Racing for a National title

I arrived in Augusta GA yesterday afternoon after a 7 hour treck from home in NC.  For my part it was an uneventful journey as I kept a steady stream of positive and motivating vibes going!

I road out on the course late yesterday evening and I have to say my cycling coach Dan Shelby nailed this peak right on the money, I had some lingering fatigue in my legs but I could turn up the power as needed.  The hills I thought were problem areas back in April just didn't seem all that much.  Thats more positive vibes on my side. Today there was no fatigue and I felt awesome!

With the exception of the camping trailer ( which is an new addition ) everything I planned on doing and milestones I wanted to reach have been attained.  Last December I used a program called mind map now called mind jet ( I have no stock in this co ) to fully in great detail plan getting ready for this event.  In the beginning some of the areas were blank but I put a need in there and looked for some one or something to fill it, in the end only the results have to be filled in.

Isolated away from the madness of the minions of riders that are here for this race I can prepair mentaly and spiritualy in a totaly amazing setting!  I can't say I am not nerveous or scared for that matter, there very well could be some big things on the line and a holla ba lou if I can pull the win off, it will be the classic out of no where underdog win.  It will take the ultimate ride of my life and each day I train on the course I feel the ride of my life coming to the surface.

This is an excelent time in my life, one of many but this one was a long time coming and I put allot of myself into this allot, I feel for what I did and the magnatude of this event I kept a fair ballance maybe not much futher than my close family circle but I tried and I think they know.

Its a big adventure on the road racing a bike and loving it so for the 27 min of racing 365 days have been put into the bank account of the past, so here goes, I am taking a lump sum withdrawal

The more things change the faster one adjusts

Well I am suposed to be at training camp in CO right now and things that are way outside my pay grade have decided that wasn't to be so, after all the President does say we can all do with less so others can have more, however I am the guy working hard staying focused and making sacrifices so why does someone else think they should benifit  from my labor?  Ok thats another rant.

The Nationals are 14 days out now and I will be giving the performance of a life time or I can simply stay home.  Overcoming obsticals and maintaining drive and direction this is the essence of being better than good, its not an easy game for sure you are up you are down things cost money and its all out of pocket while the pretty boys and the chosen ones get life on a silver platter but its like Rockey Balboa says:

Life ain't all sunshine and rainbows, let me tell you something you allready know no one can hit as hard as life, it will hit you and hit you and knock you to your knees and keep you there if you let it.  But it ain't about how hard you can get hit, its about how many times you can get hit and keep getting up, , , THATS HOW WINNING IS DONE!

Sick as it very well may be I think like that, so many things jump out at you as you reach the pinical of any endeavor like summitting a mountian, its not that things are bad or good we all know that God looks out for our best intrest but it is that compressed space, that compressing of time where each moment each step becomes more critialy important than the last and your mind is in a hyped state of clarity you are in the RED zone.

Two things are decided in the red zone winning and loosing, life or death all the base instincts of human nature blossom forth the reptilian brain activates and it is you against then.

It is also a lonely time as any warrior is an island all into his or her self each fighting for survival even if part of a team the key is to channel focus.  Leave out everything that does not bring you one step closer to victory, have no regrets as you line up ready to do battle.

Ahhhhhhhh such an exciting time too bad we all at dome point and at every level have to return to the lives of mortals

Ready Set and do it again!

The up coming holiday weekend was planed with a trip to VA however I will be in SC at the US PRO Time Trial while the family enjoys some VA hospitality sans Dad!  One must have his priorities straight!

There was an invite to the Morning Para session for the USA Pro TT so I need to be there, since Canada I have held my fitness pretty steady and have set some PBs in 1 and 5 minute Power output as well as putting in 40 hours in the saddle so far for this month, I really won't be in any peak form but I thought it would be cool in a perverse sort of way to measure my self against the Pro's times and just mingle for the day.

My coach Dan Shelby has set up the guest room and his wife is promising some awesome food selections I will make an apperance at BMW Fitness and the Edge Fitness centers while I am there and visit with the crusty ole owner Jim Cunningham of Greenville Cycling, na really I am the crusty ole guy!

D.Z.

My biggest goal for this event is personal as there is no real Race for my Classification so a time of 30-32.5 will be ok with me and I can walk away happy from the whole thing and get back home ust in time to pack up for training camp at the Olympic Training Center on CO

The wrap up from Canada, Exciting!

Funny how the London GPS data showed up I just noticed that now that’s eerie!  Just crossed over the Great Lakes on my return trip from Defi Sportif UCI-IPC cycling race. This trip was interesting in many ways some good some bad.

First off we had lost all our VA grant funding for travel so I had to plan this out if pocket, however I knew I could win here in the TT and do well in the RR. The plan proved to be 50% correct and I easily won the TT in C4. The preceding issue over Classification was neatly handled by UCI and the allowed me to re-class and I did keeping the same classification as last year. This second classification also opened the way to get put on the master classification list with a status of permanent which has to be handled at a higher level than my wishes but would be an excellent plus for me in my quest for a birth on The USA Cycling Team.

With the invite to training camp in June, if it manifests it self truly opens the door for that to happen. The room ended up being funded by Team Semper Fi and while it was a challenge on day one it worked its way out in no small part due to the efforts of HP director Paul F. so we could focus on racing!

I like coming to Canada it’s as good a place as any, I understand some of the language and the people always are nice and welcoming. Of note was on the way here I ran into Eric Stall and his family as they were leaving for vacation in Canada. Those were some cool moments as two guys chatted on family and such it was better that way. I stayed at the Hotel Delta in the financial district of Montreal and they are a first rate act from the initial greeting to the endless hospitality they are second to none and they handle a huge group!

The event it self was honchoed by Myriam and Marri they did excellent considering over 4000 athletes showing up. The weather for its part sucked and for the TT we had 32deg 20 mph winds and snow flurries. That event was good for me though and I won my class convincingly beating Sebastion Bouchard which was my competitive goal, however due to the conditions time goals were out of the question. Sebastion would return the favor on the RR after I DNFed due to a mec problem caused during one of the sketchy moments of the first 5 laps, some tool tried to move around the right and outside of the lead group and hit the barriers catapulting him into the center of the lead pack causing havoc lucky no one went down however I was run into the rumble strips on the inside of the turn and the impact caused my breaks to lock, it was tough luck but no injury so Ill take that!

