the time they get rewarded. They swoop - you leave their territory. They are successful.
6. People have successfully befriended swooping magpies by feeding them.
7. Humans are just another predator for them and they attack to protect their offspring. Swooping a human is low level risk, compared to, for example, swooping a fox.
8. 5000 Swoop! packs, containing false eyes stickers and warning posters, have been sold since 1995. Research has shown that false eyes don’t help cyclists.
Kim Flesser, one of the very experienced sprinters in the club who regards being called “sandbagger” an honour, was right next to me. We had just past the start/finish area of the Lakeside race circuit for the very last lap. The 40 minutes prior I had suffered. The bell came as a surprise because my mind had switched to auto pilot while I was surviving lap after lap, up the hill, into the wind, brief downhill, up the second hill, pass the start/finish and again.
“Hey Kim, how are you feeling? Are you going to win this?”
I had no particular intentions when I threw the question at him and it was certainly not the time for light conversation.
” Get on my wheel, Sandra. I don’t know about winning but I can get you ahead of the other girls.”
His voice was matter of fact, calm and reassuring. Something in my brain switched and there was none of my usual hesitation. 2 km to the finish of this race and I trusted his wheel. I just zoomed in on the task at hand. A young guy might have overheard our brief conversation because he started heckling for Kim’s wheel in the carousel. I was on the inside, protected by him from the wind and for once I forgot about my fears of crashing. He wasn’t going to get my wheel.
Leading up to the final climb up the steeper hill it got messy and Kim drifted towards the middle of the bunch. I lost his wheel but was so focused on staying with him that I attacked on the inside of the track, went hard around one guy and gave it all, overtook several more riders as the space in front of me opened up and almost puked when I reached the top. Kim was already descending, about ten meters ahead of me.
It took me a tenth of a second to scan the few people in front and there was definitely no other girl in sight. I didn’t dare to look back, just ignored the sick feeling and dove down the hill into the finishing straight at 60 km/h. The straight seemed endless and I started to fade but the advantage was enough to get me over the line ahead of the other girls and even more satisfying, ahead of a whole bunch of guys, too.
Kim crossed the line in third place.
With the ride out to Lakeside and back home I have ridden 75 solid kilometers this morning. Now I will have to get ready for a 15 km time trial this afternoon. The past few years, Stage Two has always been a shock to the system at the Tour of Bright as it come on the back of the 78 km Stage One with a mere four or five hours of recovery in between the races. Not this year! This year my body will know what’s expected.
The Upper Midwest received its first real prelude to winter over the past few days. Here in the Twin Cities we’ve gotten about 4 inches of snow so far, and I know that South Dakota and Nebraska have gotten snowed on as well.
While we know that this snow will melt and that we’ll have some Indian summer days (at least we hope so!) this confirms that winter will not be far behind.
For cyclists, that means indoor training. And while many cyclists might be bummed out about having to go inside, I prefer to look at it as not only “the way it is,” but also that it’s time to get back to work.
Most riders are officially in their “off-season” now, and that means doing the work over the next several months to lay the foundation for a fantastic 2010 season. Much of our improvement comes during the off-season, and training indoors is a great way to focus our training.
No more long, lazy endurance rides outside. Instead, the off season is a time to improve our cycling VO2 Max, our efficiency on the bike, our threshold and our cycling strength. Most indoor rides will be shorter, but the focus and the dedicated effort will make each of us a much better cyclist.
So get ready for lots of quality indoor training!
I’m here to offer you guidance and support this off season, so stick with me. But for now, GET OUT AND RIDE!
Lance is a lightning rod. People either love him or hate him. With Lance, there’s no middle ground. One thing you CAN say about Lance though, is that he has re-ignited interest for cycling, for the Tour and the other races he does, namely the Leadville Trail 100.
The key feature of this 100 mile MTB race (aside from the fact that it is a 100 mile MTB race) is that the entire race course is above 10,000 feet elevation. So in addition to the difficulty of the distance and the race itself is the altitude, which for many riders is a complete “wild card.”
This race has been around for quite some time but its visibility has really increased in the last several years. Floyd Landis put the race “on the map” for the general public when he raced it in 2007 (to be beaten by 6-time champ David Wiens). Lance raced Leadville for the first time in 2008, and he also took 2nd to Wiens and all of a sudden, everyone knew about Leadville.
Shortly after the 2008 race, Lance announced his intentions to get back into the pro peloton and to race the 2009 Tour de France. So Leadville 2008 was the jumpstart to Lance’s return.
