What A Week

Last Friday, March 7 West Virginia University started its 2014 Spring Break. That day was also the start of another chapter in my cycling career, The Dynamic Physical Therapy Cycling Team meeting.  I was fortunate enough to have the collegiate races at Virginia Tech moved to a later date as well as the cancellation of George Mason's race so that I was able to meet and hang out with the wonderful people that make up DPT cycling.
The team training camp is what helped me to get over the hump in the struggle to be ready for 2014.  With collegiate nationals coming right around the corner, it was important for me to get myself back in racing shape quickly.  Saturday started with a beautiful day, with a riding distance around 50 miles or so.  Mr. Derek Clarke and I battled it out for hill tops.  While he pretty much took them all, i got to experience the accelerations you don't normally get on the stationary trainer.  Then, Sunday was a little more than expected after the social gathering at Apothecary Ale House.  While, I was ready for a 25 mile flat ride, I ended up with another 50 mile day, with probably more climbing than the first day.  I WAS COOKED.

Monday, I got to start my spring break.  It was nice to be back in Wheeling WV with my family.  I also knew this was my chance to keep my momentum of training going with a big week of riding.  So, Monday turned into another 50+ mile ride, but one of the most fun days I've ever had by myself on a bike.  I found new roads and they were all beautiful.  Tuesday was another gorgeous day, so I went for another ride, less distance, but boy was it a hard interval workout.  After 4 days and 175+ miles.  I took off on a rainy Wednesday, and was back on the trainer on Thursday doing more intervals.  I tried to ride Friday but the fear of getting blown away by the wind had me turning back home.

And so brings the weekend.  Saturday started at 5:30 am as I took the 4 hour trip from Wheeling to Martinsburg to play in a roller hockey tournament with my brothers and friends.  Without the ability to skate due to poor blades, our first game was a wash, losing 7-0.  Once I got my skating situation figured out, the second game came with a 5-2 win.  Not so lucky in our third game, we lost 4-1, but held them close for the majority of the game.  Then came the playoffs, where my two goal effort came with not much help, in a 4-2 loss to knock us out of the tournament.

The next morning was again up early at 6:30 to get back to Fairchance PA for the ABRA training race.  I knew coming into it that I was going to practice riding the break, so I started getting nervous about the amount of pain I was about to endure.  I had no idea though what was about to occur.  With the help of EJ and Devin, I was able to get away with one other rider on lap 3 with another bridging 2 laps later.  I WAS IN THE BREAK FOR 12 OF THE 15 LAPS.  That's something that I have NEVER done before, so it was a first. While riding for a new team, I could not have done it without their control over the group behind, another first for me.  Their efforts were well awarded when I was able to come up with a big win for us to set the tone for the rest of the season.

As I sit on my bed eating my strawberry yogurt and drinking my chocolate milk writing about this week I had, I have think to use this new found confidence and motivation, from all the fun I had riding on the bike, to carry me through the rest of the season.  Whether it be trying to qualify for nationals or riding strong for my team this coming summer, any productivity will have been sparked by the DPT training camp and hopefully it will show.  I'm just glad to be apart of it.

A new dirt road and cyclocross bike

Thanks to our team's partnership with Cannondale and Pathfinder WV I recently picked up the 2014 Cannondale SuperX Force Disc and I've been really pleased so far with its performance.

What I'm really enjoying about this new ride:
1) Ability to use single finger pressure on the brake levers for slowing where I previously would have needed two fingers. For a couple seasons I've been craving disc brakes for my cyclocross bike. It's not that rim brakes are entirely inferior, it's that disc brakes are more favorable to my riding style. I prefer to brake late and hard when cornering and discs favor that technique. Also, I do a ton of dirt road riding and there are a lot of long, rough descents where the arms and hands can become fatigued. The discs don't take nearly as much effort at the levers to achieve the same kind of stopping power, which is great at mile 40 of the Hilly Billy Roubaix when you can't think very clearly.
2) Awesome paint scheme.
3) Ease of removing and reinserting the rear wheel. I initially thought with a disc brake it would be harder to take out but it's actually easier getting the rear wheel on and off than on my old cyclocross bike with rim brakes.
4) Carbon fiber frame's ride smoothness. Cannondale excels at that nice carbon feel.
5) Full length cable housing coverage of the brake cables.
6) Redesigned SRAM Force 22 brake lever hoods feel more stable on technical downhills. The front of the hood is a little higher than the old design so you don't feel like your hands are going to slide off.
7) Really smooth rear shifting with the new SRAM Force 22 compared to prior years. This is a really noticeable improvement over the previous 10 speed models.

A little muddy after the first ride

Some random chickens

Back on the Bike

2014 is shaping up to be a wonderful year!  It had a bit of a rocky start, but man I am so excited about the opportunities that are presenting themselves!  Since the start of the new year I’ve been working hard and eating healthy (with a splurge here and there…I can’t turn down French fries).  I’m happy to say finding balance in my life has made a huge difference.  I still work overtime, but I am back to doing all the other things I love like traveling and spending time with my family and friends.  This new found balance has contributed to me losing 10 pounds and I feel great!

Even with the new consistency in my workouts, I was terrified for training camp.  Before we even started pedaling on Saturday morning my HR was 144!  I run high to begin with, but it was pretty clear I was very intimated to be riding with some of these guys because I know how good they are.  I don’t think my HR came down below 120 the entire weekend except when we were having post ride beers at Apothecary and Morgantown Brewing Company…A little liquid courage and good food always helps the nerves.

                Anyone that has ever ridden with me knows I’m a terrible climber!  Absolutely terrible, but I really like climbing.  I’ve always loved the activities that challenge me most.  It’s why I got started in triathlon and cycling.  Three years ago I couldn’t swim, hadn’t ridden a bike in over a decade, and I couldn’t even run a mile so it made perfect sense (to me only) to go out and sign up for one of these events!  I still can’t climb, but I still like trying… luckily there was no shortage of hills at camp.