The spirit of the majority of the athletes was highly friendly all around there were some snobs of course but over all the spirit was great. Steve Clendenning came up on the trip with me and he held his own and made a good roommate. Placed 5th in the TT and 4th in the RR good work for him! We made some new friends meeting MC Capt Chris A. Tim C. and his wife Josh Joe and many others its a great community with some of the folks and that makes it worth it.

On winning, its always a good thing! Those that know how I tend to function know that winning something like this or reaching a big goal is anti climatic for me. The juice the jazz all the excitement to me is in the journey the striving, everything that came before from the first training session to handling the stress of travel and International competition, that’s where the growth is that’s where your spirit is tested and you grow or wither from the challenge way before you are asked to perform. Don’t get me wrong bike racing is some tough stuff, if Hockey players will tell you bike racing is some tough stuff then figure the sport is not for the timid and weak. But if done right training prior to any big event should pale in intensity to the race itself, its just the way I roll.  Dan Shelby put together the training that has gotten me to this point this year.  Dan has done an excelent job associated with Jim Cunningham together their coaching is top rate!

No one gets to the finish line without the support of many people and sponsors.  First up I am grateful to God for giving me such a neat talent and allowing me to hone it to such a high level.  My wife and family for putting up with my single mindedness and dedication.  My personal Life Coach, Talane Miedaner who nursed me through the final phases of mental prep.  Talane is a world renowned Life Coach and the owner of LifeCoach.com  she has taken on the role of sponsor coach and I am grateful as her guidance brings steadiness and direction to my endless drive!

 

I use a hydration product formulated by the folks at Innovative Health Solutions and their products H2O Overdrive and Hydrate.  These hydration and recovery products are formulated with the athlete in mind and meet the requirements of recovery after grueling hours of training.  There support and dedication to the drive to the Paralympics has been exceptional!

One of the products I have used more that any other is a product called Calci Blend by Heart Burn Help LLC.  This is something I picked up by track racers and marathon runners.  Most will suck down a hand full of anti acid tablets before an event in the hope that it will lower the blood Ph and help with muscle tissue acidosis, however due to some of the active ingredients in the antacids I never used them.  However through some research I found the products offered by this fantastic sponsor and I can tell you they make me go any faster and there are no athletic claims attached to the product, however when I take the product I can tell you that it does extend my ability to keep a top end pace.  Also as an added benefit the powdered form can turn a bitter cup of coffee or cheap wine into an pleasurable beverage!

So yea some more highlights were Sasha the Russian massage guy that spent the better portion of 30 min literally beating the shit out of me, I am still sore! Then at one point there were 3 therapists working on me each saying in heavily accented Russian/English "relax" yea it never happened as my body was slammed all over the massage table, no wonder Russian Athletes are so tough!

The food of course was excellent, however I think I have broken the code on why sometimes the meat just sucks and realistically its in the translation. So here in America you order prime rib that is a nice cut of meat however somewhere else it may be some meat attached to some prime ribs!

I like the Canadians cuz well I was raised by some! While there are allot of various peoples in Montreal you still get this straight talk no PC bs and they love there country. They just don't mix words but do so in a polite way and God forbid you are a politician they roast them up there well done ya know but not in a hateful way like the way we do here.

While I was there they had some massive protests going down over tuition rate hikes. The scope of the protests were impressive with thousands of students taking to the streets nightly like clock work, choppers in the air at 845, riot police at 9, foot police and EMS at 910, live coverage from both sides streaming over the net no later than 915 with twitter active through out. It was a total interactive experience as one could watch out the hotel window, get the bigger picture on the TV, get one way slanted news through various on line feeds and follow the microcosm on twitter amazing. However it strikes me silly when one looks at eastern and western "spring" protests. In the east they had huge success in an attempt at freedom not western branded freedom for sure but a release from the current tyrants in hopes that the next one was a little less so, they were not so much protests as they were uprisings and civil war. Here in the west it seems that the majority of the underlying ideology is driven by people that already are given huge handouts wanting the other hand filled also on the backs of those that are willing to produce in order to have it stolen and redistributed by politicians seeking votes. But hey that’s another rant.

Air Canada is a shit hot airline keeping the customer first, reasonable fees and they back up their service up with great people. Customs, TSA, and all that acted professional processing thousands of people and I didn’t see any crying grannies or naked hippies.

So a great weekend of racing and ad I wrap this up one of my protégés just scored a Gold at the US Warrior games what a week!

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Win win win

Yea you know i won my classification and the one above it so in C4/5 I was the fastest guy, even though the times today were slow.  However slow is relevant it was 32 deg, the wins was 20 mph out of the north and there were snow fluries, a good solid challenge!

Also today they reinstated my normal classification after I went through testing this turns out to be positive for me since this is my second look with no change do that makes the classification perminant which is great, getting classified is a little like the Spanish Inquisition and DUI court all rolled into one, no one wants to do more of these than needed.

So right now I am happy, elated and dog tired!

So here we go!

The trip into Montreal was smooth and dispite some minor bumps here and there pretty good trip.  While checking into Air Canada at 530am yesterday I ran into Eric Stall who is the captian of our Carolina Huricains Hockey Team.  He was with his wife and children so instead of playing the gawking fan we exchsnged plesentries as 530am would only alow, chatted some about kids while some would say that I should have gotten an picture or an autograph I felt it better to maintain the intimate setting to remain as is simply I felt it was the right thing.

So in Montreal settled into the Hotel Delta on President Kennedy Ave deep in the financial district hundreds of athletes total crazyness and a wonderful welcoming by the event staff.  Steve Clendinning showed up about an hour after I did and as is the ritual we built bikes ate naped ate and slept.

The weather will be the story this weekend forcasting huge winds, snow, rain unreal. And yea cold cold cold.  This morning we were greated with snow!  Now I have raced in some bad weather cold rain wind heat but snow on a time trial, , , not yet!  thats bike racing folks:)

I also woke to an e mail changing my class, while it makes little impact on my quals time wise and makes my over all effort needed a little less competive even though it is a step up class wise ( one would think it would be harder) this year seems to be filled with small tests like this, but I like tests as I try to study one grade up.