We all know about Lance’s 2009 season, including his 3rd place finish in the Tour. He also announced he would race Leadville again in 2009, so the race’s visibility increased exponentially.
Lance dethroned Dave Wiens in convincing fashion, crushing the field. Here’s a very cool video of Lance’s post-race awards speech:
Love him or hate him, Lance has done wonders for our sport and for the Leadville race! In fact, Hollywood has jumped on the Lance + Leadville story and made a movie, which comes out in late October. Here’s a link to the trailer. It looks very cool:
Lance is a lightning rod for admiration, for criticism and for publicity. He’s raised awareness (and millions of dollars) for cancer through his Livestrong Foundation (http://www.livestrong.org/), for the Leadville Trail 100’s “Race Across the Sky” (http://www.leadvilletrail100.com/). So love him or hate him, we should all say “Thank you“ to Lance.
I’ve been out of touch for the past couple weeks, and I apologize. Some things came up that required much of my time and attention and couldn’t be avoided. Sorry about that, but I’m back so let’s get going!
Tomorrow’s post will focus on the “Transition” period, which is that 2-4 week time period following your final key event. So don’t miss it.
I’m happy to be back!
In other news, keep tuned in for some exciting off-season programs that will help you come out of the winter fitter, faster and more ready for the upcoming cycling season than ever! I’ll start unveiling these within the next few days.
Please contact me with any questions, then GET OUT AND RIDE!
The next few weeks include some big events in the MN/WI area, including Ironman Wisconsin, the Chequamegon Fat Tire Fest MTB races and the Jesse James Days rides. These events will likely be the culmination of a full year of training and racing, and will end the season for many athletes.
The final taper is a critical component to going into these key events fit, fresh and race-ready. This taper is also a difficult time for many. After training long and hard, it’s tough for many athletes to back off and have a really, really easy day. And to ask them to have 2 easy days back-to-back is almost too much for them to bear.
However, these easy days are important to being ready for the event.
I’ll save the long-winded explanation for another time. Let’s get right to the nuts and bolts today.
We need to go into our key events both “fresh” and “fit.” We all understand the fit part. We’ve trained hard and have built up a huge base of fitness with this training. Along with this fitness, though, comes fatigue. And fatigue accumulates (and dissipates) faster than fitness.
Prior to the event, we must rid ourselves of as much fatigue as possible, while at the same time not losing fitness. And that’s really easier to do than most people think.
It essentially boils down to 2 factors:
Reduce training volume considerably over the final couple weeks (30% per week or more). Much of our training stress and fatigue is the result of hours in the saddle. So reducing our riding time allows our body to recover.
Maintain intensity, but at a reduced volume. Once we’ve built up a certain level of fitness, it doesn’t take much to maintain it. Therefore, over the final couple weeks do a “hard” workout every 2-3 days. And the “hard” work should involve less time and fewer intervals than in previous training. Again, reduce the volume by 30-50%.
And important to note is that the “easy” days should be short and total recovery rides, not adding any training stress at all.
Yes, there are other factors to consider, such as nutrition, and I’ll talk about that another time. It’s been my experience, however, that an athlete who really grasps the fresh/fit concept of the taper is about 90% of the way there. Everything else falls into place.
I’ll discuss this in more detail over the next several days. In the meantime, think about what questions/issues you have about tapering. Pass your questions along to me via the comment section below, then GET OUT AND RIDE!
If you answered ENDURANCE, you’re correct. The foundation for cycling performance is endurance. Yes, having the ability to ride at threshold for extended periods is important. Leg strength is important. Mental toughness is important. But these are all secondary to having superior endurance.
According to Merriam-Webster, ENDURANCE is defined as:
“The ability to withstand hardship or adversity; especially: the ability to sustain a prolonged stressful effort or activity <a marathon runner’s endurance>”
One of my new coaching clients is preparing for a century ride in a couple weeks and came to me a few weeks ago to help him fine-tune his training. He’s ridden a fair amount this year, with his longest ride so far being 70-75 miles.
I had scheduled an 80-90 mile ride this past weekend for him. He found a century and asked if it would be OK to ride it. I said yes, that it would offer him some good pacing and nutrition practice, so to go ahead and do it.
He rode it and did fine for 70 miles or so, then ran out of gas. He was somewhat disappointed in his effort and the fact that others kept going as he became fatigued and slowed down. To me it was no surprise and no coincidence that he fatigued when he got to the 70 mile point, or the length of his previous long ride.
