The dreaded side stitch

Here's a great article that helps to explain that awful and annoying side stitch and how to help prevent it!

http://www.active.com/triathlon/Articles/7-Ways-to-Fend-Off-the-Side-Stitch.htm?cmp=282&memberid=105524530&lyrisid=20968327

Core Body

I came to some very important realizations today as I was sitting in Whole Foods over what might possibly be the worst cup of tomato basil soup I have ever had.  1) I am fat, 2) I am out of shape, 3) this soup really does suck, and lastly 4)  I have the weakest core body known to man kind.

Today, for me at least, the training has started up again.  As the above facts mentioned it will be starting with nutrition, gym work/core body, and once I get home lots of time on the trainer/rollers/skiing.  My nutrition plan is easy, dont eat foods with words on the ingredients list that 4 or more syllables long.  Workout wise I took a page out of Lance Armstrong's book and tweeted that I was going to workout...and needed core body routines.  To my surprise a response came with two routines.

I will share one with you now.  It is from beginner triathlete.com. I dont know much, but I know this kicked my butt so give it a try.  I did 15 reps of each.  Here they are...

1. Standard Crunches
2. Half Up Crunches
3. Leg Lifts
4. Side Crunches (left side)
5. Side Planks with dips (left side)
6. Leg extensions (left side)
7. supermans
8. Planks with leg extensions
9. Push ups
10. Side Crunches (right side)
11. Side Plans with dips (right side)
12. Leg extensions (right side)
13. Heel touches
14. Bicyles (fitting no?)
15. Half ups with a twist

Well there it is.  With 15 each it is 325 various twisty turny crunch things.  I know this much, I wont be able to get out of bed in the morning.  As I said...weak core.  This will help.  Give it a try.  Have other good routines?  Share.

Gearing up for GMSR

*GMSR celebrates 10 years*

Sense the beginning of the season I've heard a lot about GMSR and this climb called APP Gap and rightfully so. GMSR is like the Tour de France of New England, with classic top of the mountain finishes, such as in stage three (App Gap). And now it is finally here Sept 3rd-6th.

Green Mountain Stage Race Website!!!!!!!

It defiantly has been a long season, with nonstop training and racing sense probably Jan. It has played a toll on many of the WOE racers and would be an epic finish with GMSR. Unfortunately with the long season and misfortunes, GMSR has slowly evaded the team. With individuals going to college, family commitments, burnouts, or simply just not having a bike to use. Out of a core of 7 to 8 races, only one remains to compete….myself (Jeff K). Tim is going to make the trip as well and run support for me and be in feed zones and help out when he can. Pretty much making the trip possible for me!

Getting ready for GMSR has been a little less than ideal seeing, I lost a few days to sickness after participating in a cold a rainy century and a colder TT. Not to mention having mechanical issues with my bike as well to throw in some extra stress. However, that has been cleaned up. So it’s been pretty much easy to moderate riding to get the legs back and hopefully go into the race with fresh and well-rested legs. I do have some concerns, but we will see how they play out during the races. For example descending Middlebury Gap with inexperienced riders and not being 100% comfortable on fast descents myself.

Race Schedule:
Stage 1 (TT) – 4/5 starts departing at 3:25pm (personal start time unknown)
Stage 2 (Circuit race) – 8:45am
Stage 3 (RR) – 9:30am
Stage 4 (Crit) – 8:30am

Distances:
Stage 1 – 5.7 miles
Stage 2 – 53 miles
Stage 3 – 70 miles
Stage 4 – 15.5 miles
Total – 144.2 miles

Even though I am now racing alone, the thought of racing by myself has given me a little extra motivation. Before I have gone into races thinking okay, this is going to be a learning experience and if I do well, I do well. Not this time. This time I will not only be racing for WOE, but for all the racers that weren’t able to make the race. I will be participating in the category 4/5 field and I am sure there will be some sandbaggers going for the win this year, so given that I may not be the most experience or strongest rider out there, but it doesn’t mean I can’t give them hell.






Tim, recently posted…..a post, on motivation. Well these are the things that motivate me. Being able to look back on a day, whip the dirt of my face, look at my colleges and say “I gave it everything for ya.”

Let’s just hope this guy doesn’t beat me to the top of App Gap!!!!


*Young Moose going for the Finish line!*

Overtraining, Motivation, and Goals

After my race weekend in Albany I did not want to touch a bike.  I was burnt out, overtrained, and work was piling up.  I knew I was doing this to myself as I trained like a fool the week before.  Lets put it this way, it included lots of high intensity riding and zero to no recovery.  One would think I would know better, and I do, I just didnt really care.

