A Navy SEAL, a Rabbi, and a Surgeon...

What do all three have in common? They are all on course with me at the United Bicycle Institute in Ashland, Oregon.

As I made my way into Ashland from the Medford International Airport, I was greeted with views of snow covered mountains and lush green boulevards. I am staying at the Cycle Hostel in the core of the little downtown area of Ashland, the hub of coffee houses, tap houses, fine dinning in jeans, and little old houses converted into bed and breakfasts and hostels.

The weather was not to the locals liking, but I am happy, as it is clearly beautiful outside.

The school itself is outstanding. And while I am now only half way through the course, I am happy with the professional  instruction, laid back atmosphere, and fun classmates I have met while here. Rico, the Navy SEAL, shares a workbench and tools with me, next to us are Don, a retired IBM Executive, and Ken, the Surgeon. Across from us is George, the Rabbi. Yes, there are some young guys in the class, and a mother and daughter taking the course together too. We are all enjoying ourselves, as we get deeper into our bikes than we have ever been.

Well, I hope everyone else back home is having a good week too. Once I am done here in Ashland, I will be opening for business in Wainwright, Richter Bicycle Services will actually start doing repairs!

Cheers,

Snowed-In Sundays

Ahhh, the bane of every cyclist, being snowed-in on a Sunday. Well, that's why we have trainers and rollers.

Today, during the kids' nap time, I will be doing the following workout:

Warm-up:
3 minutes light pedal
1 minute hard, 2 minutes light
30 seconds single leg, each leg x 3
2 minutes light pedal
1 minute hard
2 minutes light pedal

Main sets:
3x 10 minute tempo to TT effort with 3-5 minutes light pedal in between

Cool-down:
3x 30 second fast spins (high cadence) with 30 seconds light pedal in between
2-5 minutes light pedal (or until the kids wake up and start yelling at me!)

The goal of this workout is to think about and work on sustained efforts during races - bridging gaps, catching up after a mechanical, or making a break. Some easy listening music, like Metallica or Anthrax aught  to keep the pace high!

Enjoy.

Dopers Suck

Sorry for the lack of posts over the last few weeks, I've been busy, ok?

So the Alberto Contador doping investigation but Spanish Cycling officials has netted nothing but sweet kisses on the defending TdF Champ's buttocks. Sorry for the image, but Spain is again proving itself to be as hard on dopers as cotton candy. AC never refuted the fact that clen was in his blood. He only offered a dubious explanation of tainted meat. Are we sure it was beef? Maybe some milk was tainted? It don't friggen matter! Athletes that have been found with banned substances get some type of sanction, regardless of intent.

In defense of pro cycling, no other pro sport tests to the same standard. Bio-passports to track "normal" body physiology through out the year, tests at races for podium finisher and random participants, and random testing throughout the year, at any time. In fact, pro cyclist are required to maintain strict schedules in order to provide testing officials 100% access. Ask "Chicken" how that goes. Imagine if you will, the morning of game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final or the World Series, say 0300 hours, all the players from both teams are dragged out of bed to provide pee and blood samples. Then a week after the series is over, the results come back and one player from the winning team comes up positive for a banned substance. The Championship team is then stripped of its win, and the runner-up/loser is given the win. Kinda blows if you ask me, but that's how it works in cycling.

So what does this all mean for the UCI and pro cycling? I don't know yet. The UCI and WADA will probably investigate, but AC is cleared to race, and reported to the start line at the Volta Ao Algarve earlier today. Thanks the cycling gods that an ardent and outspoken anti-doper, Philippe Gilbert from Belgium, won the stage. Dopers suck.

Oh yeah, in other big news in cycling, Lance Armstrong retired again.

Ride clean everybody.

Canadians at The Beijing World Cup - Tara Whitten & Zack Bell

With strong performances throughout the three day track meet, World Champion Tara Whitten won the Women's Omnium (over-all performance) highlighted by a win in the Individual Pursuit. And Zack Bell finished with a silver for his efforts in the Men's Omnium too! As the Omnium will be showcased in the next Olympics, the Canadian Track team has a great chance to bring us home some hardware.

Now if we could only get CBC or OLN to cover the World Cups .....

Enjoy the ride,
Dan

Indoor Training

With all the typical early season shenanigins going on in the pro cycling world - Contador's impending suspension, Matt White getting fired by Garmin-Cervelo, the Landis - Lance continuing saga, I thought it best to talk about what we should all be doing this Winter - training for the next season.

Over the last two weeks, I have been working shorter workouts, but at a higher intensity, looking for a few power gains. However, this week I have started to ride the rollers for tempo workouts (45-60 minutes), and ride the trainer for longer endurance workouts (90-120 minutes). I alternate each day, and plan on extending the time of each workout by about 10-15% each week for about four weeks.

Based on what I have been doing, here is my training advice for this week. WARM-UP! On the rollers, start with a harder gear, but spin at a lower cadence, slowly working up to a tempo cadence of about 100 rpm over 10 to 15 minutes. This will slowly warm the legs, you'll be sweating hard, and will engage any power or strength training that you've done previously. To keep a tempo pace, go ahead and shift back and forth from easier and harder gears. Enjoy!

On the trainer, because of better stability, start with an easy gear, spinning at a high cadence 100-130 for about 5 minutes as an initial warm-up. Pop the gears down to a harder gear, a bit harder than your TT, and grind out some nice circles for about a minute. After that soft pedal for about 2-4 minutes, and then work into your long endurance routine.

Training indoors is always better with something to watch and with some company to pass the time. Try not to get too competitive if training with your training partner. This early in the year is about rebuilding your base, and slowly shedding any access weight from the winter holidays.

Some Good News in Cycling....

Everybody, this is a direct paste from the Velocity Cycling Club (my colours) web-site, based in Edmonton, Alberta....

As some of you may know, Randy Murchison (Velocity track coach extraordinaire and all around nice guy) and his son Steven will be going to Africa to take part in the Tour d'afrique this January. Steven is riding from Cairo to Capetown, 12,000 km's, and Randy will ride along for the first section to the capital of Sudan, Khartoum. They are doing this in support of Water Can, a charity that works directly on improving safe water access in remote parts of Africa.
 
The link to Steven's fund raising page is:  http://my.e2rm.com/personalPage.aspx?registrationID=1046707&langPref=en-CA

The link to the tour d'afrique is: http://www.tourdafrique.com/

Thanks from Randy and Steven

Let's all wish for a good adventure and safe riding for Steven & Randy

HTC on Cycingnews & Thoughs on the AC Case

A great article on Cyclingnews. Me thinks that Renshaw can manage the young brash Manixman into maturity.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/another-day-another-win-for-htc-highroad

Now the big elephant that is in the room...

AC is sitting (ok, probably riding) waiting for what is going to happen next after testing positive for "clen." For those that are not in the know, clenbuterol is a WADA banned substance that can reduce body fat and enhance immediate athletic performance. It has some extremely dangerous effects and has been linked to deaths in some amature athletes. Tour de France Champion, Alberto Contador has claim that tained meat was the source of the clen in his blood. Not impossible, but highly unlikely. Either way cycling is faced with a second Tour winner that will be soon sanctioned (the first was the dishonest Flyod Landis in 2006). Not good for our sport, however, this proves that the dopping controls work, and that no other sport is as serious as cycling in weeding out all cheaters. As Canadian cycling legend, Steve Bauer has said in the past, let's see what happens if they test all pro sports in North America like they test cycling...

Dan