His body had built up fatigue resistance to 70 miles, but to ask his body to go both longer and harder than he has gone previously was simply too much. Riding this century was a good eye opener for him as he plans for his key event. He now has a better idea of what his body is capable of, so he’ll have a better idea as to how to meter out his effort. He also learned about his calorie needs and may have to fuel himself a little differently.
And while most of his endurance is “in the bank” adding these miles to his legs will definitely help him.
The point is that cycling is an endurance sport, and to compete in long races and/or events we must build up the mental and physical endurance required. Top level cyclists ride 25,000 miles per year to build up the endurance (fatigue resistance) that’s necessary to compete at that level.
Most of us work and raise a family for a living, and don’t ride a bike for our paycheck. However, many of us are still competitive and want to ride well in relation to others around us. So if we compete in races or participate in centuries or charity rides, endurance is still the most important ability to develop.
Endurance is the foundation of our fitness pyramid. The wider our base of endurance, the higher we’re able to take our fitness peak. So while threshold and VO2 Max interval sessions are important, remember that endurance rides form the basis for everything else we do.
Add your comments below or email your questions to me. Then GET OUT AND RIDE!
It amazes me how he does this with his little paws, folding the corners over neatly in a concentrated effort, taking great care to cover up properly and making a cute little parcel, wrapping his poo into our bathroom mat. I knew immediately, when I walked into the bathroom, what kind of present awaited me inside the crunched up fabric on the floor. He is such a gentle cat. So while Trouble relapsed and even went one step further with his number two, I listened to Dad and Alberto and went out for training rides - yes training rides! - on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
The legs were so fresh after my involuntary taper that I even posted a few new best times, at Mt Coot-tha, Clear Mountain and my good old nemesis, a 900 meter incline of 8-9% on Eaton’s Crossing Road.
The start of the 2.3 km Mt Coot-tha climb
The best thing was that I had a ball. I loved attacking the hills, enjoyed going hard and pushing the pace, was keen to pedal and got great pleasure from the view on the top of Clear Mountain and while I was standing there, soaking in the view over the Brisbane and Lake Samsonvale, legs still burning from the 14% gradient, heart still pounding from the effort, I knew I wanted to ride Mt Hotham again.
View from Clear Mountain with Lake Samsonvale
I remembered the challenge Colin put to me a few weeks ago about writing down how I commit myself to ride Mt Hotham. While I was cycling back home via the quiet, undulating and rural Bunya Road I started thinking about the post.
It will be a worthwhile exercise and I started jotting my thoughts down today but right now I need to get some sleep so please stay tuned for my commitment shortly.
POM is signing on as a sponsor of the Garmin pro cycling team, and I must say I’ve become addicted to their juice mixed with my favorite water. It’s an expensive habit, but well worth the $$$.
This picture (from the team time trial on September 11th, 2009) much sums up my last race weekend of the season at the Univest Grand Prix in eastern Pennsylvania.
note: never ride a 108mm deep front wheel with a 19mm wide front tire in pouring rain and 30+mph wind gusts.
Thanks for postponing concern for your son, Dad–this is WAY better!!
Obviously, I don’t hate Mr Friel. Not as a person anyway but as a personification of training pressure and training frustration. Did you read his post on peak performance predictors? I read it sometime last week in that frame of mind … you know which one, right?
I believe his post would have motivated me at a different time with a different mind set but last week it just depressed me. I wanted to give up competitive cycling. For good! Why? Well, if I predicted my performance for the Tour of Bright based on the three questions he posed, I should do the wise thing and just forget about it.
1. Training consistency during the 12 weeks leading up to the A-priority race
It’s exactly six weeks till Bright and the past six weeks were marked by virus infections and life just happening and I probably missed more training sessions than I actually completed.
2. Suitability for type of race
I can’t climb for shit, never been a climber, never will be one. Climbing is probably my biggest limiter. The Tour of Bright suits my natural abilities like the proverbial pigs that are suited to flying.
3. Hunger
Well, in the past eight days I didn’t give a rat’s ass (Sorry Alberto!). I rode but didn’t train and my heart wasn’t in it. There was no fire in my belly, no want to push the limits, no yearning to get on the bike. The hunger was for chocolate, un-refined sugars and baked goods only and not even my new shoes could cheer me up. I read somewhere that sleep deprivation does that to you. So there I was, hanging head, frustrated, tired and emotional and Alberto said: “Let’s just go to Bright and have fun!” and it helped a little and then my Dad called and it was kinda psychic because I felt so down and sad and he said “I had to call because I felt you were down and sad” and he told me that crying is sometimes good but sometimes it’s not and sometimes it’s better to just hold you head high and keep your chin up, chest proud and positive and while talking to him my tears dried and a little smile returned and I loved my Mum and Dad for their wisdom, support and love.
