Why?

1) He won CASH MONEY this weekend at the BCA Cyclocross race.

2) His pink hoods look gorgeous.

3) See attached pictures.

As Williams College cyclists, Mount Greylock is our Matterhorn, the proving ground where we must cast aside our fears and confront the awful truth: it’s a big-ass climb.

The only thing more grueling than training on MG is racing up the mountain. The annual Mount Greylock Time Trial is hosted by the Northampton Cycling Club and part of a summer hillclimb series, which features many other predominant pitches, such as Mount Equinox, Whiteface, and the granddaddy of them all, Mount Washington. In comparison to these beasts, many would quickly denounce Greylock as at most a little sibling to these well-known soul crushers. They ridicule our stomping grounds in ignorance. The route up the mountain features constantly changing gradients, sharp switchbacks, and the occasional bear in the middle of the road (really). This is the real thing.

Thus, we came to the race without any illusions regarding the difficulty of our task. To make things more difficult, the weather was temperamental: heavy fog, strong gusts of wind, and moist roads. Far from ideal.

Needless to say, despite the many challenges, the Williams College Cycling Team made a big statement this weekend: we own this mountain.

Results can be found here.

– First off was Elliot Chester ’14, who put up an awesome time and broke the hour mark despite less-than-ideal gearing, back pain, and a summer that didn’t allow very much training time. The most important part of racing is heart and giving your all, and Elliot absolutely did just that.

– Next was Gabi Azevedo ’14, who is becoming a hillclimb beast after climbing the sheer cliff of Mount Equinox earlier this summer. Gabi’s a great example of a racer who took up cycling on a whim and has become a force to be reckoned with. Gabi won her age group handily, showing that she’s definitely on track to have a great season.

– I went off next. I’ve been waiting for this race for quite some time, and was happy to have some residue fitness from summer racing. It took every ounce of my being, but I was able to win the overall and set an overall course record to boot! I was turning myself inside-out to break 40 minutes, and was able to do just that. I hope I can come back next year to continue to set the mark on the mountain.

– Amy Levine ’13 did this race for the first time last season and her debut ride turned out to set a course record for her age group. Those of us who know Amy are hardly surprised. Amy has been perhaps the single most aggressive racer on the team for the last two years, attacking whenever possible, leaving her competitors in the dust. Amy won her age group this year and continues to chip away at her time. I have no doubt that Amy will break the hour mark next year. A champion if there ever was one.

– Ben Dalzell ’14 exploded onto the scene last year as an improbably strong newbie bike racer. After tackling Mount Mitchell down in Asheville, NC and riding at home in New Hampshire, Ben has set his sights on next year’s summer hillclimb series. Based on his sheer talent, dedication, and determination, I’m putting my money on him to bring home the bacon with a lot of those races. He’s certainly off to a great start already, putting down a solid sub-50 minute time on Greylock despite having done no formal training for months. Many cyclists can train for months and not even approach that time. Like I said, he’s a talented guy. (NB: he’s also a super nice, chill, and good-looking dude).

In addition to all these amazing performances, a quick shout out to Todd Holland (staff at the Zilkha Center) and Matthew Cheung (a Williamstown local who is just about to go pro on the triathlon– you heard it first here!) who both raced fantastically and helped to deliver the message that Williamstown and Williams College are home to the best cyclists in the Berkshires.

Long story short: we’re pretty dang good.

Proud to be your

– Coach

It’s almost time for the 2012-2013 season to begin! I’m going to be posting some of my favorite rides, as well as the old favorites that we all know and love. New riders are especially encouraged to check this out.

Can you have too much of a good thing? Right now, I would say, emphatically, yes.

I’ve spent a huge amount of this summer riding, maybe about 20-25 hours per week. It’s a fair amount in isolation, but combined with a day job that involves hiking, sawing, lifting, and breaking, it’s a huge amount of physical activity. At first, my hubris won out and I convinced myself that I was pretty good, and I could handle the high temperatures, the long days, and the the weekend races.

Well, not anymore.

Something happened to me this week that’s never happened before. In the middle of a hard workout in near 100 degree temps, I had a sudden realization that has– honestly– never happened to me before during a ride.

You know what? I really don’t want to do this right now. I really, really, really do not want to be on my bike.

The following day I tried to go for an easy spin and couldn’t even do that. My legs felt hollow. My body felt weak. But, scariest of all, I just didn’t want to be on my bike. Not even a little. Even the beautiful Mission Peninsula didn’t inspire me.

I think this is something more than overtraining. I think this is a case of too much of a good thing. Too much time on the saddle; too much focusing on where to, how long, how fast; too much poring over the minutiae of training data.

