Ramblings...

For anyone who has been coming back to my blog hoping to see something new, please accept my apologies. I get all these ideas that I want to write about but when I get to the computer I just go blank.

Training has been pretty good all things considered. I spent last week in Alaska and managed to stick with my training schedule. I used a pretty good stationary bike at a Marriott in Anchorage. It was just super cold up there last week. To top it off, the last couple of days the winds were howling over 50 mph. With the morning temp around zero degrees Fahrenheit the wind chill was waaaaay down there! Food was plentiful as it always is in Anchorage. I put in a lot of hours but I ate way too much also.

My training has been on track since coming home until today. I woke up with a fever and training is not going to happen. I am bummed but what can I do. My kids have each had this bug and now it is my turn.

Junior Meeting This Saturday

The AAVC juniors are getting together this Saturday at Aberdeen Bike and Fitness in Chelsea. Mark Lovejoy said we will see some new faces which will be nice. Our junior program is just fantastic. My older children were introduced to racing through it and now my 9 year old is going to join in. If you know a junior racing age 10-17, let them know that they are welcome 9am - noon.

Are Coaches Really Necessary?

An accomplished cyclist said recently that coaches are not for him because a coach can't really know how you feel and are responding to training. While some can self-coach very effectively, I submit to you that one of the problems with it is that we are just terrible at self-evaluation. We don't see ourselves as we truly are. Some fat people are convinced they are thin. Some skinny people are convinced they're fat. Some good looking folk think they are ugly and so forth. This is where coaching is helpful when it comes to cycling. We have a tendency to deceive ourselves about our training. For instance, when performance starts to lag, what is our tendency? We usually blame our problem on a lack of intensity and ratchet up volume and intensity. A coach can stand back and analyze the situation and give a more unbiased assessment. The coach would give the opposite counsel. He would probably tell the athlete to take some time off or reduce volume and intensity as he correctly notes the athlete has become overtrained. Clearly the athlete who said this is effectively self-coaching but I can't help but wonder if he has even more untapped potential.