BIKES: Episode #5 (Caribbean Biology)

I really dislike spiders...but it's for the @BIKESBC!

Welcome back! This week we have episode #5 featuring Ana, a recent university graduate who studied Cane Spiders to analyze tropical ecosystem health through the extraction and identification of nitrogen 14 and 15 isotopes. This week also features the first of three class questions that the students can answer as part of the @Looksavealife Name Tag Project. If the students answer all three of this year's starter questions with a class project, each student will receive their own customized name tag sticker just like the ones my teammates and I wear on our helmets or bike frames.


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Feel the finish line

Courtesy of Alpine Canada

Pre-competition visualization is critical to peak performance. Learning to develop the skill of seeing the finish line and harnessing the tastes, touches, sounds and ambiance of that moment is just as important as harnessing the elements of the specific act that gets one to the finish line. Whether it is a sprint on a bicycle or a perfect section of turns on alpine skis, holding the sensation of the finish line in the distance as an attainable goal can be essential training far from the competitive season or facing a daunting new challenge. For example when climbing on a bicycle, the pace may be very difficult at first but if one focuses on the sensations of turning the final bend and seeing the summit, only to know that the finish line is indeed within reach then the act of turning the pedals over for the next 40 minutes is no longer an insurmountable dilemma  rather it's just something that is going to happen.

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Chase to burn

Source

It is fast, furious, probably against the law and pretty ridiculously stupid if you ask 99.9% of the world but wow does motor-pacing make you a fast bicycle pedaler. In fact I have a track cycling friend who is racing the long-lost art of derny racing this weekend in Berlin. During the scratch races on the velodrome, each cyclist is paired with a special motor bike and experienced driver. The first motor / bicycle combination over the line wins! It is a part of Europe's indoor winter 6-day circuit. Here are a few videos.


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Foreign Roads

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Embracing the foreign cracks, tight bends and unrelenting pitches of the winding pavement ahead, I brace my heaving chest over the rain-soaked handlebar. My breath mists out in front as a new extension of the dense fog clinging to the mountain side. Past the point of no return, the late afternoon light is fading, as is the energy in my legs.

The timer on my interval split time says I can stop my interval, my work day complete but there is more to climb, more to explore. Should I taper it back and enjoy the new road while enjoying the satisfying sensation of another workout complete or do I keep pedaling, using the unknown distance to the crest as a carrot, pulling my legs over the cranks, pushing for more.

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IKEA for Cyclists

2013 Criterium attire

That first day at team camp is like IKEA for cyclists. Colors that first appear conflicting when strewn out across the floor of the service course suddenly come into order as we build the machines and test the clothing; info on seemingly-obscure items are provided and soon become an everyday affair for training and racing; and after a long winter of training, riders begin to forge friendships that will last the season and hopefully beyond. Before you know it, thanks to the help of the team's magical behind-the-scenes elves, our herd of shuffling pedal pushers emerge under a beaming backlight and over a drifting cloud of fake white smoke to appear on stage as the next clan of spandex-clad, crime fighters; the narrator all along describing how we will defeat the next daunting challenge that the world throws at our feet. Well maybe not quite crime-fighting but you get the idea.

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Mucus Man and Motor Bikes

Attack of the mucus man! It's time to get behind than motor bike and pedal like a banshee. Head half-cocked, breathing heavily and hands firmly clasped to the hoods, my rear wheel hovers inches from the tail of the scooter. A small hill...."get on the gas before the moto!" A small descend is coming...which means this crest is going to tip the speeds back up..."out of the saddle and pedal dude!" Dailing in the intensity, I raise a hand off the bars to indicate to my driver a change in speed. Like the evil emperor of long-forgotten Rome, I indicate my own fate with a thumbs up or a thumbs down, one half of my conscious pushing the limits of my body without remorse for the poor sucker who is going to be asking for a drop in speed only minutes down the road. Oh the beauty of speed.
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Yak Time

