Blogs by Professional Cyclists - Professional Cycling Unplugged™

Every year for one week in December I fly to LA for a track camp. Sometimes it is against my will, but once I am here I get into the track spirit. The efforts are hard and mentally you have to be on top of your game. Coming off of base training and then expecting your body to function when you are going anaerobic is a challenge, but once the pain and suffering has subsided you just head right back out and do it all over again. One of my biggest peeves about LA is the road riding. You are in a city, with way too many people. So imagine how welcomed a group of 15 cyclists cruising down the road is!! Well the other day I finally had a day where I somewhat enjoyed riding on the road here, unfortunately it takes way to long to get north of Santa Monica so getting a good quality road ride in everyday is not so feasible. I took some pictures on the ride to remind me that there is some good in LA, especially when we find a climb that is 5km long and averages about 15% with pitches from 16-22%. This picture is just before we started the climb up. The rest of the group did not know what was ahead.

The view from the top.

Everybody made it, some were smiles, others were just looking forward to the decent on the other side. Fortunately for everyone it was a beautiful day, since for most of us here the weather has finally turned beyond bearable and into full blown winter. Unfortunately for me (and this seems to be the case every year I am here) the weather in Asheville has been gorgeous, a good 10 degrees warmer than Socal, and this is not making for a very happy me. As I look at the extended forecast for home, I am going to be welcomed back to the cold weather that I had just before I left. Thank you weatherman!!! How many more months of winter?

I hope everyone is having a great holiday season, and wish ya’ll a Merry Christmas.

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Posted under ROAD BIKE, TRACK

Hi Folks,

Here is my bike this week:

I am in Los Angels, California right now at a USA Cycling track camp and oh my lord is it a shock to the system but now that it is day 3 things are for sure looking up. This camp is cool because its 1/2 track girls and 1/2 road girls. The track girls are flying, they are in the middle of their world cup season and its plain impressive to watch them ride. Amongst the road girls, I’m in good company and its helping all of us push a little hard than we would alone. Its pretty great. I can’t say I am particularly thrilled to be in L.A. but its really not that bad considering its snowing, icy, and in the 20s back home in Chicago.

The track at the ADT Center is a trip. Its a 250 meter wooden track and its fasssst. If your not going fast enough you slide right out and that is definitly a thought that sticks in your mind any time you ride up on the banking. Not going fast enough hasn’t been much of an issue however. ITs so crazy because as a roadie I’m used to my training being much more time actually on the bike, but at the track, we are there for 3-4 hours and I spend maybe a total of 1hr actually riding. The efforts we do are so hard and so different than anything I’m used to and they leave me wanting to gnaw my arm off…how can that be???

I’m so psyched to be here in short and really glad to be having this experience. Luckily tomorrow is a day off the track but it looks like we are going to go for a longer road ride. L.A. for sure doesn’t have that much going for it in terms of that with all the traffic, but I guess if we bear stop lights for an hour or so, eventually we will get to some neat canyons to ride in Santa Monica. I’m looking forward to that! I haven’t seen a hill in more than 3 months now and not to sound to bike dorkish but I sort of miss them. Anyway, can’t wait and now I need to get back to serious business watching CSI as there is a murderer on the loose killing people with draino that they voluntarily drink after eating exotic berries that alter your taste buds to make bitter gross things taste good and sweet…

Thanks for reading,

Rebecca

(5 votes, average: 4.80 out of 5)

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Posted under ROAD BIKE, TRACK

An off season.  What is that? Until September I thought an off season was  a racing year which yielded poor results.  Apparently not.  As explained to me, i was expected to not race, not even train, but just, well, BE.  Interesting concept for someone who can’t sit still, but i like a challenge, so i thought i would give it a crack. 

After the Olympics were done, all my boilers were cooked and I was advised to take an ‘off season’.  l For the last 8 years, I have raced 11 months on the trot, and I think I found my limit. After a frustrating season with sickness and injury, I have spent the last two months doing nada, nil, zilch.  Okay, I lie.  I am incapable of doing nothing, but exercise and fun without rule and regulation surely doesn’t count as training? 

My first step in seeking an off season, was a move to Boulder, Colorado.  With paradise found, I sought out every possible way to enjoy the fresh mountain air. I started with some mild hikes, not venturing too far from town, and quickly sought a bigger challenge.  Before too long I was rising early and venturing out in the dark to find the thin air at 14,000ft.  Watching the sun rise from above the tree line was truly breathtaking, a moment which a photo can not capture.   

