The similarity to vaulting in gymnastics and sprinting in a race.

I have always thought I was a sprinter in cycling. My background in gymnastics gave me a lot of fast muscles, as well as a lot of upper body weight. I am short and I like to squeeze though places others don't think you can go. The problem with sprinting in a race is it only happens once, or at least the big sprint that everyone cares about only happens once. And that is if your team can keep the whole thing together for you. My only two wins I have ever had have been out of break aways, but as the season wears on in the Cat 3 field it get to be very hard to hold a break as most of the riders are of the same strength and ability. So being able to sprint out of a field is a big plus. Since you only get a few chances you have to really try and get them right as many times as possible, understand what you did wrong if you failed, and never make that mistake again. The great thing about bike racing however is that you will rarely get the same exact situation twice. So you are always just trying to take previous knowledge and applying it to what you have learned, and making a very quick educated guess. Or if you are just stupid crazy strong just go fast.

Vault is a very different event compared to the rest of the gymnastics events. It lasts all of 4-5 seconds. And while there can be a lot of technique involved in it, a majority of deficiencies in technique can be overcome by sheer speed and quickness. Up until last year I struggled as a coach getting athletes to learn higher level vaults. In an effort to save athletes from the severe pounding that vault I limited the numbers of vaults that we did. This really limited what I was able to do with these girls. Up until recently I was also limited by some technical problems with our vaults as my oldest athletes were really a first generation of vaulters that the gym had started brining up in a new system. We all had been working hard to iron out kinks and we are really starting to hit our strides now.

So what would happen in my old system was we would only do hard vaulting a couple times a week. If an athlete had a bad vault day or missed a day from illness or school then we were down to just one day. Also we would go from maybe a complete day off from the gym to a hard vault day. I remember as an athlete that my first vault day of the week was always my worst, I was just always off. It was similar with many of my girls. Then I had the issue of high level athletes not understanding that meaning of basics. As an athlete progresses so do their basics. An entry level athlete's basics, like running, are not the same as a level 10's, I consider a 9.7 valued vault to be a basic for my level 10s. But as young girls grow they don't always allow their ideas to grow, but that is what we are there for as coaches, and or teachers.

So this year as a sprinter I knew that to get any better I needed more chances to sprint, and I needed some advice from those who knew how to do it best. I talked with my sponsors at Mesa Cycles Russ and Adrienne Murphy about what to think about. The first thing was positioning, this was something that I knew but could never get right. The rest of what they told me was what really started to show me big improvements in placing. If you want to know that though you might have to hire them as coaches.

This got me thinking about my athletes and the fact that I was just not giving them enough opportunities to learn their vaults, or should I say enough quality opportunities. The big change came with I re-arranged the days, and number of days that we vaulted. I had the girls spend a day preparing their bodies for vault, then we had a day of very hard vaulting doing their 10.0 or better start value vaults, and then one more day of basics. The other two days of the week were spent on creating speed in their runs, landings, and drills for learning new higher difficulty vaults.

This plan has shown huge improvements in what the girls are doing already in our training. And the improved vaulting seems to be contagious as our lower levels seem less intimidated by the aspect of doing harder vaults.

To me this in extremely comparable to sprinting in bike racing. The problem for me is that unlike vaulting it is hard to replicate sprints so that it becomes more instinctual. Great sprinters like Mark Cavendish are always in there for the sprint, not only because he has a great lead-out, but because he just knows where to be. It is instinct.

Mark's pure speed is a big help, but he is also an extremely smart sprinter.

Cameron is a freshman in high school and will compete her first year of level 10 this year with this 10.0 start value vault.

Michelle is a senior in high school and her 4th year as a level 10. This vault is worth more than a 10.0 and may help her place high at national championships.

Mesa Cycle's Burnin at the Bluff

Burnin at the Bluff as an amazing race! Last year was the first time I heard of the race. The shop puts it on but for some reason I had always just missed it. So last year the guys needed help with running the race so I went out for a night to do a little camping and help the guys set up. I thought it looked so cool that I was going to stay the whole weekend the next time around. I did not think I was going to be racing it. When Chris said he was doing a relay with Bj and they needed a third, I jumped right at it. I really like camping and I liked the atmosphere at last year's Burnin, so I was down.

The pre-race feels easy and relaxed, with most people just hanging out checking out who is camping where. There is some tom foolery going on but most are there to hammer so not many get too crazy. That is unless you are Scott Peipert who is only at his best when his blood alcohol content is over 50%. I really didn't have any idea what to expect for the race. We were going for 12 hours, a time I had never participated in, and I had not raced a mountain bike in 4 years. I was going first for our team (Mustache Ride the Lightning) and really just wanted to be safe and smooth. I had no idea who we were even going against so I just got ready to have fun.

