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

Coaching into the future

Gymnastics is a sport mainly coached by people who were athletes, or people who have a great desire to be involved in the sport. It helps to have a good idea about how the human body moves and the physics it takes to perform said skills. Over time coaches learn from past experience how to do certain things. And the better we get individually and as a sport, the faster we are able to teach these skills. For the most part however there is nothing that really quantitates why an athlete can do a skill, and another cannot. Most of the time good coaches can see why, too slow, too loose, just not good enough, but like I said there are no real numbers that say you could do this if you were this much faster, or this much tighter, or hit this much harder. In baseball a big league pitcher is going to be able to throw over 90 mph for the most part, hitters swing at a certain speed as well. Golfers are similar, pro golfers can swing a club at certain speeds, as well as hit fairways a very high percentage of the time. If you play football you can run the 40 in four seconds, and if you race bikes like I do, you know that 6 watts per kilogram over 20 min is a great number to have. But how fast does a gymnast run down the vault runway, or how fast is their giant swing? How hard do they hit the floor when they punch, and how quick do they get from the board to the vault?

In the olympics this year they did something that is pretty awesome. They took two of the best vaulters in the world, McKayla Maroney and Kohei Uchimura, and they put both of their vaults on the screen, one over the other. The awesome part was that the Mckayla went higher and farther than Kohei! Women are not supposed to be able to go higher and farther than men......? Years ago I tried to argue with a woman who was supposed to "teach me something" that our elite women could be as strong as our men when it came to power/weight ratios. I don't think she really understood what I was talking about, and she didn't agree with me at all. But this video that they showed on NBC at prime time just sort of proved it for me. The elite women's vault is set at a height of 1250 mm while the men's is set at 1350 mm. So not only did McKayla go higher, she also did it from a lower starting height. So this started me to think, what was her power to weight ratio on that vault, and what was Kohei's?

Now the gymnastics people out there might be thinking, what the crap is he talking about? Well I am bringing something from my hobby cycling, where everything that I do is measured and my power to weight is studied to determine if I am going to be able to compete or not. So if there was a way that I could measure some of what my gymnasts do, I could start to determine better what I need to do to help them improve, or even say, this might not be for you.

I have an idea, but I don't really know how to make it happen. It is going to take someone with a math background, someone who knows about computers, and strain gauges, and how to make it all go together. My idea has to do with vaulting, and would take a lot of testing on gymnasts who are already great vaulters, as well as getting an idea of what it takes to do vaults all the way down to a front handspring. I am thinking I could make a chart that could tell a coach that if you do A,B, and C, this athlete should be able to do this vault. I know there are people out there that think there are too many variations that would make this impossible, but that would be wrong. I think that things could really be made quite simple and could just tell people if they are even in the ball park. So if you really like gymnastics, and you think that it would be fun to figure this stuff out with me, and are way smarter than I am, let me know. I have a plan to make something that could be what power meters have been for cycling.

Out.

Training

I had a pretty good week of training this week. I had a bad start to the week with a lot of crap going on, but I was able to put that stuff behind me and focus on work and riding. Katie was out of town so being on the bike, or being at work was way better than sitting around at home by myself.

The weekend started out with a pretty great meeting with Mesa about the end of the year and going into next. They were pretty happy with how things went and are interested in keeping things going. Great way to start off the weekend in my opinion!

I had work on Saturday morning and the girls are doing a very good job in the gym right now. We are getting close to the season so they are working hard on getting their routines put together. The kids are for the most part on track for another successful year.

After work I had a long ride scheduled. 5 hours, with a lot of different types of intervals thrown in there. I had a couple long intervals at the start of the ride and my normal location for those was full of people. I have a loop at Forest Park that I can ride pretty well, but they were launching hot air balloons from the park this weekend, and the launch brings thousands of people. So with my schedule already a bit tight I needed to find a place close, and fast, and I just happened to remember we have a velodrome in the city! I have never been to the velodrome, but it has been given a nickname of Mr. Bumpy-face, and it turned out to be a good description. Even with the bump surface, it was still very fast, and fun. After that I pretty much crisscrossed all over the city to get what I needed to get done, done.

The next day Grant and I departed on a long ride out to Hermann, MO to try and watch a few of our friends race in the Hermann Cross race. We jumped on the Katy Trail in Creve Coeur and pretty much just hammered for hours. We made one stop to get water but we made great time. When we were about 20 miles from Hermann we decided to jump on 94 to get a little feeling back into our butts and hands. The trail is a little tougher than cruising on the street for hours. I thought that we were going to have a really nice flat and easy, but we ended up hitting some pretty decent sized climbs. For a few climbs we were pretty bummed about the climbing, but really it helped with waking up our bodies after the 3 and a half hours.