I gained a whole new admiration for those strong people who care for their elderly parents or ill partners. Whatever AMR is telling you, I’m no Florence Nightingale material and Alberto is no difficult patient. Taking care of him is no work at all and he even insists on doing the dishes, can you believe it?
Despite ample of opportunity the cat chose not to pee on the bathroom mat anymore, for two days now already.
It must be time for me to snap out of this and move on, too.
Five days since that phone call and I am slowly emerging from my daze.
Even the cat was distraught. We are settling into a rhythm now. The bathroom mat gets washed in the mornings, hung outside in the sun during the day and put back on the bathroom floor in the evening. It doesn’t matter how careful we are, keeping the bathroom door closed. He somehow manages to sneak in and leaves another smelly example of how disturbing Alberto’s neck brace is to him. Today I decided to stop playing the game and we have no bathroom mat for now.
I found him sitting and starring at Alberto’s face the other morning, not scared, more stunned. I wonder what was going through his little head. Alberto had finally found a restful position in the armchair and had nodded off for a couple of hours, completely oblivious to the cat’s presence. Have I mentioned that Trouble adores Alberto?
Cycling hasn’t been on my mind since that phone call. The focus has shifted, priorities changed and the Tour of Bright, on the forefront of all my living, eating and breathing before - is now irrelevant.
There is no urge to ride my bike. It’s not that I’m scared of riding my bike on the road. Rather the contrary is the case.
I made arrangements to meet Daniel on Friday morning for the usual Riverloop, thought I keep up the feeling of normality. Sleep didn’t come easily that night and any thought of riding was dismissed at 3:30 am. My body was too tired, my mind too busy.
Saturday afternoon Alberto talked me into getting out and spinning my legs. He might have had ulterior motives, getting his German nurse out of the house for a couple of hours of solitude. Colin and I met at Nundah and cruised out to Nudgee Beach and back. Even though my body went through the well known motion and it was a pleasant ride, I felt indifferent and apathetic. We finished it off with a couple of sprints and Colin beat me twice and I suspect he let me win the third and last sprint. My whole body was sore, probably from the tension of the previous days.
Sunday afternoon at Nundah. It looked like rain but stayed dry!
Sunday I sat down and re-assessed my training. I thought it had completely derailed but after closer inspection not all is lost. The two weeks prior to Alberto’s accident I had managed reasonably solid 11 hours of training each. I had meant to top it off with another 13 hour training week with some quality threshold sessions before a well deserved rest week. It might not be ideal but I was able to change last week into my rest week and start a new training block.
For this week’s training program I planned solid 13 hours but none of the training sessions will be overly tough. I have turned the high intensity threshold sessions into less strenuous tempo workouts and see how my body reacts. If I can handle work, nursing and training and find the drive again then I can turn it up a notch.
I don’t need to make a decision about Bright now. I have not written it off, yet, but without focus and passion I don’t even need to think about training. The next few days will show. I can’t force it.
The moment I walked back into my office my mobile phone started ringing. The phone on the desk showed a missed call. The mobile phone display also showed a missed call and a voice message. I had only left my desk for a minute to fill my water bottle at the water fountain.
That morning, I was getting ready to go to work, Alberto and I had quarrelled. There had been tension in the air for the past couple of days because we were both shaken from the Saturday incident. A little thing about nothing and we hugged and said sorry before I left the house, and I’m glad we did.
At lunch time we spoke on the phone. Alberto said he was going to ride the Mt Nebo loop and I had asked him to be careful and call or text me when he is back home safe, a standard phrase we tell each other almost every day.
I put the water bottle down and picked up my mobile phone. It was 4:25 pm.
“Hi darling, can you write something down for me?” There was urgency in Alberto’s voice. I sat down, grabbed a pen and fumbled for some scrap paper while listening to Alberto babbling on, insanely happy, not making sense about something he needed me to write down.
“P E N … hold on … P E N T O X … have you got this?”
I had stopped listening and stopped writing, my brain working on overdrive.
“Where are you?”
“This is great stuff. Sorry, darling, I’m a bit high … they gave me morphine”
“Alberto! Where are you?”