Also there is huge student unrest here and some amazing protests and clashes.  Last night 26 April we had helos riot police and some angry people---thats a bad mix.  You know I am all about a good protest but in order to have one I think having a real solution to offer makes for a good reason to protest but mostly and sadly all I see is folks wanting to take or be given at the expence of other citizens.

So we are here we are resting and waiting, so it is!

D-2

So all the bikes are tucked into their boxes in hope that Canada Air can deliver them on time!  Last day at home was crazy stressful making sure every little thing was packed,preped and boxed up safely,the only thing I left was my timex watch which I hardly wear so not bad packing!  Had to call the wife and let her know as she would have been a little miffed had it gone off at 6am.  I can't tell you I feel stressed about the races, usualy those things take care of themselves, but its the minutia of getting out of one place and into another making sure everything is accounted for and then there are all the extra things, tools tape, zip ties extra batteries  all that stuff then you bring your personal stuff. 

Racing keeps the wardrobe down as really you sleep eat sleep race eat sleep so you need people cloths to fly and maybe 1 dinner out, jeans 3 shirts and your styling in a bike racers world! Every thing outside seems in order all we need is an extra 10 deg on Friday night to make it a little less brutal.  So other than the packing frenzy O feel at peace, the massage may have something to do with that.  Tomorrow at noon I speak french:)

Today is D-3 and things are becoming more real and clearer as the hours go by.  I cleaned and packed up the road bike today since I will be doing most of my final training on my time trial bike.  I also have everything packed out clothing wise and thats where I am going to have some magic happen.  After having a record breaking unseasonable warm week Montreal has been plunged back ino the throws of late winter , temps for the first race will be mid thirties with winds 20 mph off the water so figuring aerodynamic clothing to race in that weather is a challenge!

Mentaly I try to stay netural this far out there is not much one can do other than plan and plan and maintain a positive attitude and that in it self is a full time job.  I remember listing to a recording by the late Coach Jim Valvano and he said the only secret to success he ever found, the one magic thing he could ever think of was: Jim + Motivation = SUCCESS and you know he is right I can't motivate anyone really other than my self daily, but the magic is ME + MOTIVATION = SUCCESS and I have to tell you that is a full time job.  When you get to a point folks think your success is like over night and that is so far from the truth!  Leading a successful life isn't the lottery nore is it a sprint it is more like one of those Ultra Marathons and you have to take things one moment at a time and hopefully you picked the right direction most of the time, some times training and or life simply suck and some times you just screw up! NO one lives a perfect life the last guy that did was murdered.  The key is to add up alot of small success and Never Never Never ever quit!

You can beat me down, call me names and spit on me but in the end I am only going to my knees and when I get up its best to not be around, and you won't be, I'll be the last man standing.  Why you ask, well simply put I have solid faith that I will!

Day -4

Most of the day today was spent on piddly little things or so they would seam.  Getting ones bike to confirm to UCI standard takes some work, amazingly a bike out of the box dosn't mske it UCI legal its a process but better to spend the time now instead of getting called at the start line like last year.

I went over the course in my head a few times and focused on who is who and who to watch once I get boots on the ground.  I did an hour spin, tomorrow will be the only hard workout this week.  I tried to keep my head in the game but I linited sny distractions that I feel are a detriment.  They finaly got their act together and released my clasdification from last year so I an solid in c 4 which has been an ongoing ciruise.

Did alot of minor work on the tt bike and hoping it helps it run smother

International bike racing part deux

Its Sunday night and right now I am 5 days out from the first of what I hope are many international Para cycling races.  This weeks race takes place in Montreal Canada at the Circuit Gillies Vileneau a small island on the St Lawrent river that is set up resort like with a Casino and F1 track which we race on, big stuff.

Training has gone real well up to this point and races have gone better than expected really. Support from USOC has been sketchey at best so we did this race out of pocket.  Team Semper Fi jumped in and took over lodging for us.  Now the weather is whats going to be a bigger factor.  Forcasted for NNW winds at 15-25 Kts on Friday which is time trial day should be challenging as well as temps below freezing!   I plan on going with a solid disk rear, 80mm up front and a Rudy Project helmet with full skin suit.  I will bring a set of 60mm wheels and use those if the wind becomes an issue and layered clothing. 

For this week training will be light with a good solid 6 day taper, I will finish up hypoxic training Tuesday and should be packed locked and loaded by wed.  Right now my focus is maintaining fitness with as little physical stress as I can as well as begin a barrage of mental Imagery, focus and positive reinforcment drills.  Knowing you are in top form out of any previous measurment helps too!  So this week I will be going out of my way to stay positively focused and minimize any negitive input.  So this is D-5 focus focus focus and minimize distractions and plan for every contigency making the shifting of plans seamless!

So strap in and follow along I hope you enjoy the International Racing entries this year!

Brian lives on the Outer banks of NC with his wife and daughter in a house by the sea.  Brian is a Elite Level Paralympic Athlete and travels with the US National cycling squad as he prepares for the 2012 Paralympics in London. Brian is also the CEO of Performance Impact Coaching LLC, a company devoted to coaching individuals to live their ultimate dreams! He can be reached at: grenierracing@yahoo.com

Saturday, March 31, 2012 at 06:19

Portsmouth

http://maps.google.com?q=36.866993,-76.411329+(Portsmouth)

Again today is race day here in VA.  I traveled in yesterday and even though I did my pre race openers in NV I reconed the course late yesterday afternoon.  I feel really ready and in the flow, there is a little added weight to the time I can come up with today so that added pressure has helped.  Physically I am fresh and mentally I am motivated.  I was careful this week about recovery rest nutrition and hydration as well as guarding my mind from negative influences and focused positive thoughts.  At this point it is a matter of pushing and staying ON THE GAS for a scant 27 min and be over with it!  I feel ready lots of positive energy and flow! 