Either way after the weekend I was pretty fried.  Didnt help that I almost crashed on the monday night ride when I cracked my cleat in half during a townline sprint (note to self:  replace cleats more often).  The broken cleat was my excuse for not riding but not the reason.  I had simply overtrained and needed a break.

It comes down to the fact that cycling is a lonely ass activity.  It is a lot of training by yourself and a lot of time being alone.  Jeff posted a great quote on fb...

Cars are parked up and down the street. the smell of the grill and the sound of laughter wafting out to the road conspire to remind a cyclist of just how alone he is. - Roadie

 The thing that we need as cyclist is support, in many ways.  We need support of the shop to fix bikes when they break.  Support of the doctors to fix US when WE break (happens to some more than others).  Support of sponsors to help us get out and race (Thank you Pepsi Cola Ogdensburg).  Support from a coach or a mentor to give riders training advice and race advice.  More importantly we need emotional support.  It sounds stupid but the later is the most important.

We get emotional support from all sorts of places.  This week Shannon, from Wear On Earth, was just chatting with me about the season and how it didnt pan out the way I had hoped.  I guess being in the hospital three times in a season will do that too you.  I don't know if Shannon was doing this purposefully but she did it masterfully,  she brought up goals.  She was asking me what my goals for the season were.  She started asking about goals for the 2011 season and how I intended to accomplish them.

I have my goals for cycling.  I want to be a cat 2 rider.  Is it a long term goal?  Yes.  Do I think I can get there?  Yes.  It is good to have long range goals.  Think of a stone path.  Your long term goal is at the end of the stone path.  Each stone on the path is a short term goal.  You need to set these goals so you can achieve them along the way as you head down the path.  A bunch of little goals on the way to the big one. 

Here is my question to you.  What are your goals for 2011?  What are your goals for cycling?   How do you keep the end, long term goal in mind?  I am looking for ideas of how to keep the long term goal in mind.  I have thoughts of putting a giant "2" on my wall so I see it every day.  Might even make it out of bib numbers.

Thoughts?

-akers

Determination

What I do is not hard, I honestly believe that so many people out there have the physical capacity to go far beyond what they do now.  The majority of people have the physical ability to be a cat 3 racer.  The majority of people have the physical ability to run a marathon.  Now of course to go pro or qualify for Boston Marathon takes a bit more physical ability.  So what is the missing ingredient?  What is holding people back?

Determination.  Yep, that is it.   Maybe I think this because I focused my studies as an undergrad on sports psychology and exercise science.  So what brought on this post today?  I was talking with a friend, Winnie, who used to coach soccer at the collegiate level.   She asked how my cycling season was going and gave her a quick update.  To be honest, it has been rough.  I have landed in the hospital three times this year.  I told Winnie I was about to head out for a 3.5 hour ride and she called me crazy, I corrected her and said I was determined.  And the rest is history.

I mentioned this article I read a couple weeks back on determination and Winnie wanted to read it so I did some searching.  First place I looked was my RSS feed which includes this awesome website called Peak Performance.  I stumbled upon a great article which I thought might be what I was looking for, not exactly.  Don't get me wrong, this is an amazing article and I highly recommend you to read it, just not the one I was looking for.  This article talks about the various theories of motivation.  After reading it is pretty obvious I agree with Edward Deci and Richard Ryan theory known as self-determination theory.

I was lost for a bit so wandered around my apartment, cleaned up some, was mid-dishes when I had that aha moment, the NY Times!  Yes that is where I saw the article.  With the power of my droid phone I found it here.  Now the main idea of this article is that determination is what sets successful athletes apart from others.  It is the athlete that is determined to be on the bike every day, to do those long runs, and get in those 6 hour rides on the saddle.  It is the athlete that dedicated their life (or a good chunk of it) to an activity that will succeed.

Are you determined?  Do you agree with my views on motivation and determination?  Am I way off here?  Either way today's workout kicked my butt and I am pretty tired.  Was a hot humid day making training even harder.  My training buddies and I climbed the biggest climb around (which is not that big).  They turned around at the top to head back home, I went down the back side, climbed it again, and then chased like hell for 20mins to catch them.  Yeah in case you were wondering that effort hurt. 

Back in the saddle

Well I am back at it, after a couple weeks off from a fairly good size crash in Fitchburg I am racing once again.  A brief recap of the crash, was mid pack descending after the main climb in the course. Two guys a few roads ahead of me crash and legit knocked out the entire field.  I ended up just hitting the pile of bikes and went down myself with a nice little concussion.

So I guess it effected me more then I thought.  I called home and I guess was pretty out of it.  Same with friends in the Cape I was trying to meet up with.  Also when driving back I got into my back seat of the car, not really sure why.  Other stupid things, I found out I put lemonaid in the cupboard, I dont remember this but it was pretty moldy and gross when discovered a few weeks later by someone else.  I did the same with milk however my cereal was nice and cold.  However this could also all be chalked up to me being an idiot, I like to blame the knock on the head. 

