052313
"Dark have been my dreams of late...but I feel as one new awakened" -King Theoden
Dear ladies and gentlemen of the peloton,
Please let me take this time and regale you with some
exciting tales of Spring thus far.
Spring is always a strange time of year for the cyclist.
Some years everyone is super fit and ready to race by March, and some
years everyone is sluggish and cold and full of pot-roast. This year I think that, despite the cold,
snowy winter we had a LOT of people ready to throw down early. We all rode the trainer way too much, listened
to the same playlist way too much, and watched so many of the same Sufferfest
and Spinervals videos that if I ever see Coach Troy out in the open, I will
thrash him good…Ip Man style... with my Wing Chun skills. (side note: see
that movie, Ip Man…AWESOME fight sequences
and Ip Man was the teacher of Bruce Lee) But seriously, all that
trainer time and pent-up aggression has manifested as fast and motivated
guys and gals who are ready to rip. And there have actually been quite
a few Team Heroes members racing so far this year...and getting good
results!
So back to Spring.
Spring is a time when hibernating beasts wake up and begin looking for
something to kill and eat…and also for someone to mate with. We
will be dealing with the former in this
post. For the latter please speak to any one of my employees, each of
whom is single unless you count their bikes...and I think that they do.
So, bike stuff: I think by now that everyone knows
we have a new developmental team. We initially
called them the Cranky Carnivores because that is how recently
awakened-from-hibernation beasts are generally characterized. We recruited most of them from Bloomington,
where they had been living communally in an abandoned quarry and surviving
through the generosity of a kind old bearded savant named Festis who fed them
raw muskrat and beet-juice. And although
not formally trained in the art of bike-racing, the boys had a sort of natural “pack-awareness”
from the constant need to hunt (muskrat are crafty and fast). They were also very fit from the beet
juice. Soooooooooooooo…we rounded them
all up in nets (using beets as bait) and hauled them up to Fishers, along with
a few strays we caught in West Lafayette, Noblesville, and at Marian College,
plunked them down on bikes, gave them some kits and lime-green helmets and
called them Motion Elite-Heroes p/b First Internet Bank (THAT name is real, by
the way). After they learned the concept
of turning pedals in a circular motion, the rest came easily to them and they
started winning almost immediately (four wins and counting and some Cat-2
upgrades in the works). Also Ben
Schmutte is undefeated at the venerable Hammerfest this year. So please keep a lookout for the boys in blue
and green this season…should be very fun!
And much thanks to the very kind sponsors who have donated much to the
cause: First Internet Bank, Driver
Solutions, Indianapolis Gastroenterology, Scopelitis Garvin Light Hanson &
Feary, BioVelo Fit, and the Heroes Foundation.
More on Motion Elite in a separate post later.
So here are a few random observations/thoughts about some
random things I’ve randomly thought about and observed this Spring:
1.
I cannot
do high-volume, high-intensity training for two months straight and expect to
get anything out of it except dead legs and a pissy attitude.
2.
Chris Welch Jr. will soon be faster than any of
us will ever be ever in our lives and he is only 14.
3.
I used too much nitrogen on my lawn last fall
and this spring and now I have to mow every 8-10 hours or I can’t see out of my
windows.
4.
Hammerfest is really hard still. And now with the Elite guys showing up it is
more explosive. I have yet to finish
with the lead group on a ride on which I used to be a main protagonist. Some of this is overtraining (dead legs the
past three weeks) but those guys are freaking fast!
5.
The Fat & Skinny Tire Fest up at Winona Lake
is the most pleasant, fun, accessible, atmosphere I have ever experienced in a
bike race/festival. Rob and Nancy Gast
of Trailhouse Bike Shop are such great people!
Try to make it up next year if you have never been.
6.
Vince and Cindy Todd did a wonderful job with the
Heroes Gala this year. Really impressive
stuff and it really inspired me to do more for the foundation. I was blown away.
7.
I am continually amazed, grateful, blessed, and
humbled by the people who support the store.
We are six years old now and things are going well. It’s probably wrong that I take the store so
personally but I really believe that this is what God led me to do and this
place feels like an extension of me. I
am certainly not perfect, and am frequently grouchy, but I promise you that my
intention is to create a sense of family and belonging here and all are
welcome.
8.
Every once in a while I feel like the roof may
fall on us because of all the bikes we hang from the ceiling.
9.
Today, for the first time in almost a month, I
felt real, honest power when I rode…so watch out. I might be fast again soon.
10.
Bike fitting is a long process. Sometimes it is frustrating. But it is always rewarding when we can help
someone be more comfortable on their bike and produce more power. Every fit is like a chess problem. We analyze, measure, and think about how a
change might affect the fit later on down the road. More often than not, a proper fit will make
you faster!
11.
Logan Park is a hipster. I almost said “closet-hipster” but then I
realized that he’s pretty open about it.
Today he is wearing a t-shirt that he stole from a Barbie.
12.
Oliver’s hair is far too long. Jack Tripper baby…
13.
Ben Schmutte cracks me up. I think if I told him there is no way he
could ever do a 360 tailwhip off the roof and land on a pile of boxes with a
Tarmac, he would do it just to prove he could.
14.
Don Birch is ageless but his hip is not. But even with that one leg stuck out in the
wind like a jib-sail he will still rip your legs off 364 days a year. He takes Christmas off.
15.
When Chris Clarke shows up for a group ride on
the P5 you should have enough sense to stay in bed.
16.
Strava segments should only be bested on SOLO
RIDES. Everything else is cheating.
17.
My wife is awesome. I don’t know how she handles work, travel (a
lot), the dogs, the house, my schedule, the unpredictable nature of my
business, and my persnickety personality while keeping the most beautiful smile
in the world on her face. Amazing…
18.
I know it’s weird but I sort of miss how hot it
was last year. My legs work better in
that heat.
19.
John From Cincinnati was a great show. I don’t know Butchie instead.
20.
I really need to do some actual work now so I’ll
save some more for the next post.
So that’s it for this post.
I’m going to write another one on recent results of Motion Elite and
some race recaps but I sort of needed a warmup.
Some tempo…couple intervals. It
works with writing just like it does with riding. Writing/riding. Writing, riding, rhyming. Good one…