What I’m most excited for next year, when I’ll be coaching y’all, isn’t really training per se. Rather, I’m most excited to just spend time with a group of people who are as stoked as I am for getting out on the road. Excitement is contagious. I might be helping you all out when it comes to designing workouts, but you’ll be reminding me every day of why I love this sport so much.

In the meantime, I’m going to spend a few days off the bike and on the mend. Life’s too short to spend your days doing stuff that you don’t love.

Hey all,

Hopefully you all have at least glanced at the training plan I sent out a few weeks ago. I just wanted to throw in some additional tips and updates.

Riding in the heat: Just because it’s hot out that does not mean that you should not ride! It does mean, however, that you need to be especially careful about how you spend your time on the bike. Your output will be lower than usual in the heat, so if you’re using a power meter don’t expect to be able to put out the same wattage. Most importantly, DRINK TONS. I don’t think I’ve ever brought too much water on hot rides. I think 2 bottles/hour is a good place to start.

Training smart: Remember that riding and training are not the same thing! If you’re just “going out and riding,” that is not training. Every training ride should have a specific purpose.

Updates: Send me an email if you have any questions, but in general it might be time to start doing longer aerobic rides. The more time you spend on the bike getting used to riding, the better.

Again, please let me know how your training is going! Funny anecdotes are appreciated.

– Erik

I snapped some sweet pics of Gabi and Elliot!

A one hundred mile day with some epic views. Some below.

I’ve been biking across the country through the deep south. A lot of interesting folks, rural areas, and good food. But the one thing that gets at me is the heat. 95* today, and a bit humid too. Heading into Texas from here in Louisiana and Mississippi where it should actually be cooler. More@ thewirldofbcor.blogspot.com

One of the best rides you can do. About an 80 mile day. Here are some pics!

Hey all,

So ends the collegiate racing season. However, for the interested among you, racing season does not have to end here. I’d recommend doing some summer USAC races, and I’d strongly recommend doing the Mount Greylock ITT in September.

Given that we never did any significant aerobic training over the Winter/Spring, it’s worth getting some in now. The focus for the next few weeks will be:

– building an aerobic base
– building strength
– building endurance
– riding at tempo pace

and you will not be doing:

– VO2 work
– LT work

So, a typical training week should look like the following:

– one long aerobic ride. This is a ride done at aerobic pace, meaning that at no point during the ride should you be sprinting/straining/etc. The goal is to maintain a steady output, be it on flats, uphill, or downhill. You might feel somewhat tired at the end of the ride, but it shouldn’t be the type of legs-and-lungs-burning tired– more like a wow-that’s-a-long-ride tired. Pace should feel like you can maintain that level of effort moderately comfortably for the length of the ride, but faster than recovery pace. In terms of length, I’d recommend starting around 2.5-3 hours for beginners and 3.5-4 for more experienced riders. Remember to bring LOTS of food and water.

– at least two recovery days. These can be taken totally off the bike, or up to 90 minutes easy spinning. These should be EASY. Think about spacing these out, so that you’re never doing too many tough days in a row. Also, note the “at least” part. If you’re tired, sick, busy, or whatever, just take the day off.

– the rest of the days can be any of the following (each day should start with 30+ minutes warm-up and end with ~15 minutes cool-down):

• spin-ups: mostly a ride just above endurance pace, but after WU do 6 sets of 45 second spin-ups, 1 minute rest between each spin-up. A spin-up is where your cadence should rise from normal riding cadence (ideally about 90-100) to around 120-130– pace will rise, but these should not be all-out efforts. Think tempo pace. The key is to maintain good form while doing this. You might need to start with first working up to around 105 or 110. If you don’t have a cadence meter, try to get a sense of cadence by counting your pedal strokes to see what 80, 100, 120 feels like. After the spin-ups, ride for 1-2 hours, and then do another spin-up set. Then cool down.
• strength workout: a chance to ride at lower cadence to build muscle strength. After WU, do six sets of 4 minutes at tempo pace with cadence around 60 (i.e. SLOW). Rest 1 minute in between each set. Tempo pace is faster than endurance pace, but sustainable for over an hour continuously. At the end of the six sets, you should feel challenged but not overly exhausted. Then, ride 30 min-1 hr at aerobic pace with cadence at 100+
• Tempo sets: after warm-up, do 3×20 minutes at tempo pace. Again, this shouldn’t be working crazy, crazy hard. Just being steady and working a little. In terms of power, tempo is around 75-85% of LT. In terms of heart rate, shoot for about 80-85% of max.

We’ll work on this for a few weeks and then get to other stuff. Ideally, these workouts should make you yearn for something harder. You should never be going all-out. If you finish the workout and think “gee, I could have done a few more sets,” then that’s a good thing. Work hard, but more importantly, train smart.

Let me know if you have questions!

– Erik