Hammer Nutrition Products

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Bob Speaks - Introduction and Sentiments

I would like to thank Bob Brooks for composing tonights team/club entry:  Please feel free to email Bob at altrdstats51@yahoo.com

Who is Bob Brooks?: He is currently acting as my cycling coach
Profile:
mtb racing 1990-1996
Road Racing since 1994
Coaching since 1995
Personal Training since 1997
Spinning instructor since 1999
Current USA Cycling Level 3 (Club) Coach

Road: Category 2
Track: Category 3

A smattering of wins through the years. Larger
successes have been in season long points
competitions.
4th overall Indiana Race Series Masters 35+ in 1997
3rd overall IRS Masters 35+ in 2000
2nd overall IRS Masters 35+ in 2004
1st overall IRS Masters 35+ in 2005

Currently work as an environmental consultant by day
and a fitness consultant by early morning and evening.
Also occasionally take on freelance writing
assignments.

JT was instrumental in my becoming a racing cyclist.
for it was he who first showed the way toward
organized training and overcoming suffer-induced self
doubts. JT and his father, Walter T, are two of my
very best friends. Thanks guys.

Cumberland Cycling Crew- An Address From Bob Brooks:

JT asked me to write some training tips for your blog. Thanks JT and thank you all for reading this and subsequent entries. I am honored to share training tips with such an enthusiastic group. If this weather ever breaks, I plan to come down your way for a weekend of riding. Your area is one of my favorite areas in the entire country. You are blessed with fine terrain and low traffic. I'll remind you to appreciate those great cycling benefits. 

While coaching other cyclists, by far the most questions I receive from athletes revolve around how to train in the fall and winter; the 'off' season. In today's world of cycling however, there really is no 'off' season. While it is good to take a week or two away from structured training after a long season of racing, experts such as Chris Carmichael advocate getting right back to your training routine no later than November 1. With career, family, church, volunteer and other responsibilities tugging at our time, we simply don't have the luxury of taking extended periods of time away from training. In middle age, maintaining and building on the fitness you have is much easier than letting it all go, only to re-establish the same fitness level by the time the following season ends. In that scenario, you never get any better. So this first entry will offer suggestions on how to get better from season to season.

Many struggle with what to focus on during the winter months and end up training with no focus and no end goal in sight. It's been sort of a haphazard, go-with-the-flow type of
approach to merely get through the winter. Here's my take. Winter is the time to make improvements (gains) for the coming year.

For most of us, time is such a constraint that we do the group rides or track (velodrome) training through the meat of the season and then race on weekends. And let's face it, we all have egos the size of Texas, so none of us are gonna push hard enough on the group rides to blow up and get dropped. Blowing up and getting dropped means riding beyond our limits, which in turn, pushes us to new levels of fitness. So with our egos
anchoring us to the pack, specific training for improvement is very limited during the race season. I hope this makes sense to everyone. In this scenario, it is critical to take advantage of the winter months, to not only maintain, but to improve your strength and power, your fitness level on the bike. Now is the time you make gains.
Many coaches, including Eddie Monnier at http://www.velo-fit.com, Rick Stearn at http://www.cyclecoach.com, among so many others, suggest that while VO2 Max is largely genetic, bike racers can improve the most important indicator of success, that being power output at lactate threshold. Monnier states, "Lactate threshold is an important indicator of endurance cycling performance. Put simply, the bigger your engine, the less taxed you will be at a given effort and the more you will have left when it comes to crunch time in the race."

You can build a bigger engine by doing lactate threshold intervals twice a week. It's a simple protocol. You don't even have to be on the trainer for more than 60 minutes. You warm up for 15 minutes, then ride in your zone 4-5a for 30 minutes, and finally, cool down for 15 minutes. If you are just starting out, you may want to break up the interval into 2X15-min. with 3-min. recovery between each interval. For those uncertain of their zone 4-5a, email me at altrdstats51@yahoo.com and I'll help you establish your training zones. I'm an email away.

Now, this post is getting long, but one other topic needs discussion. The workout above may seem a little intense. The old myth of doing too much intensity during winter still clings to many amateur racers. Guys and gals, we don't race enough to suffer burnout. We don't race 180 days a year, or whatever it is the pros do. And we don't ride 6 hours every day. Furthermore, from LeMond in his 1986 book to Carmichael today, every coach advocates maintaining some intensity through the winter. With the limited amount of time we have available, we have to capitalize on it with quality, not quantity. Improve speed, build a bigger engine; don't be afraid to push yourself now. On that note, I'll close with a favorite quote:

It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena (on his trainer); whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood (think Paris-Roubaix); who strives valiantly; who errs, and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming; who does actually try to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion and spends himself in a worthy cause (winter improvement); who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly.

Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits (anchored to the pack on training rides) who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither
victory nor defeat.


Some favorite quotes:

"Rope. The gods have a great sense of humor don't
they? If you lack the iron and fizz to take control of
your own life, if you insist on leaving your fate to
the gods, then the gods will repay your weakness by
having a grin or two at your expense. Should you fail
to pilot your own ship, don't be surprised at what
inappropriate port you find yourself docked. The dull
and prosaic will be granted adventures that will dice
their central nervous systems like an onion, romantic
dreamers will end up in the rope yard.....
    "The price of self destiny is never cheap, and in
certain situations it is unthinkable. But to achieve
the marvelous, it is precisely the unthinkable that
must be thought." --- Tom Robbins, "Jitterbug
Perfume."

"Men have looked away from themselves and at things so
long that they have come to esteem the religious,
learned and civil institutions as guards of property,
and deprecate assaults on these, becasue they feel
them to be assaults on property. They measure their
esteem of each other by what each has, and not by what
each is." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Cumberland Cycles News - First Race Possibly on Ice

With the cold weather pattern we've been in - it appears to be likely that the Godzulla Race on February 10 will be postponed to February 24.  If the current extended forecast for Saturday continues to hold - even if they conduct the race - I do not plan to attend.  This early season race just isn't important enough to drive three hours up and three hours back only to race in temps less than 30F.  There are many more races within the next few weeks - so this will be no big loss.  If - by some Universal Intervention - the forecasted temps for the Cincy Area improve - I will certainly go do the race.  For now it does not look good. 

We are planning to conduct a club Time Trial on Feb 25 and we will post a flyer soon. So this may be our "first event" as a team and that would be nice as well.  With this cold weather - I think everybody's miles have dropped and we don't want to kill ourselves to get to a sanctioned race so early in the season especially when none of us have been training particularly hard. 

If the Godzulla race does not work out for us - our next official event will be the first road race in the Kentucky/Indiana Spring Training Series:  March 3

Regardless of the weather and/or if some of us get to go to the Godzulla Event - the team will be riding Friday Saturday and Sunday this coming weekend.  I will post times later in the week.

YELLOW FLAG CLUB RIDE/FOUNDATION RIDE
If you are a beginning cyclist or simply have not  been training for a while - please join us for a foundation ride. We will organize a ride as soon as we get a favorable forecast. If the temps are not predicted to be above 40 F by the start time of the ride - it will be canceled. This will be a completely non-agressive ride consisting of 10 to 15 miles at a tolerable place.

ONLINE TRAINING LOG
Try this:  It is very neat!   http://www.bikejournal.com/

OUR TEAM GOAL FOR 2007
Start several experienced riders in the 2007 Tour De London

IN GENERAL
If you have any questions about bicycle road racing or training - please feel free to contact me or any other active cyclist that you know.  We have a great bunch of people riding for us and we are having a lot of fun!!!!  And we ain't even racing yet!

Bob Speaks - (JTs "Coach")

JT,

    I'm glad you called tonight. Let's definitely do
some riding together over your spring break. I had
been contemplating going to Texas to do something
called Hell week  http://www.hellweek.com

I don't like the idea of driving two full days to get
there and two full days to get home. I'd like to only
be one day away from home. I really like the idea of
coming down your way for a couple days and then
heading to Walter's place. We can hit races on the
weekend before we go and on the weekend that ends your
spring break. Maybe kyiana one weekend, TN the other;
or vice versa. Maybe throw a day in over in NC or just
go down and climb Clingman's Dome.

Ok, check these web sites for other races:
http://www.ohiovalleyracing.org
http://www.teamcolumbus.org
http://www.2wheelsports.com
http://www.indianaraceseries.com
http://www.ambikerace.com
http://www.truesport.com   (this one has regional
calendars)

the 2wheelsports has a nice weekend of racing in new
albany, IN may 20 or so

there is the stage race by your dad's house over
Memorial Day

We have a RR in morgan monroe state forest on June 3
Louisville has races June 10/11 - one crit, one
circuit race in cherokee park

June 24 is another race up in the morgan monroe state
forest just north of Bloomington, IN.

Usually a crit in madison, IN in early July
most of the rest of July is taken up by Super Week up
near Milwaukee - like July 7-23 or something like
that. we can plot schedules when we do our road
training trip.

Gotta hit the hay

Bob

An Interesting Winter Expedition - Club Ride

SIX DAYS LEFT UNTIL OUR SEASON OPENER!   Godzulla Cycling Challenges

With the arctic weather pattern we've all been in - to think that the average high temperature for this time of the year is 46 F is unbelievably warm!!!  46 F would seem like a heat wave to us now!!!! 