All over North America interest in meditation is growing. Yoga is pretty common now and sports psychologists are also beginning to utilize that same practices that the Soviets borrowed from traditional martial arts back in the 1980's. In fact you can read about these Soviet revelations in books like Peak Performance by Charles A. Garfield Ph.D. The trick of course is realizing that it the focus is to not STOP oneself from experiencing thoughts, that is in fact pretty much impossible. The trick is to learn to remove one's ego and immediate response to the occurance of a feeling or sensation. It is like when people say, can't see the forest for the trees. By removing oneself from a thought, then you can experience that thought. Anyways, yak time is much better explained during this tedtalk. Time to take that coffee break.
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Cholesterol

Not your ordinary vegetable superheroes

So as most of you know, I've spent the majority of my post-graduation and non-cycling time studying nutrition and the human body with the hopes of better understanding the differences between alternative and western medicine. The whole cholesterol thing are actually pretty old hat if you've kept yourself up-to-date but since I know there are many distractions in our lives I wanted to pass along some great info as this is a fundamental element of many different types of cardiovascular disease.
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BIKES: Extra Feature - Snow

Suiting up

Good morning!

For all the powder hounds out there, here is a better look at the heli-skiing day I enjoyed in the process of filming the 4th episode of the BIKES series. A special thanks goes out to the Dattel family and Whistler Heli-Skiing for making my first experience 'out-of-bounds' an amazing one. This feature also, like episode #4, includes a wicked set of music from John Braynard at Velobeats (June 2012 Podcast). 

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Toque Torque: Dan Gronross

This week's Toque Torque Coaching update comes from one of my newer clients, Dan Gronross of Vancouver, Canada.  Since last September, Dan has been able to discover great balance in his life through cycling and after a very successful cyclocross season (both on and off the bike), he is really starting to gain momentum as the days lengthen and the spring approaches. Like all of my clients, Dan has embraced the challenge of asking himself the big questions to which only he knows the answers, these are the questions that we all must ask ourselves when we are deciding to pursue a new sport, a new career or a new passion. Can I sum those questions up into just one sentence? I'll try.

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BIKES Episode #4: Mt. Everest

Welcome back to BIKES as we launch our campaign for the second half of the 2012-2013 academic year. I have a ton of awesome episodes in the editing phase right now but first week we share with you insights from John of Whistler Heli Skiing, a mountain man who achieved his dream goal of climbing Mt. Everest in 2008. A full video dedicated to capturing the awesomeness of the heli-skiing day is also in the oven as we speak. Enjoy!

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BIKES: LIVE AUCTION!

Bidding via EBAY begins @ $300.00 and closes January 21st at 3.50pm PST. AUCTION LIVE NOW

Hello! In an effort to gain exposure for the BIKES program and funds for my 2013 cycling season, I am auctioning off a BRAND NEW, 1 of only 4 ever-made Team Exergy Castelli aero race kits, complete with matching booties, aero gloves and of course in the livery of the 2012 Canadian National Criterium Champion. All items are sized small, perfect for those 5'4"-5"7" tall with a 7-10 size shoe.The mocked up item seen here is just a display which means you'll be receiving your brand new kit, fresh out of the bag. Your support via this auction will help me offset the my 2013 racing costs and continue to spend time expanding the BIKES Foundation. More pictures and details are below!

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Finding your voice

"Cultivate the strength you need to access 

the courage that is already inside"

Since I started my recent adventures working with the students of the BIKES program,  the question of "how do you become successful" has come up a lot, but I don't find this as great news. It seems that even at their young age, some students already seem daunted by the insurmountable chore of becoming "successful". But what is success? What is happiness? And why are we all so worried about NOT getting there.

A fellow Whitman College alumni and cycling team member, Cammie, who rode with me during my first 'long' training ride back in 2007 and was a close collegiate teammate of Mara Abbott, recently wrote an exceptional reflection on her own experience in finding her voice, isolating her intent and discovering success by pursuing only that which SHE cared about.


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