The beginning of Race day went excellent by the checklist.  Up early, food in, hydrate, carbs no issues with check in.  Got in a good solid warm up while sipping on H2O Overdrive.  My warm up consisted of 30 min of solid spinning with 3 sets of 1 min 2 min & 3 min power sets at race pace followed by one set of 10 min steady state, one last carb gel and off to the start.

I usually carry two timing devices and three when I ride the power tap.  Today was an important event so I was as light as I could be having only a crono watch and a very simple speed meter.  Since my Heart Rates have been pretty steady for years now I don't usually monitor this during races.  It will peg at 172 within the first few min and stay level until I let off the gas.  Having done a course recon yesterday I have evaluated the adv speed I need to reach my goal of sub 28 and also the speed I need to clock a National qualifying time of 27:37.  26.6 & 26.99 mph respectively, both attainable! 

Knowing the start official Gerald Teeuwen USAC CAT A Official helps with the start jitters, I go through my usual start ritual I hear " you have 30 seconds" I start my watch Gerald gives some encouragement in his native Belgian " you have 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 departe` "  I am off!  This is it, I am rolling a couple of power strokes and I settle into the drops, set the position I will not move from for 28 or so min and bring the bike up to speed.  Things seem effortless and 27 mph comes quickly and I settle into a pace mindful of the meter readings taking quick glances to insure speed stays constant with the changing terrain and wind conditions, I feel in flow and for April this is my A game manifesting it self!  I feel a slight drag from the wet pavement and some what from the wind, but adjust speed as needed, the feel of the pave is a foreign feeling like riding in glue and its not constant but none the less the reading is kept at 27mph.

Then Murphy steps in at 3 miles and like some cartoon the speedometer starts blinking and reads zero! Lucky for me Time Trial is a individual endeavor as my frustration under pressure is turned into a stream of vocal expearlatives that would make the most hard core Marine blush <ugg>!  a quick tap and a less than friendly giggle of the device is fruitless and as if mocking my efforts the screen goes blank.  Moma said there would be days like this.  Undaunted and now flying in the blind I continue my effort and judge the remainder of the ride by the feel and simply by the seat of my pants, I was now winging it!

I hit the turn at 14:08 minus the 30 seconds I had started my watch in advance at the start yielded 13:38, good!  The turn was lousy and I neglected to down shift as I entered the narrow sharp 180 that would bring me back to the start and I bogged down ever so slightly.  The return trip was uneventful as one is usually mindless at this point, I focused on every sensory input I could to judge speed tempo and effort, trying to mentally judge and adjust the best I could all the while maintaining forward movement. My internal systems were humming along quite well, my training had been spot on, however when I crossed the finish line the crono read 28:47, spent, frustrated, and still moving forward the math never came to me.  Even during my 20 min spinning cool down I couldn't process the math.  I sucked down an H2O Hydrate after the cool down and sat on the edge of my truck trying to reason the math 28:47 -30= 28:17 which comes to 1::24.6 per kilo which is exactly 1 second off the national standard for C 4

I guess I could be depressed angry or a thousand other emotions however that’s not bad for April.  2 min faster than 08 and 1 min off my best ever on this course so how can I feel bad.  I got my papers signed hit the showers talked to my coach and planned for the future what can you do?  That’s bike racing folks. 

Time to plan and train for Canada and my first International showing for the year, bring it ON!

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Driving a long way to race gives one plenty of time to focus on the upcoming task in my case the 2012 Dismal Dash Time Trial usually the very first race of the year for me. Its always before a race where one lives through all the horrors and second guessing. Not that u show up untrained but as is normal before any performance your psyche takes on a very critical focused roll of every breath you take and does a critical review of everything that has preceded this moment.

Today I am excited and feel ready for the challenge at hand. My goal is 1 hr or less over the course. I have preped long term mid term as well as short term in order to be able to give a good show. The prize however is really next weekend where I will ride for time qual but like all races this one I simply wish to beat my prior times. More after the race!

So the follow-up I guess I could focus on what I did or didn’t do however there is no teaching in that! The thing about any sport is the relative short duration of the event compared to the hours of prep time, for instance for me I have trained diligently since November not really for this exact day but you get the point. So you get to the start, most have some sort of 30 second ritual, mine includes the sign of the cross an a kiss on my Michael the Arc Angel pendant then I reset my Power Tap to read zero, close my eyes and only open them when the counter hits 5-4 then I turn on, click! when u start you either know you are in the zone or not its pretty simple, if not you have a struggle on your hands however this is where heroes are made and some days you just glide to a fastest time with no seemingly effort. How or why that happens is the subject of volumes of books however NO ONE can help you into the zone you are there or you are not and the truth comes out when the gun goes off, it always does.

So today my time matched my times for the past 3 years no plus no minus so it all was a mute point, no not really I tested a new helmet, new shoes and took off more relaxed than normal. I beat my best ever time for 20 k on this course but lost those precious minutes riding back totally spent, however that was the plan

You get scared when u have to produce, there is no training in the world to get you ready for the pressure, Politics and general bull shit that comes with any high level athletic event. So for me I either get into some music or totally blank out focusing only on the spirit of the place, just me.

The funny part is when u get to the start line and impose your ritual on the Reffs  they just chuckle, but they are good folks giving their time for your benefit.

You always worry about doing bad not like I worry about coming in last but ya gota get in the top ten, right its pressure. Bt its cool cuz I know a month from now my wheels will touch down in Canada and I will be hot hot hot! so went today, I had a good race too:)

Instinctive Training

Instinctive Training
By: Brian Grenier
INTRO-CHAPT 1

After many races I have had the privilege of interviewing many pro and top ranked amateur riders.  Being an avid cyclist I always try to shift the last portion of my interviews towards training.  While some of the top riders give a vague response universally I tend to get the same answer 90% of  of time  " train hard when you feel up to it and go easy on your off days" This flies in the face of current conventional training techniques of structured training programs marketed to the masses.  This stark contrast sent me off on a research quest that uncovered many training techniques some that you may be using and some you may not.

Periodization is an organized approach to training that involves progressive cycling of various aspects of a training program during a specific period of time. It is a way of alternating training to its peak during season. The aim of periodization is to introduce new movements as you progress through the years training cycle to specify your training right up until you start the season.