The race starts of with a Le-Mans style start where we have to run around a field, through smoke clouds, find our bikes, and then BLAST down this big hill to the trail head. I hustled but definitely did not go into the red. This was my first mistake of the day. I had forgotten how much time you lose by not being at the front in a mountain bike race. My first lap was okay, but nowhere near fast enough to be competitive with the rest of the teams and right off the bat I put my team in last by about 5 min.

I had about 2 hours before I was scheduled to go out again. I got changed and started eating and getting fluids back in. I was already really tired and I knew I had 3 laps to go (39 miles). I was really kind of disipointed in myself as I had thought I would be able to hang a little better. I thought I had a little better handling skills to keep up, but the big hitters had all the skills and a motor to boot. Chris and Bj were doing a great job, especially Bj putting us into 3rd before my second lap. Going out for that lap I was right on Rock's wheel. (The Hub) He was pushing hard and was doing a great job of flowing through the woods. When we caught up to our first rider he was able to get by without incident, while said rider decided to stop in the middle of the trail on an uphill. This cost me a little time, which made me panic, which made me push to hard in the wrong places, and I flew of the trail down a hill. Now I was even farther back! So I tried to calm down a bit and just be smooth. It didn't really help, going through a stream I washed out and hit my face on a rock, that hurt a bit. I wasn't really able to get my rhythm for the rest of that lap.

The next lap was better, I was smooth, fast, and did not hit my face on a rock. The only problem I had was my seat tube came loose and was being a problem tightening. Riders were getting more and more spread out so it was easier to keep a good line though technical areas. I was getting more tired and wasn't able to concur the climbs as well as before though. I actually felt like I was getting over some of the climbs better running than I had riding. It helped my back a bit too, which was really wearing out.

As the race was coming to the end we had time to go out for one more lap. It was totally dark so I borrowed a head light from Light in Motion who were at the race as a big sponsor. The light was awesome! Doing the race in the dark was like doing a whole new course. I kept waiting for certain aspects of the course but almost alway just went by them without even noticing. Flying through the woods made it feel like I was going through a tunnel. It was also really cool to see the other riders all over the course because of their lights.

The race was a blast even though my team came in last in the wicked fast category. One of the things that made it such a great day was the bike that I was on. I was on a 2013 aluminum Specialized Camber. This bike is a hybrid of sorts in the Specialized mountain bike line. It is a cross between an all mountain and cross country. My buddy Chris says that it can get over looked by people looking for a cross country bike, who would go for an Epic, and a more pure downhill bike. All I did to the bike was put my pedals on it and put on a -20* stem. It was perfect! I was able to put down a ton of great power on climbs, and was able to keep pedaling over rough terrain. The only downside to that was I kept hitting my pedals on crap. The bike seemed to really track well going through turns and taking turns at high speed felt solid even while both tires were sliding. The only times I couldn't stay on the bike were totally rider error. The only thing that I would change was maybe go to a 1 x 10 or 1 x 11. I did go into the small chainring a few times but I never had to. Dropping the small ring, shifter, cables, and such would drop a little weight and just simplify things. There were a couple times that I accidentally hit the front shift button, and again that could have just been my placement of the controls. The ability to lock out the front and rear shocks was great as I could easily lock them out when climbing for any extended period, which helped if I needed to stand. This is for sure a bike that I would buy if I could ride mountain bikes more often.

The after party at Burnin is legendary, and this year did not disappoint. As I was finishing the race the party was in full swing, with Bj, John, and Chris, dropping fat beats! Bj was really showing his full potential with a large black fluffy wig, sporting his QMC jersey and his famous water proof pants. Chris was sporting a mexican wrestling mask, as well as a one of a kind Pabst Blue Ribbon board shorts. Finally John was skezzing it out with his hunter orange hat and a mega mullet. These guys were whipping people up into a tizzy, drinking cold Pabst keg beer. Scott P was once again in rare form as well, and when that happens you know you have a party. Christopher was having a great time giving out all the great prizes to all the awesome competitors at the event. There was so much swag that I don't really think anyone walked away without something. Mesa Cycles was giving away beer glasses, bike equipment, wheels, and money. Pabst, and Polk audio were giving away great products like t-shirt and headphones. There was so much great stuff I can't come close to remembering but I got a great Pabst trucker hat that I was pretty pumped about.

It was a great weekend, and I think that everyone had a great time as well. Next year will be the 10th running of the race and they have promised to make it bigger and better than ever. I can't wait.

Chris was as excited as these ladies for their win.

Everyone lays their bikes down and then has to run to them.

Pabst brings a lot of beer for the party