Fast forward two weeks to this past weekend.  I decided to enter the BBC Championship.  It is essentially a training race for me as I am not eligible for the championship not being a member of BBC.  Plus I had been on the bike twice since the crash.  It was a stupidly small field of 16.  A few guys fell off and it ended up being a team of 5 (we shall call Team A), team of 3 (Team B), myself and a two other guys on there own, really only 10 of us.  Going into the event I had a few goals, 1) stay up and 2) get into a break.  I didnt really care about the win because it meant nothing to me.

I went on one attack early on but no one came with so went back into the field.  The team A sent someone up and they were doing a great job of blocking.   I ended up bridging up to the solo break and we worked well together for a bit before being caught.  At this time they launched another guy off the front.  I recovered for a bit then tried to bridge up but it failed, came back.  3rd time was a charm and I got into another break with both of the teams represented, I thought it was going to stick but a 4th rider from Team A bridged up and attacked right away, I couldnt match and slowly drifted back into the remaining group.  I was simply gassed.  And I use the term "break" in a liberal way do to field size. 

At this time I got a nice little verbal lashing for letting the break happen by the Team B.  To the lines of "if you ever f'in do that again and put our team in a bad spot" so on so on.  At this moment I decided not to help Team B one bit on the chase.  I sat on the bike and chatted with the other team.  I put in another mini attack, really just wanting to hit the corner hard because it is fun to do.  Get another verbal lashing from Team B, given well deserved.

Overall great to ride again however I think it will probably be my last race with BBC.  They are only training races, dont count for anything, small fields, just not worth the extra effort to head to them.  Maybe I just have a bitter taste in my mouth.  I know I still have a lot to learn about racing myself so maybe I am just reading the entire situation wrong.

Training Weekend

So after it was all said and done, I had rode approximately 201 miles (including my prologue) and climbed around 12,418 ft. However, these figures are under protest by Tim and his legs saying they did more. But, no my friend we all know that Training Peaks and Map My Ride are 100% accurate in all their calculations (.)

The training weekend really started at Ashton’s birthday party, where we started planning which rides we wanted to do. Not to mention also plotted out a wicked fun cyclocross course around his horse farm, just not sure how the electric fence is going to play into all of it. But I imagine it would be a good way to get back at someone that really pisses you off.

Bruce, I believe discussed how he wanted to be reasonable with our riding and not hammer away for the entire weekend. One because he was just getting back on the bike and two our courses were no joke. Better to do all the riding then, blow up and not be able to ride the next day. Unfortunately, Mr. Tim Akers did not receive this memo!!

Our first ride started from the Candyman candy shop in Wilmington, NY and was going to follow some of the Lake Placid Iron Man Course. There were tons of cyclists out training and we left with a simple motto of “let’s get us some triathletes” and we did. We past numerous riders and for those being past it must have been a site to see four guys with matching uniforms fly by. A van actually slowed down to take our picture and then gave us a thumbs up. But the fun would soon end as Tim attacked picking up the pace. Tim would continue to attack throughout the rest of the ride and be checked by at least one of his fellow teammates. I held myself back until we reached our final climb of the day. Bruce pulled me back, but what he didn’t know is that I waited for him to catch up. We still had Whiteface to tackle.

Probably the most memorable quote from the ride came back at the parking lot from Ashton. “ Then out of the heavens....Angels appeared wearing white and green. Descending through the light and yelling..."let's go eat"...taking away all the pain and anguish of 52 hard miles.” We cut the climb of white face a little short seeing it was getting late and we still had a brutal ride the next day.

Saturday started off with us going on a short mountain bike ride, but really I think it was the team trying to kill me. How you might say? Let’s just say the brakes on my bike were not 100% functional. So add that into the mix of me not being comfortable on a mountain bike to begin with…equals one scary ride. At least I wasn’t the one to fall on their backside trying to pop a wheelie…….Bruce.

Afterwards we went back to Ashton’s house to spend the afternoon by the lake and just relax before the Tour de Peru. Tim found this time useful for crushing a huge nap and was lucky we didn’t pull any pranks on him…..or did we.


So at 4pm the Tour de Peru was under way. We set an easy pace at the beginning to get the legs warmed up and then with about a quarter mile to Arnold Hill….it was on. I literally turned to Bruce, smiled, and attacked. Showing Arnold Hill no respect and making sure Tim went into it at a pretty good pace. It was Tim’s first time up Arnold. The rest of the ride was pretty straight forward….attacks, Bruce up every hill first, and just plan old hard riding. But what soon came into play was the new yellow sign sprint. For at every yellow sign someone would gun for it. Ashton probably had the biggest victory tallying up about 6 points in one sprint…..there were like four caution sharp turn signs. And then there was my glorious victory of winning the double arrow T intersection road sign. Meaning if you went straight at the intersection you would be driving into the woods and off the road…yeah figure that one out. Everyone rode well and put in a good effort, I still think Ashton had an aero advantage of only wearing an under armor (he forgot his jersey).