About a mile from our destination I cracked. I ran out of water about 10 miles earlier, and did not do a good job of eating the whole time. But luckily we were right at the finish and we pulled right up to a restaurant and scarfed down some burgers and cokes.

After we ate we headed over to the race and watched out teammates Bj, Jose, Luke, Mark, and Chris destroy themselves racing that silly CX race. I for sure like to watch but I have yet to catch that bug.

I am feeling pretty focused right now, and am already thinking about the next season. Not only in bike racing but in gymnastics too. Everything looks good coming up.

Dreaming about the future

Over this last year I have been dreaming about where Quantum Mesa Cycles might go in the coming years. I for sure am a dreamer, I think that if you don't have big dreams then you can never accomplish big things. Over this last road season we had riders ranked high in the US for crit racing, our cat 3 team was ranked in the state of MO, and most of those riders are moving up to put together a great cat 2 team. We are hoping to go head to head with the other big teams in the area like Gateway Harley, Dog Fish, Mercy, Trade Winds, RACC, IScorp, Enzos, Rhythm Racing, and others out there racing at the top of the game. There are a lot more individuals that are racing amazingly and with the strength of our team we should be able to do well against them as well.

So where do we go? What do we do? I have never raced at the high level of the sport. I am only a cat 3 who hopes to one day move up and be a very good racer. But I have teammates who could do some pretty special things, and I would like this team to help make that happen. There is a lot that has to happen however, and I'm not really sure how long it will take to get there, but I just have to take it one step at a time.

Team guys have already started to target races like Joe Martin, Tour de Gila, Tulsa Tough, Dairyland, MoPRO, U23 Nationals, Master's Nationals, and others. These would all be big national and regional races, and a big jump from the local races we do every weekend. The great thing about racing locally in St Louis however, is the quality of the guys we have here. We have a good number of races throughout the year, and the guys here really seem to be getting really good. I heard often this last season how St Louis is considered a great crit racing scene around the midwest.

My dream for the team is to just keep getting stronger, and continue to race like we did this whole season, as a team. To move up into the higher ranks of USA cycling and start to be known on the regional level, and maybe someday the national level. At this point we are having a blast though, and the journey is the best part.

A big part of the team at the Maplewood race. The racing would never happen without our great family behind us.

Sunday Funday

Yesterday was the start of my offseason. It was the first long ride meant to start building base. I had meant to get going much sooner than we (Chris and I) did but I spent the night before out having a good time and slept till noon! I have no idea the last time I did that. I didn't really have any idea where to ride so when Chris showed up he mentioned we should ride up to Alton, IL and see if we could catch the first CX race of the year. I had never road out to Alton but I was down, and I love watching CX racing, especially when my teammates are racing in them.

My powermeter has been acting up so I didn't really know how to make sure I was hitting the zones I needed to for the ride. Then I remembered that Chis is like a motorcycles when he rides. So we road hard, and long, into a super stiff headwind for two and a half hours to get up to Alton. There were definitely a few times that I had to tuck in behind Chris to get a few seconds of rest so I could keep up with him.

Pulling into Alton we had to climb this road called Central st. It was one of the steepest roads in the area I would have to say. Not long at all, only two blocks, but that would be an awesome road to use in a crit. That would really hurt! We ended up missing all the races and pulled up with just a few guys talking about the race. Bj was still there and we found out he had won the B race and I think he said 7th in the A race, with no rest. I also heard that Keith placed 2nd in the C race. It was Keith's first time ever racing CX and he even took a hard enough header that he broke his helmet, but still kept going!

Chris and I stopped off at Subway for lunch before heading home. Our ride home was a bit nicer as we had a decent tail wind. Chris really started to have problems with his bike though. He had not been able to overhaul it for some time so we decided that we would get together later in the night and tear down our bikes. I like to take my time when I work on my bike, so Chris got done a bit faster than I did. He also has a bit more experience at that stuff than me though. It is really night though to have everything taken apart and figure out why you are having small problems. Most of the issues I was having were just from parts being too dirty, which was way better than parts needing to be replaced as I have been doing a lot of that lately.

It was a great day of bike riding and hanging with buds. The hard work riding is going to show up 6 months from now, and I already can't wait.

Benton Park Classic

The Benton Park Classic is the last race of the Gateway Cup, and in our area it is the last race of the year. This race is a totally different race compared to the last three. It is almost 2 miles in length with 10 turns, two crossings over highway 55 each lap, wind, elevation, and tons of fans.