 With my new found love for the mountains, and my obsession with all things two wheeled, it seemed logical to jump on a mountain bike.  All my years of road and track cycling seem to have given me specific skill sets, which I quickly learnt were not necessarily transferable to the off road.  My first ride saw me hit the deck twice, and while I had a skilled and patient guide, my own frustration stood in the way of my progression.  Thankfully the next ride was more successful, and I’ve realised how many wonderful places are accessible by bike.  To think, 15 years of bike riding and I had never realised this!  

So far this off season business was a dream.  I could do whatever I wanted, chasing adventure.  Seeking some bang for my buck, I moved onto trying to learn to ride a motorcycle.  Needless to say, i ended up taking a license course after coming perilously close to hitting a dumpster.  I am now foolishly planning some motorcycle adventures for off seasons to come.  Long deserts and wilderness where dumpsters are few and far between.  

 Time to head back to Sydney for a few weeks, catch up with family and friends and enjoy some Australiana.  With some big occasions to celebrate, and some beautiful Sydney sites to enjoy, my time back in Oz has been delightful.  I managed to divide my time between the beaches, the blue mountains, the south coast and the urban sprawl that is Sydney. My final family meal consisted of barbecued Kangaroo, and some good Margaret River wine from Dad’s cellar.  

Amongst all of these adventures I was having, I  couldn’t help but notice that the track season was starting, world cups beginning, and all without me.  I have never missed a track season before, and it seems strange to watch the results filter in and from such a distance.  For the longevity of my career, and the next progression, a break was necessary, for body and mind, but goodness me, I can hardly wait to get back into it! 

For now, it is back to Boulder for some fresh mountain air, time to brush off the cobwebs and get back to work.  After all, I love my job.    

(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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Posted under NON-BIKE, ROAD BIKE, TRACK

As the nights grow longer and the days grow colder, I find myself reflecting back on the past year, and what a ride it was.  In fact, it all started just about one year ago on Black Friday.  I caught an evening flight out of Philadelphia, and off I went to Australia to begin a quest to realize my Olympic dream.  96,000 Frequent flier miles, ten trans oceanic flights, four continents, one Olympics and one international controversy later here I sit at my home in Topton, Pennsylvania wondering, “How did I get here?” 

“Get pushed off the apron, go half way up turns one and two, climb the rest of the way on the back straight.   Down the transition, see two to go.  Give it a little gas now, but not too much, take it easy up turn one and roll a little harder out of turn two, gotta have good speed coming in to one to go…”out of nowhere a father and his eight year old fly by me on the track, son tucked into the slipstream.  A bell sounds and the boy springs to life, sprinting around his father to take the win. 

The highlight if my week was Tuesday night.  Dad comes to get me in the big van, and we make the pilgrimage to Trexlertown.  I watch him race, and although I am not really sure what is going on out there I know it must be good.  He takes me for a few laps around the apron after the racing, but usually I am too nervous to ride on the banking.  Not this time.  This time I am going to do it, I am going to ride up high like he does when he races. 

He tells me something about the track but I’m not listening.  Too excited to listen for words of caution or nuggets of wisdom.  I get my feet in my pedals and I am off, right to the top of the track!  This is great!  Suddenly a new world opens before my eyes.  Dad chases me up the track, panicked but excited.

Looking back maybe he knew something changed, but my mother, sound asleep at home, had no way of knowing just what kind of chain of events was set in motion on that evening in June.

Twenty years later I find myself in a dark hotel room in Los Angeles.  By a twist of fate, or coincidence, it is Father’s Day.  “I am turning my phone off’” I told them, “I need to focus.”  I did need to focus, that was true.  But really I was scared, scared of what was about to happen, or what might not happen.

Even when I was little I knew the Olympics were special.  As soon as I learned my Dad had been, I knew I had to go too.  And there I was, about to compete in the Olympic Trials.  After so many years of hard work, success, disappointments, obstacles, and every other emotion one can experience, all that stood in my way was just 12 laps of the track.  For a moment I was overcome by emotion. 

But now it was is time to focus on the task at hand.  The little boy and his father were down on the apron, and up I went, straight to the top of the track, to start my warm up, resume my visualization.

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Posted under TRACK