My brain was desperately trying to make sense of it all.
“I’m OK. I’m OK. … nothing happened.” He was laughing.
“It’s all good” It was a forced laugh.
All of the sudden he was dead serious and sober, voice coarse and breaking “Royal Brisbane! I got hit by a car.”
Silence!
“Listen Sandra, no need to rush. I’m OK.” I was fighting back tears. “Go home, do your training, have a shower…”
“I’ll be there in half an hour”
And then I started the longest drive of my life. My brain was numb. What should have been a 20 minute drive turned into an eternal 45 minutes in peak hour traffic. Anxiety building with every red traffic light, the mind playing games with the little information I had, recollecting snippets of the phone conversation, ‘They gave me morphine’ and ‘I hurt my leg’ echoing through my head.
I thought I can handle stuff thrown at me. I’m a big girl.
When I arrived at the emergency almost an hour after the phone call they had just taken him for a scan. More waiting, anxiety eating me alive, I called Colin, barely able to stop the tears. Talking to him felt good and he was able to calm me down.
What a relieve, when a guy with a clipboard finally called my name. Alberto was awake, brace around his neck and some road rash. Seeing him hurt was heart-breaking.
It got late that night. I drove home when there was nothing else I could do in the hospital. I took two wrong turns and detoured home, had a shower, made sandwiches, grabbed a cycling magazine and some clothes for Alberto and went back to hospital. More scans, x-rays, tests … no results or confirmations but we knew that a rib was cracked and a vertebrae. I didn’t get much sleep that night. The day in the office the next day was tough.
We both haven’t slept much since Wednesday. The anxiety of the past 48 hours has drained all the energy from me.
Alberto got discharged from hospital yesterday afternoon and is recovering.
I baked muffins this afternoon and neighbors, who picked up Alberto’s bike from the fire station, dropped in for afternoon tea. Another friend visited. Things will return to normal. Soon.
Sitting in the coffee shop the other day, just talking and joking after an easy two hour ride with friends, my attention was drawn to this cyclist’s knees.
The aim of the CycleSkill coaching course is to provide new coaches with the skills to teach novice riders the essential skills to be able to participate in non-competitive events and encourage more people into the sport at beginner level.
A big ‘Thank You’ to Alex Bright and Adam Gill for presenting a really informative course last Saturday. The day flew by and before I knew it it was time to ride home. The only tiny little complaint I have was the lack of the black stuff throughout the day. Come on - we are all cyclists! We need our coffee!
The morning was spent in the courtyard classroom of the Chandler Velodrome.
We spoke about a coach’s code of ethics, training session planning, risk assessment and management, game sense, communication, planning and reviewing and legal obligations.
The afternoon was spent outside on our bikes with practical assessments and everybody got to prepare and present a mini training session while the rest of us played the part of beginner rider. It was fun. I picked ‘cornering’ as the skill to teach because it’s definitely a skill I need to practise myself.
Having learnt bike riding at the age of six without any other instructions apart from “Pedal!”, I realised how little I and cyclists in general practise skills. How much time would Tiger Woods spend in the driving range practising the tee off? Or how many times would Roger Federer repeat his serve, over and over, until it becomes effortless and perfect? How many times, as a six year old in the swimming pool, I had to do drills, floating device under the arms and just kicking the legs or floating device stuck under legs and just the arm movement? Cyclists always just go out and ride. None of my friends does any skill drills, at least I’m not aware of anybody doing them, except maybe Scott and Daniel who do their balancing drills at every red traffic light.
So yesterday before our 100 km Mt Mee, while waiting for Alberto to put on his shoes and lock the house, I did ‘figure eight’ drills in front of the house.
I wasn’t very happy with my practical coaching session. I didn’t explain how to corner properly and also missed to ask for feedback, but hey, I passed the practical assessment (I don’t think this course can actually be failed though) and now only have to send in my theoretical assessment, which means ‘homework’.
While I was going through the risk assessment question I wondered, whether I will be able to convincingly promote cycling to new riders, exposing them not just to the usual risks of weather, road hazards, bike handling skills of self and others and so on but also to the risks of deliberate and malicious abuse and assault on the road and - who knows - death? Too dramatic? I don’t think so.
Anyway: I got heaps out of the course, even if I should never actively coach. I’m keen to start coaching and I will certainly take the next course Coach Level 1 when it comes around.
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This paragraph does not include any of my usual words as per my twitter cloud for 2009: ride, time, coffee, training and morning!