BLOCK TRAINING Unlike traditional periodization, which usually tries to develop many abilities simultaneously, the block concept suggests consecutive training stimulation of carefully selected fitness components. The rational sequencing of specialized mesocycle-blocks ( smaller blocks of training about 6 weeks) presupposes the exploitation and superimposition of residual training effects,

INTERVAL TRAINING: Interval training can be best described as bouts of exercise interspersed with short rest intervals. It is based on the concept that more work can be completed at a higher relative intensity compared to continuous-type training.

CONTINUOUS-TYPE TRAINING: Continuous training is a type of training that involves activity without rest. This type of training may be of high intensity, of moderate intensity with an extended duration or training year round.

And the list goes on.

 What I found though was that small selections of top athletes were using training that flew in the face of "COACHED" training plans.  From the majority of athletes that alluded to the training plans they followed they were universal in their statements "train often and hard when you can and allow for plenty of recovery".  Hum not even close to the marketed plans that require strict adherence to a linier program that is strictly laid out and either morphs over time or stays the same. While these programs and systems are fantastic and necessary for building up a novice even up to a state/national level, in order to make the next jump up the ladder the stimulus has to become regulated by the athletes ability to produce it and recover from it

It is interesting to note that the speeds reached in tours past have been pretty much steady over what I see as a huge expansion of cycling technology, never mind the nutritional advances.  This year we witnesses an across the board reduction in adv wattage as well as one of the longest, time wise climbs of Alp du Hez.  Some would put it into the corner of the efforts of the anti doping folks and if we go down this road we have to come face to face with two realities.  One: doping as practiced by pro athletes gives them about a 15% advantage just the facts man as they are presented.  Two: Things have not advanced as far as modern technology would elude to and training and training results at the upper levels have not really changed much in 30 years until you look at marketing and the concepts necessary to market “training”

It is with these facts in mind that I set out on a quest for a melding of the old and new into a workable form that will provide progression and gains all within a reasonable training philosophy that takes into account the most important element in bike racing, the RIDER!

Here is where developing the ability to train instinctively comes in.  In a nut shell to train instinctively you have guidelines that need to be met in any given week say 60 min @ 85% LTH with say 5 min being the shortest allowable set, in a normal routine you may have this # broken down into various sets of various length on different days in the end you come out the same 60 min@85% LTH the stress on your body would be identical for the micro cycle of 1 week.  However lets say on 2 interval days your legs are just not there or that thing we call non-cycling life interferes, now what do you do?  Again conventional wisdom says you just leave the missed session where it is, in the past, which I agree with, or like robots we go out and suffer through some sub par sets exasperating what ever the underlying condition that was responsible for our off day, or we train at unreasonable times and places again making for a sub par session and pissing off those non-cycling entities that required our attention.  I look at a series of sub par sets as reinforcing failure and is that what you want your training to be about?

This one cycle of events is why you hear about allot of guys doing herculean efforts never missing one single interval of a prescribed set no matter how sub-par they are, always bragging at how hard they train, and they do, but in the end they rarely are contenders due to the sub par nature of allot of their training, heroic yes, smart no.

Using the instinctive route you have 2 or 3 things that will drive your training sessions 1) total training time for the week 2) primary intensity level and duration for the given week and 3) secondary intensity level and duration for a given week.  So here is an example of the instinctive training model with tasks for a week and what it would look like:

Example only:
Total training time sun-sat 14 hrs
Intensity level 1: 90 min @ 85% 5 min sets as a minimum
Intensity level 2: 15 min@ 95% 2min sets
Recovery set to work ratio=1:1
,1:2 at max

When you are feeling good and you have the legs you start to chip away at this weekly allotment.  You may find a day when you are hot and you can get 2 x 20 @ 85% and 2 x 2 @ 95% chipping away from your weekly task allotment.  Have a couple of bad days and you back off and just ride using the time for drills of low intensity.  Another good day comes and you chip away more. 

This is amazingly simple, produces the same if not better accumulated training load ( because your doing the work at max stress) and allows for recovery when you are feeling off, and allows for flexibility when non cycling events interfere with your life.

So we have broken the ice on this revolutionary yet simple training technique in session two we will cover training effort in more detail and cover the 20/80 rule.  Until then listen to your body it just might get you ahead of the crowd!

Brian C Grenier lives on the Outer Banks of NC with his wife and daughter.  Brian is a Elite Level Paralympic Athlete and travels with the US National cycling squad as he prepares for the 2012 Paralympics in London.  Brian is also the CEO of Performance Impact Coaching LLC, a company devoted to coaching individuals to live their ultimate dreams! He can be reached at: grenierracing@yahoo.com

Copyright © 2011 by Performance Impact Coaching LLC

All rights reserved..

Dopers Cheaters and a bag full of Dopes

Some times the ability of the athletic world to allow their young to be eaten by the ravenous and gluttonous media mavens astounds me.  Just a few months ago Track racing lost one of the most ardent supporters and crazy personalities Mark Whitehead, I don’t know the guy from Adam however only 3 paragraphs into the Obituary article, the author notes that he had taken part in Blood transfusions during his Olympic days a technique that was NOT Illegal at the time and widely used.  In the article like all sneaky journalists that have never brought a bike over the speed of 15 mph or trained past the Jan 31^st resolution burn out this writer nefariously hints that his death could have been caused by his use of transfusions, WTF?

The world could have been created in 6 days too!

Then the whole LA thing just twists me like a dish rag, the whole lot of conspiracy stories around this guy makes the UFO crash at Roswell NM look like child’s play!  In a recent article this month the writer made statements like, organization 1 is perceived to give to organization 2 then a few sentences later knowing full well a negative opinion had been formed goes on to say however no where in their web site or literature does it say that they do or would give to organization 2, that is incredulous! Na Na a Bo Bo! When you go to the local bike blogs/forums there is more trash talking by know nothings that one could ever imagine, to these guys there is a doper under every lycra clad speedster.

The Aliens at Roswell bought us Velcro!

Then there is Marc McGuire which is a story that makes me sorta chuckle at the total misuse of Taxpayer money ever perpetrated sans for the past 4 years.  The guy took a supplement that at the time you could buy at any health food store and was NOT a banned substance at the time ohhhhh did he pay on the alter of media driven self righteousness.