Despite the very cold temps- Harvey Jack Brad and JT got out for a club ride on Saturday and rode our hilliest circuit - Piney Grove - White Lilly - Hanyes Knob.  The high temp was 30 F and some of the north-facing inclines were covered in solid sheets of ice!!!  The hill up to Piney Grove and also the one up to Rock Knob were un-ride-able and saw at least three of the four of us walking up the hills - skating as it were - in our cleats!  Only Brad - our Mountain bike guru was able to stay upright on the ice! (at the amazment of the rest of us) Harvey and JT both went down on the ice!  The wind was also formidable!!!  It almost blew some of us right off the road!  But in terms of it being too cold - it wasn't and we all stayed warm - basking in the internal glow of great cycling enthusiasm! Harvey's remark made perfect sense - it wasn't any colder cycling in this weather than it would be skiing!  What a great way to look at it!

The four of us stayed together and had a very nice and exciting ride.  The last ten miles saw Harvey go to the front to give the rest of us a long free ride back in to town with Jack hammering the last significant climb.  Brad broke clear in the last 300 meters!

ONLINE TRAINING LOG
Try this:  It is very neat!   http://www.bikejournal.com/

IN GENERAL
If you have any questions about bicycle road racing or training - please feel free to contact me or any other active cyclist that you know.  We have a great bunch of people riding for us and we are having a lot of fun!!!!  And we ain't even racing yet!

AS ALWAYS
Support Cumberland Cycles

club racng

Early Races

 updated:  January 28 - 2007
Cumberland Cycling Crew /Race Calendar
Feb 10 Road Race
March 3 L'Esprit Road Race
March 10 Henryville Classic 
March 17 Green River Road Race
March 24 Clark State Forest
April 7 Louisville Fire Fighters
April 15 US Navy Criterium
April 21 Lexington Spring Circuit Race

TeamColumbus races

The Cumberland Cycles Team - 2007

From Left to Right:

Jonathon Thompson - Mark Henry - Harvey Scheleter - Brad Herman - Adam Borne - Jack Evans - Mark Travis (shop owner/sponser/team mechanic) - David Howard -

Many of our team/club members were unable to make short notice team photo oppertunity and I will list them all at a later time.

 

The Commonwealth Journal News Paper - Susan Weeldon contacted me Wednesday night and wanted to write an article about our team in the up and coming issue of one of their publications.  I suppose those reporters are somewhat overworked because she said that she had a deadline for Friday Morning! So Jack Evans and Marc Travis and I scrambled around to make a few phone calls in order to get a team photo done at the bike shop Thursday evening at 545 PM.  I am sorry that we did not have more notice for those who would have liked to have taken part but we had a good turnout with as little as 6 hours notice!  Even though the reporters deadline is on Friday - the CJ is sending out their top notch photographer to get some "action" photos of the team for Saturdays ride (weather permitting).  The CJ will compose a good article about our team in one of their magazine publications so I hope we get a good turn out for Saturdays ride so Dennis can get some good photos of all of us! 

Saturdays ride will start at the Vision Center at 12 Noon and since it is supposed to be cold - we will keep the miles down to about 20 or 30.  Please plan to attend wearing Cumberland Cycling clothing (if at all possible) so we can have a good photo session!  If you don't have CCC gear - show up anyway as we want all of our riders to participate! This article will be a great way for us to attract new riders to our cause and that is one of our "missions".

OUR FIRST ROAD RACE - FEB 10

A Club Time Trail will be held on Feb 25 at Barnsburg - a flyer will be published soon

The important KY/IN Spring Training Series begins on March 3

YELLOW FLAG CLUB RIDE/FOUNDATION RIDE
If you are a beginning cyclist or simply have not  been training for a while - please join us for a foundation ride on Saturday - February 3 at 9 AM from Barnsburg Church.  If the temps are not predicted to be above 40 F by the start time of the ride - it will be canceled. This will be a completely non-agressive ride consisting of 10 to 15 miles at a tolerable place.

As the days get longer - we will schedule many more foundation rides!!!  But for now - we will have at least one ride every weekend until the weather and daylight time improves!  This weeks ride will be hosted by JT - and David Howard.

RECENT RIDES:
With the cold weather - not much as a team has been going on.  Thursday nights at Total Rehab has been ongoing

UP AND COMING TEAM RIDES
Friday Feb 2:  Brad and JT plan to ride 40 at about noon
Saturday: Feb 3 - newspaper photos- 25-30 miles @VisionCenter at 12 Noon - CCC Jerseys if possible
Sunday:Feb 4  - cold weather - TBA

IN GENERAL
If you have any questions about bicycle road racing or training - please feel free to contact me or any other active cyclist that you know.  We have a great bunch of people riding for us and we are having a lot of fun!!!!  And we ain't even racing yet!

AS ALWAYS
Support Cumberland Cycles