                Training camp was filled with 90+ miles of beautiful riding in WV and PA.  First time I’ve done that many miles in one weekend in over a year.  I felt surprisingly good after the weekend.  Thankfully, my good friend Greg Flood let me borrow his Carmichael training videos in January to help me prepare for this year or it would have been a much rougher weekend.  The added structure over the past three months really made a difference for my first weekend outside on the bike. 

Friday Night at our team meeting at Dynamic Physical Therapy in Sabraton JR stated “anyone can get matching jerseys and ride together, but that’s not what being on a team is about”.  I have some awesome teammates who took that statement to heart.  Teammates like Devin Corboy and Jeff Gernert who rode with me on some of the hills while everyone else was out of sight.  Or like Stephanie Lamb, Billy Slutz and Shawn Geiger who helped me change my flat towards the end of Saturday’s ride.  Those are just a few examples of how awesome these guys are.  The encouragement and support these guys provided the entire weekend is unparalleled.   

I'm really looking forward to seeing what else this year has to offer!

 

 

The New Crew

Some events in life are so remarkable that they are forever engraved in your brain. People know where they were when JFK was shot. Who  they were with when the Space Shuttle Columbia exploded. What they were doing when the Twin Towers were struck.  Or where they were when they got invited to join their first cycling team.  OK, maybe the last option doesn’t carry quite the same historical value as the other 3, but on the other hand, it is usually remember for the wonderful feeling it brought to you as opposed to the horrible, gut wrenching memories that go with the others.

Standing at the 9-11 memorial in New York City. Like many, this is "One of those days" that I will never forget.

I started racing on a regular basis in the fall of 2010. My friend Chris Clark kept talking it up and eventually convinced me to give it a go.  I won’t recount that story, but you can read my blog from January 7^th, 2012 if you REALLY want to read about all that. Prior to my first race that fall, I replied to a Facebook post from somebody who was looking for help getting a canopy from Wexford to Waynesburg for the Kickoff Cross Race.  Since I lived in Waynesburg at the time, I knew it would be no problem shuttling it to the race so I volunteered to help them out.  It was the first time I had met Niall McAra.  A few months later, he sent out an email to ask if I was interested in joining his racing team for the upcoming 2011 season.  Naturally, I was gung ho for it. While there were lots of promises about help from the more experienced riders, what it really turned out to be was Mike Janeiro, Rick Plowman, and myself figuring out things on our own.  The “team” never really developed, but it sure did help me develop my love of the cycling team.

Going 1-2-3 in the 2010 ABRA Crit Series with my old team.  

During the fall of 2011, at the Monster Cross race in Morgantown, JR asked me what I was doing for the following season.  To say that I was excited would be an understatement.  Here was the opportunity to be a part of the sport with people who were making things happen.  It was my first REAL experience with being on a team. No offense to Rick or Mike because we had some really great results riding together, but a team is more than just the people riding their bikes when the official blows the whistle.  And for the first 2 years, the Dynamic Physical Therapy Cycling Team powered by Pathfinder has had some great people on it. Some of my best friends I’ve met through the team and I will eternally be thankful for having met them.  But every year the team is different.  People move away, people move to different teams, and some even quit racing altogether.  These departures from the team mean that there is the potential for some lucky folks to get their invitation to join the Dynamic team. 

 

Arts and Crafts for the 2011 Dynamic Physical Therapy Cycling Team powered by Pathfinder.
Counting JR (taking the photo) 5 of 10 of these guys are still with the DPT Team.   :-)

A lot of thought goes into the selection of riders, because they not only have to be strong riders, its important that they fit well with the personality of the team.  We just finished up the team Training Camp this past weekend, and I am very excited to say that once again, I think we have one of the funnest groups of riders in the area. I am really looking forward to spending a lot of time with them over the summer. Be sure to stop by the team area and say hello. Sit down, hang out, and maybe you’ll have one of those moments you’ll never forget too.

Looking Forward To 2014

‘Will winter 2013-2014 ever end?’ 

I was thinking this to myself about a week ago as I finished, what seemed like my zillionth trainer work out, right before the 2014 Dynamic Physical Therapy Cycling Team Powered By Pathfinders training camp in Morgantown, WV.  I was looking forward to re-connecting with my returning teammates from last season, as well as my new teammates joining the team for 2014.

I learned a lot of interesting ‘facts’ about some teammates this year at training camp:

1. One of my teammates once had a job driving ‘exotic dancers’ home after closing time

2. ‘Gee Wilikers’ is still a common phrase among the younger generation

3. I am not the only beer snob on the team

4. One of my teammates needs to learn how to tell time/read a clock

5. One of my teammates once bought a drink for Kirstie Alley

6. One of my teammates really likes to ‘bake brownies’ as a pre-race ritual

7. One of my teammates likes it when they are yelled at in German

And with this new found knowledge in hand, 2014 should be an interesting season for the Dynamic Physical Therapy Cycling Team Powered By Pathfinder.

Finally, a big thank you to all of the 2014 team sponsors:

• Dynamic Physical Therapy
• Pathfinder of WV
• Morgantown Brewing Company
• Sketches by Anne
• Apothecary Ale House & Cafe
• Performance Coaching Services
• Kenda Tires
• Cannondale Bicycles
• ProGold Lubricants
• Honey Stinger
• Red Rose Imports
• Nalini Custom

Training Camp

We all know about what happens in Vegas.... but what happens in West Pennsylginia gets shared with our fans.

Stay tuned for more good stuff in the coming days!

Just wanted to wish everyone a happy Wednesday