Our final ride was a 70 mile loop. I soon found out that this was not going to be the endurance ride I was planning for. Up on the Rand Hill Road, a fellow rider took off and set the pace around 30 mph, quickly splitting the group. We came back together and continuing the slow climb to the Chazy Lake area. On Chazy Lake road, the attacks came again, and again the group was split. Some of us just didn’t have the legs to check an attack. I know I didn’t. Then came the confusion. I carried my momentum down a fast decent, past the attackers, and completely went by our turn. Meanwhile, Charlie had flatted and things got a little confusing. In the end I stayed behind to wait for Ashton and Charlie and did Dannemora Hill twice looking to see if I could find them. I never did and ended up riding home alone, only to find out that Ashton had made his way back to Beekmantown, via another route, and caught up to Bruce and Tim. So that was my big Opps of the day.

Finally I would like to extend our appreciation to the Momot family for allowing us to use their home as a home base between rides and Kelly for making us breakfast and putting up with us to early in the morning. Thanks again!!

Training Weekend Stats

Day 1:
Distance: 46 miles
Elevation Gain: 4646 ft
(Course map)

Day 2 Morning:
1 hour and 20 minute mountain bike ride around Point au Roche

Day 2 Afternoon:
Distance: 48 miles
Elevation Gain: 3802 ft
(course map)
* I think Training Peaks was missing a few roads we took to get back Peru HS after Burnt Hill, but I think the Mileage and elevation a pretty close to actual ride.

Day 3:
Distance: 67 miles
Elevation Gain: 3970 ft
(Course Map)


Write Up to the training weekend to come...just a little pooped out right now to sit down and write a full length blog post.

IT HAS BEGUN!!!!!

Yes i know i used the cheesy catch phrase from the Mortal Combat games, but it is about the best title I can come up with for a weekend of such epic proportions. This weekend is the WOE training weekend, which will consist of at least 200 miles of riding and a ridiculous number of feet ascended. There may not be enough food in the Plattsburgh area to replace all the calories in which we are going to burn.

Day 1: A 50 mile or so ride around Wilmington, NY with the epic end of the ride Whiteface Mountain climb at the end...all 8 miles of it.

Day 2: Will consist of a morning recovery ride where we will most likely invade a local diner and fest on pancakes, filling our glycogen stores, and prepping ourselves for the classic Tour de Peru. We will be doing all 70 miles or so of it including: Arnold Hill, Burnt Hill, Big Hill, and Mother Cabrini.

Day 3: There is still a little confusion on to which exact course we want to take on this day, but it may lead us around Chazy Lake and possibly into the Lyon Mountain area.

We also have some fun ideas for shorter rides, such as a TTT, or a mtn bike ride around Point au Roch.

I am sure we will keep everyone posted...like a stamp....on our adventures this weekend and i promise we will try not to get into to much trouble. I already got yelled at today by some lady to get out of the road, during my 40 mile prologue ride.

It Never Rains, But it Pours

I could go on and on about how this past weekends NYS road and crit championships went. Tell you the play by play of the Saturday ¾ race or Mike and Tim’s races on Sunday. However, I feel as if this post could be made more useful by focusing on another matter.

As we all know Lady Luck has not shined on some of us over these past few months, with crashes during big races, untimely flats, broken frames, seat posts, bones, and mechanical issues. For me this is a concern seeing WOE is not only just a young program, but also a young team in general. Being a leader on many of the teams I have participated on I have seen the discouragement that can be brought about by these circumstances. The feeling of I’m not good enough or why am I not performing as well as everyone else, or just plain old....why me?

But we have to remember we are all, mostly all, young racers, and for some of us our racing careers have only consisted of three months. So naturally we are going to lack experience, the endurance, and some of the know how to win and stay in races. That is just the natural way of the sporting world, unless you are a Peter Sagan.

Most of us are still trying to find out the things that work for us, for example warming-up pre-race, and how we need to handle our bodies during extensive training. So in time it will come. We have some good knowledgeable veterans that are going to led the way and have some very good young talent. A mixture in any sporting world to be considered a dangerous combination. We just need to keep riding and having fun!!!

Some of you already know one of my favorite quotes from Lance Armstrong and not quitting, so let me pass on another. “But it ain't about how hard ya hit. It's about how hard you can get it and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done!”