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.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Sunday, June 13, 2010
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!”
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!”
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Full Moon Vista Cycling Grand Prix
Memorial Day weekend had a common theme for most WOE riders taking some time to recover and to be with friends or family. However, I did see one WOE rider climb some long gradual hill in the Cranberry Lake region of NY. Kudos to you! But for some of us it was time to start warming up the legs and prepping for the Full Moon Vista Cycling Grand Prix, a three day event.
Three riders made their way down to the Rochester area: Tim, Jeff, and Mike. The trip started out well with me (Jeff) aimlessly running around the Postdam/Cantan area trying to find our beloved Tim Akers. Once I found Tim and everyone was together, we started the long trip. We knew we would be cutting it close, but would make it before the race started. Oh we did indeed make it before the race started. I believe the announcement "one minute to the start of the cat 4/5 race" was the signal for Tim and Mike to get registered in.
Being on time was not a very common theme for us this past weekend. At the second race we showed up 30 minutes to the start of the race, due to a slight GPS error that took us to the Full Moon bike shop and not the race site. So needless to say again our warm-up sucked. Tim did well placing 15th and I think i put in a pretty good effort for my 1st race involving mainly cat 4's placing 29th out of 60+ races. Mike, unfortunately was feeling the affects of a slight cold and a crappy nights sleep (HUGE storm rolled through), so decided to rest.
Probably the most interesting part of the weekend, besides being jumped in the night by a cat, we race #3. Why was it interesting? Well it was absolutely miserable weather. We finally got to a race with an hour before race time and quickly set up camp under a tent and an awning. The course was a little slick with a sketchy downhill that had a small lake at the bottom that could have caused some trouble, but I guess never did. Again Tim did very will placing 6th and I 25th out of 38 riders, because I rode like a scared little sissy girl and pulled up on the down hill portion of the race, causing me to get dropped. Again Mike chose wisely and decided to rest and not catch pneumonia. See we do learn from Tim's mistakes!
http://www.gvccracing.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/FMVGP_Men45_Omnium_2010.pdf
All in all it was a fun weekend racing, eating buffulo wings, and meeting the Akers. I can't remember the last time i sat in someone's back yard and did nothing for like 5 hours listing to music and nothing else....well one shenanigan...I think a few of you know what i am talking about...
Three riders made their way down to the Rochester area: Tim, Jeff, and Mike. The trip started out well with me (Jeff) aimlessly running around the Postdam/Cantan area trying to find our beloved Tim Akers. Once I found Tim and everyone was together, we started the long trip. We knew we would be cutting it close, but would make it before the race started. Oh we did indeed make it before the race started. I believe the announcement "one minute to the start of the cat 4/5 race" was the signal for Tim and Mike to get registered in.
Being on time was not a very common theme for us this past weekend. At the second race we showed up 30 minutes to the start of the race, due to a slight GPS error that took us to the Full Moon bike shop and not the race site. So needless to say again our warm-up sucked. Tim did well placing 15th and I think i put in a pretty good effort for my 1st race involving mainly cat 4's placing 29th out of 60+ races. Mike, unfortunately was feeling the affects of a slight cold and a crappy nights sleep (HUGE storm rolled through), so decided to rest.
Probably the most interesting part of the weekend, besides being jumped in the night by a cat, we race #3. Why was it interesting? Well it was absolutely miserable weather. We finally got to a race with an hour before race time and quickly set up camp under a tent and an awning. The course was a little slick with a sketchy downhill that had a small lake at the bottom that could have caused some trouble, but I guess never did. Again Tim did very will placing 6th and I 25th out of 38 riders, because I rode like a scared little sissy girl and pulled up on the down hill portion of the race, causing me to get dropped. Again Mike chose wisely and decided to rest and not catch pneumonia. See we do learn from Tim's mistakes!
http://www.gvccracing.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/FMVGP_Men45_Omnium_2010.pdf
All in all it was a fun weekend racing, eating buffulo wings, and meeting the Akers. I can't remember the last time i sat in someone's back yard and did nothing for like 5 hours listing to music and nothing else....well one shenanigan...I think a few of you know what i am talking about...
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