Alters are for sacrifice.

Even great athletes like Phelps gets his ass dragged through hell over a public picture showing his lips around a bong, looses sponsors, credibility all the while the stench of reefer permeates out of the back room boiler room where trash journalism is created.

“I tried it but I didn’t inhale” used to come from the media darling that once occupied the White House!

Even for the media created poster boy of righteousness and good, Tiger Woods, Sans his deplorable personal life The initial reporting on his off course conduct has a paragraph about his assumed use of HgH and platelet therapy thrown into the story of his fall from grace, I guess the theory in media is that if you pour gasoline on a burning man the flame will burn brighter.

The story that really jacked me up this week was written by a reporter that claimed to be at the Tour Down Under in AU.  He writes that while in the lobby he notices a rider fresh off suspension (he served his time) and shoots him the look like I know who the F%^k you are buddy Then in a self righteous way pens a story bashing this man who served his time for his crimes, reapplied for a licensed solicited a team to hire him and I am sure goes through a higher scrutiny by the anti doping controls than any other guy there that week.  Throw in the fact that he did some winning and you would swear this guy was Satan reincarnated.  The writers reasoning was that the rider was not humble enough in his penance during his suspension.   Oh for the love of GOD man!

Judge not, least yea be judged.

Don’t get me wrong here I think personally that if there are a set of rules then those that play the game should live by those rules and if you don’t then you should be prosecuted under the full extent of the rules of the governing body in which you violated said rules.  You break the rules, they prove it beyond a reasonable doubt, hey you are GUILTY!

However I also believe every man regardless of his stature in life should be allowed the due process of the law and in fact should be treated as an innocent until proven guilty.  That is to include the reporting done by the ravenous media hoping to fill up subscriptions as well as 24/7 time slots.

The Governing Bodies should also work to eradicate dirty supplements that perpetrate the market and could cause problems in testing, and a reasonableness exist in the testing protocols to clearly define the difference between what may have been an ingestion of a dirty product food or food substance and what is performance enhancing.  This reasonableness would be in stark difference to the statement that “The Athlete is responsible for everything they put into their bodies”   

“What the world needs most are men of Reasonableness.”

WAKING UP

    Every day I get to wake up is a new journey for me.  The excitement of what each day can hold is endless and gets me up every day.  Well not really it is the Iron Man watch set for 6 am that does the trick without it I am a 9am guy!  Every day and every moment is geared towards one thing getting faster on a bike all the while maintaining a balanced life <sort of>.  Once out of bed I get my legs moving and on most days can tell what type of day it is going to be training wise, as I stumble out of the bed room I stager over to the espresso machine and rev it up for another day.  By the grace of God espresso brews faster that coffee and soon I am on the couch reading the morning financials while I listen to some mind programming tracks on my Droid.  After the financials I usually read or study, currently I am reading Iron Wars by Matt Fitzgerald, Dave Scott, Mark Allen and the greatest race ever run.  Kid wakes up at 6:45 and my role changes into Super Dad !

Depending on what type of training needs to be done for any day I usually try to begin at 0900 however over the past few days weather and interior construction crews have thwarted my efforts to get it all done.  Well thwarted really isn’t the right word its more like their work ethic is rather lower than mine so 3 hrs late for an appointment is no need for alarm.  What happens in the back ground though is that my training gets pushed out 3 hours and then as the end of the school day nears my training time becomes compressed, then compressed and then some more so that what was to be a 3 hour session needs to be rushed into an hour and that is as long as I skip eating!  SO frustrated beyond my mind and crawling out of my skin I stuff in the major work sets of my training then suck down a power-aid 6 amino acid tablets and a sugar free Rock Star.

I finally realize that hey the extra training just isn’t going to happen today no matter how much hand wringing or vocal complaining I do, the fact is what is just is and I take a deep breath and just let it go knowing that what is past has no bearing on the moment.  At 3 pm I get my daughter from school and any semblance of that serine calm quickly disappears.   Now bike racers are an odd lot anyways but soon in the chaos of the afternoon I hatch a plot to “make” up the training lost and implement the plan as soon as the next sunrise hits so its been more like a win-pause-win not bad for two days and my hours will end up just as they should have, so again while I am sucking on a power-aid I am smiling knowing the Great Spirit is in my corner today, maybe I will push it and E-mail Mark Allen and see if I can get some sage advice.   

THE DAILY LIFE OF A BIKE RACER

OF course this will be an opinionated observation, all from my perspective but I think it is worthy of a daily blog due to the fact that we are really all the same, we get tired, frustrated have doubts and suffer setbacks day by day. Some times by the hour.  I really think of my self as a regular guy, some may argue that point but they don’t live with me day to day.  My Wife, X Wives and children just think this is all normal, Saul R should e mail from time to time or Dave Z should call the house, Dad should be out training or at training camp if he isn’t racing and on it goes. We as a family cheer for Danny Pate cuz we know his parents, spending the last 7 days of the 2009 TDF with them. I live a fortunate life and wake up every day thanking God for one more day to live the life he bestowed on me, I am grateful beyond imagination!

However it was not always like this. I am a Traumatic Bran Injury survivor, so much of my past is relearned and has no emotional impact on me.  Lucky me!  Serving 22 years in the Marine Corps I saw plenty, became Loved and Hated, Revered and Vilified all in one life time.  I survived morally through many days of debauchery-no small feat and I walked away with my body and health intact. Early on in adulthood I came to the realization that I had two traits that I could master if given the chance, one was my physical body something that has served me in many ways but has been resilient through the years and my mind, that something deep inside me that would never yield or give up no matter how dark it got.  I know that one day these traits may help me pass on to the enlightened side but realistically so it is and I have accepted that many years ago.

Each of us were destined to travel a path by the Great Spirit it all fits together every day ever piece and you know when you are off track, life simply sucks, every moment every day until you allow your life to become aligned with the path chosen for you. OOOOOOOh I can here the grumbles now but hey hang on really hang on, live this with me and if I am wrong I will buy you a beer maybe two.  That’s my bandwagon and I am sticking to it.