Benton Park is a neighborhood that is working on making a comeback. There is a lot of good things going on there. It is a blue collar community that really seems to embrace this yearly race. The course winds it's way through homes, businesses, even skirting the edge of Budweiser. The race brought out tons of people that not only got some great racing, but a great band that played in the large park on the front straight away of the race.

Our race was scheduled to go last today. I thought this was great! I think it gets more people to watch the Pro race, and then the Pro12 guys were cheering like crazy. Especially the Gateway Harley guys, those dude were nuts. Of course our own fans were always very loud, but that is a sure thing every weekend. We have great fans! We were also able to watch the Pro12s race and get an idea of how things might pan out for us. We had a pretty good idea, but everything helps.

We decided we were going to throw some tough stuff at everyone again today, but instead of doing it at the end of the race we lined up from the gun. We wanted to put everyone in the pain cave right off the bat. We didn't think we would get rid of all the competition, but we might weaken guys enough to get some breaks away. We were only going to do this for the first 3 laps. We figured this would be long enough, and then we would sit up and start with the attacks. I have no idea if our idea really worked, but we had fun, and put on a good show. The biggest hitch was that two of our guys got stuck behind a crash right at the starting line! They weren't allowed to take a free lap either which really screwed them and the team. I got stuck behind a few slower guys and Murphy and Finks were able to hit the front flying. I was finally able to link up with Rickey and Connolly, and we made our way to the front. As we linked up I was looking for Grant and Wulff, and could not see them anywhere. Both of these guys are super strong and would not have hung back as they knew things were going to get going. When I couldn't find them after half the first lap was over I told the guys to hit it. We rotated 4 guys with me gatekeeping. The guys were wearing out after a couple laps though so I decided I should jump in. I did it a bit wrong however, pulling up to the front going into a turn and going way too fast. I was just too excited and wanted to make up for my underperforming the day before. As we came into the last lap we were going to team time trial we were also fighting for a preem. We ended up barely losing it because of a little confusion, I think mostly on my part I think.

A few laps later Grant put in a big dig, the dude was riding pissed and he was taking it out on his bike. He got into a group of about 3 riders and they were riding well together. We started to try and work the front of the field slowing the riders down. This was the best course to get a break away on, but they were going to need help, and be lucky. After a while another group ended up forming just behind the original break. Chris made it in there and I was really hoping he would make it up to Grant. Mike and I were still trying to slow the field down, but we had not softened it up enough and people were able to pull both breaks back.

We went a few more laps without much happening and I found myself on Mike's wheel. We have been working a lot on talking while racing so I just let him know I was there. Mike looks back and asks if I am doing good, I say yeah, and he takes off! I figured he was helping me out for a preem so I should hang on for the ride. We rounded turn 9 just blasting it, and took the last turn without ever lifting off the power. Mike took me to a perfect takeoff spot and I hit go taking the preem easily.

Right after that the whole race had a big scare. A stray dog got onto the course and caused a crash involving my teammate Eric Finks. Luckily the crash wasn't too bad, and the pack handled it pretty classy asking everyone to sit up. Now Grant apparently had attacked before the dog, or didn't hear the yells to neutralize the race, as he and another rider road off the front. After a lap or so Grant was on his own and making a strong go of it. I don't know where he finds the energy, but he just wouldn't give up. He was only 2.5 laps short but he still didn't give up and was still in the race as we neared the finish.

On the last lap I was set up in a pretty sweet spot the only problem was there was a rider just up the road and no one who wanted to sprint was going to chase that down. I needed a teammate right away, and just as I was thinking that Murphy came flying up the left side of the road stretching out the field. I was a bit slow reacting and was slotted in about 15th. I wasn't really worried as long as the speed stayed high. Jason made it with almost 2 turns to go, and got us close enough for the next rider to pull the leader back. As we rounded the final turn I had to swing wide to come around the rider we caught and got back on the gas a bit late. I was still able to put in a strong sprint but only finished 10th. Guys were really fighting hard for position and riders were loosing spokes and derailleur. I really didn't want to start my off season with a crash, so I think I left a bit out there. But I did hit 39.2 miles per hour, and that is the fastest sprint I can remember myself doing.

My team did an amazing job again this weekend, and I am pretty sad that the year is over. A lot of my team are moving up to the next category so we wont race together again for some time. It was great while it lasted, and next year we will have a few new great guys on the team. I am pumped to see what is yet to come.

This was part of the pain train today!