I was questioned why I picked Blogging from the Dark Side as the moniker of my blog but it fits.  Cyclists are considered fringe athletes, not because they are non athletic but for the simple fact they are way misunderstood, We don’t do Tri’s we don’t do Iron Man’s__-- very sheik, we ride for hours starve our selves to the very fringe of unhealthy and can make a bike move forward at 32 MPH.  We have been malingered with doping allegations since time immortal, while the NFL gets a pass, some times we are moody being a quiet bunch mostly due to fatigue but drive on through the blackness towards the light of the perfect ride, no one has been there yet but daily we strive.  

What will follow over the next few months are my entries to substantiate my drive to make the 2012 US National Paralympic cycling team, it’s a big chunk.  However being a life coach I want to also share the reality that goals like this have ups and downs and all the fields are not green fields and vistas  HARD WORK is just that but in the end it is rewarded.  What I hope to share over time is the realization that anyone can over come anything day by day inch by grueling inch until they are a champion worthy of their own acceptance and their place in the human culture.

International racing thoughts

International racing thoughts

Justin and I arrived close enough time wise to meet at the airport in Montreal. Mostly due to the fact that the first rental car company left me stranded at the airport. Avid was willing to match the deep discount rate and offered an up grade so they got the business

We both went to medical classification after taking the seinic route through Montreal and Champlain. Justin was classified CP 5 and I was put into CP 4

My bikes had been lost in a 1 hour transit between Toronto and Montreal adding a little more stress to the day.

We arrived at Hotel Delta around 5pm ant the service there proved to be an oasis. Justin built his bike and we took part in dinner at the lavish restetaunt on sight. We sat around peeping for the next day watching the Montreal Canadians beat Boston. We turned in early and rested for the next day. Bikes showed up at 12am



So goes day one!
Here is up date two Race day one:

The day started with some dense fog that only spring in Canada can produce, plus being on the 24th floor you pretty much look down at most things. Justin and I started the day with a hearty northern breakfast of anything you want and started the day!

We arrived at the race site in Blainville early or so we thought but we were able to work through some minor registration glitches simply. Being early we got the lay of the land and milled about diligently. The remainder of the US team arrived just prior to the start and the real prep got under way. The racers crossed the start line exactly at 14:02
For this race categories were mixed so we were in a pack of about 25 riders from C-1 to C-5 which made for some interesting racing. Team USA dominated the pace, chased down break a ways and attempted some of our own, I went off the front once gaining 30 seconds on the pack before getting reeled in and Justin attempted it twice once in the final lap where he attempted to stretch the elastic to the breaking point, however almost at the point of no return the pack woke up and began the chase. With 1 K to go the set up for the sprint began to take form and unattended riders were beginning to be bumped and shed to the rear. The pack picked up tremendous speed towards the 250MT Mark reaching 35 MPH at which point Justin was caught and consumed by the chasing pack. The sprinters having been lead out began the sprint at this point with that maniac like charge to the line that sprinters live for.

Adv speed for the 69K was 21.5 MPH Justin finished 9th and I 10th, each picking up 8 and 7 UCI points respectively in the process.

So went day one we returned to the hotel after being treated to a Montreal traffic jam and celebrated with Burgers and Fries and watched the Montreal Hockey game with the crowd in the dining area!

Today is a rest day and we intend on doing just that with Massages set for 5pm and track recon this morning then its rest rest rest the hardest part of being a competitive bike racer!

Day 3: Rest Day

Today is Friday which in most circles of life denotes a break is near from the day to day grind of the work a day world. People will pack up and enjoy their favorite activities, families will travel to the treasures of our land and most will enjoy recreation in order to recover from the daily mental grind. However in the life of a traveling competitive cyclist it can mean only one thing, there is a race some where!

We are currently being treated to a sunny Montreal morning and are feeling quite spry maybe it is the spring like picture from our hotel window or the fact that as good cyclists we pretty much haven’t left the comfort (or prison, time dependant) of our hotel beds very much in the last 24 hrs. The term we use is rest day but in the science of cycling rest days are used and planned to provide the riders with the opportunity to fully recover from exceptionally hard efforts so they can have max energy and fitness to go beat themselves into a bloody pulp again That’s the game of cycling.

Thursday on our rest day we enjoyed to some extent resting and working on stemming the flow of minutia. Once again, after a extended tour of the suburbs of Montreal (that means we were lost) we found the race track for today’s time trial, Le Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve. We slowly rode our bikes around the track noticing the nuances of every turn, the effect of wind, the location of puddles and the degrees of difficulty every twist and turn had to offer. I don’t think it is something we do in a check list fashion but more on a subliminal level these things just register, because at some point they become the important aspects of winning or loosing, living and dying. To top off the mid day of our recovery effort we were treated to “free” massages offered by the event organizers Defi Sportif. Free they were and kind of like free Ole Milwaukie lite beer you take it, smile and do your best to enjoy it. My MT was a guy named Ildar Zakariev a Russian, Spoke limited English or French but to his credit had memorized the word relax in 4 or 5 languages. Justin got the German in Spandex and “I love beer T shirt” ah so it goes!

After that traumatic experience we both got some food, well a lot of food and returned to the comfort of out hotel room beds to watch the NFL draft.

Fridays (today) race is a time trial often called the race of truth. In a normal bike race weakness can be hidden through the proper use of tactics and stronger team members. In the time trial this is not the case. There is a rider, a bike, a course, a clock and whatever mother nature feels like throwing your way at that moment in time. In a measured and timed sort of fashion you give it your all hopefully timing it right, much like the unrolling of a carpet getting faster and faster as the end nears and whipping across the finish line, so that when you cross the finish line you are cross eyed, totally spent physically and emotionally destroyed. The time trial is a lonely endeavor and at the end you are reminded of who you truly are.

Today we race at 1830 est so if you are around some where you can light a candle or mumble a prayer to the Great Spirit please do so. Our goals today are not very diverse, we are gunning to reach qualification standards for the national team which will require a sustained speed of 26.6 mph adv over the full 17.6 K course. The weather calls for rain and wind at 13K so while you are at it light two candles!


Day 4 race 2

It is said that suffering is a universal plague. However I like the way Victor Frankle looked at suffering and his depth and view of the struggle we all face from day to day. In ones search for meaning he says it is the why that matters most have a big enough why and you can endure any suffering.

'He who has a why to live can bear with almost any how’

Racing in a time trial is sorta like that and ask anyone that has raced one to the point of their eyes rolling back into their head and to the person they will agree with me. Real Time Trialing is not for the weak of spirit.

Taking a que from yesterdays dispatch we finished up the day at the hotel in a controlled frantic way getting dressed and pinning #s on our uniforms, Then we headed to the race track in the most direct way forgoing our daily tour of Montreal. Arriving early we had a lot of time to mill about but this decision to be early almost ended up to be the tipping point and a saving grace for the other Americans when the race orginizers upped the start times by an hour! Thank God for Text and cell phones!

By early evening the weather had turned lugubrious with a gusting wind from the west. Every single moment felt like rain and the wind had started pummeling the course with left over leaves from fall rolling over the tarmac like waves crashing over some alien shore..

Pre Race is a funny time especially at high level races its sorta like a bar scene where everyone is checking out everyone in a free for all manner, hey he looks tired, he looks fat, look how tight his uniform fits his butt. I has been rumored that even the famous duo of Lance Armstrong and Johan Bryneel would do the same thing at early races even going as far as snapping other riders on the backside to “test” their level of fitness, in the end the cycling creed reads, small butt fast rider, big butt--- well you get the point.

There is also a cornucopia of bravado going on as past races good or bad are relived in vivid high volume reciting the crazier the race or the rider or maybe both the higher the volume. For Justin and I we pretty much found a place out of the wind and parked our well sculptured butts on some scrap wood and either droned out to an Ipod or stared blankly at the ground staying away from the undulating Star Wars bar room scene the registration tent had become.

We got to get in one warm up on the course during the intermission and this would prove to be critical as some points along the course had become squirrelly with the gusting wind. Then like the final tic of the clock it is your turn in the start house and the counter starts giving you your count. I was almost not allowed on the course due to a change in UCI rules dealing with aero extensions something I must change right away!

Justin went off in front of me at 18:03 and I would soon follow at 18:11. The support on the course was great and they made us feel like pro’s with photo Motor cycles riding in front of you and official cars zipping about insuring a clear lane and looking for infractions, pretty cool stuff! And so it went round and round for 4 laps each turning his self inside out in order to reach that magic time standard and a podium shot!
We finished off the day with Justin coming in 23 over all however 5 in his class ( 26:46 )

and I turned in a hard performance coming in 7th over all and third in class (25:40). The status quo was established with Justin just falling into the Emerging pool and I maintained holding in the upper Talent Pool missing the National time by a mere 4 seconds per K. Using there % calculations which I do not understand I beat out numerous world champions % wise as well as numerous medal holders from 2010 season!

I hope you have enjoyed these journalistic forays into the realm of cycling I enjoyed creating them both on the ground and on the computer I hope you have enjoyed this glimpse into the reality of competitive cycling.

Day 5 race 3

Today we head out to the Defi Sportif Road Race where we will work Lock step with the National Team to insure USA is in gold tonight! The sun is shining and it’s a gorgeous day here in Canada, great day for a race!

The end has come and it is the feeling that one gets between the opening of the last present on Christmas day and the Dinner that will follow, weird place to be some where between ultimate excitement and total depression. However having or being excited or depressed is a sign of being alive, such is the flow of life


Today Justin and I simply entered a road race, rode around in an endless circle and there were winners and losers for a simple end that could be it.

However the story didn’t end there nor did it begin there: Our beginnings, Justins and Mine are similar in nature but differing in the beginning of the sentence. TBI is the silent killer of over 10 million people the symptoms range from simple head aches to total memory loss depression and sucide, each of us fall some where in-between. I have ridden a bike for 10+ years now and Justin for about 2 years. Each entered this program from various avenues that put us here today in Montreal Canada, an international Bicycle race invited here by the US Paralympic committee and supported by the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund as Elite members of Team Semper Fi we have come along way!

OK I’ll get to the race. After consultation with Mike Durner the Director for the US team here in Canada and he my cycling coach we had decided Justin and my jobs would be to run interference through the race like it was a simple chess game, however this game is hurdling down the road at an adv speed of 25 mph.

The first couple of laps were fairly easy with Team USA dominating the pace. There were a few flyers off the front but eventually they were reeled in as very few can match the rolling energy of the peloton ( main group). At about lap 8 Team USA tested the stretching point of the elastic and once determined rolled back into the peaceful grinding of the Peloton. Lap 9 would prove to be slightly different with Team USA launching a vicious attack off the front that very few could follow and the elastic stretched and broke, the remainder of us just “sat up” slowing the peloton to an agreeable speed allowing---what we felt was anagreeable break get away.

The remainder of us just played the game where we where. Flicking as they call it, but in the end it is Rugby on wheels each jockeying for the ultimate position. Once the last 2 laps were on us and the lead break over 1 min ahead, just as we planned, we were divided into 3 groups: lead, middle and the a trail group. Each group having nothing to do with skill fitness but shear luck.

As the race neared its crescendo the riders in the lead group had a solid lead allowing Team USA to take first followed by another American and a Columbian. The second group made up of about 6 riders screamed to the line oblivious of their surroundings only the line counted. I did my best to lead out Vince Juarez team USA for the up coming sprint reaching speeds of 30 mph into the wind, the sprinters went and as is customary I just sat up and coasted to the line albeit at 29 Mph. each of us were separated by less than 20 seconds!

What a race this was a good one, hard fast and tactical a true joy to be part of! Justin and I finished respectably towards the back of the pack taking 5th for me and 10-th for Justin we did a lot of work for Team USA so not bad and that’s bike racing folks!

In the end this was a total weekend of dread and excitement along with the honor of representing Team Semper Fi at an international level, nothing could be finer today! Tomorrow we become simple men until that special time comes again when we are faced with a bike race.

Over the weekend we stayed in the top ten and even reached the top three not bad for Vets who no one even notices on the street!

These placings have also added to our UCI Points and will move us up in the international standings where all big things exist as we push towards the US Nationals and hopefully a slot on the World Team for 2011