Nugent Coaching Systems

Last night I had the opportunity to paddle with the Ultimate Potential group.  Great location and a fun crowd to paddle with.  Some were entirely new to kayaks, some had years of experience.

The sea life was awesome.  Sea lions, egrets, otters – incredible.  For about 90 minutes, we were able to paddle in calm rolling water practicing paddle technique and line of travel.

The fog added a neat element as we became so entrenched in it that to get back we simply used our ears to audio-locate the sea lions harping at the pier.

If you’re over in the Santa Cruz area I highly recommend checking this group out on Wednesdays.  It’s low key and you get a great workout in.

This is an intense, short duration workout that could easily be lengthened or incorporated into a longer workout. Pretty cool routine. I like the upside-down wall crawl!

Before Exercise

With the availability of sports drinks and a variety of performance and recovery fuels, it’s easy to overlook the one nutrient that has the greatest impact.  Water.

Water is Critical for Successful Training

Depending on the length of your workout, your hydration needs may be as simple as a couple cups of water.  In general, any event or workout an hour or less in duration, you only need H2O.

Two to three hours before your workout or race, take in about 2 cups (500 ml) of water. (One standard cycling water bottle)

During Exercise

During your training, you should be consuming about 1 cup of water every 15 to 20 minutes.  That’s just over 1 standard water bottle per hour, or one tall cycling water bottle per hour.

After Exercise

When you’re done with your workout, you should replace what you’ve lost.  The best way to determine this is to weigh yourself before the workout, and drink one water bottle of water for every pound of weight lost during the exercise.  This is your best bet to prevent dehydration and to provide yourself with the water needed for recovering from your workout.

Water is one of those things we take for granted.  If you’re working out for more than an hour, then it’s time to consider an electrolyte replacement.  Otherwise, keep it simple, drink before, during and after exercise to optimize the hard work you put into training.  You’ll feel better and you will be ready for the next workout!

Cheers,

-Brandon

Cycling by yourself is easy.  Well, as far as communication goes.  It’s simple.  You know where you’re going, there’s no line to hold, you can go where you want to go, when you want to go.

Cycling in any situation where there’s more than one rider, communication needs increase.  It’s important for safety, and it’s important if you want to enjoy the ride.

The previous post was written somewhat jokingly, but it underscores the need for both riders to be in sync.  Sometimes solo rides turn into small group rides and you need to know some basics if you want to keep it rolling smoothly and not be caught surprised.

1. Don’t make assumptions
   • Set a time limit for pulls (i.e. 30 – seconds, 45 seconds, etc)
   • Decide what side you are going to ‘pull off’ from (are you rolling left or right)
   • Make sure it’s OK to Draft! (see previous post)
2. Point out obstacles and debris – it’s the least you can do
3. When you pull off of the lead position, slightly decrease your speed, keep it controlled, predictable.
4. When you become the leader, DO NOT SPEED UP.  Maintain the speed.  Resist the temptation to lead the group to new heights of suffering.  By speeding up you create this yo-yo accordion affect that just sucks.
5. If the drafting relationship is decidedly one-sided (as it was for me – see previous post) THANK the rider you are sucking wheel from, praise them for their riding prowess, say something (sincere) that will at least make them feel appreciated.
6. If it’s you that’s leading and the person isn’t able to reciprocate, and I’ve been in that position,  don’t worry about it.  We can’t all be strong everyday of the week.  It’s ok to get a work-out in.  If it’s a race and this loser isn’t pulling their weight and they’re not a teammate, it’s time to do some communicating.

So remember to keep the com channels open.

Ride safe!

It’s Monday morning.  It was a long weekend and despite being tired, damn it, I was still going to ride my bike into work.

The internal dialogue I have with myself on days like these is that ‘anything goes’ for getting into work as quickly and as lazily as possible (albeit while on the bike).  That means

• Slicks for tire – drop the knobbies.
• Road bike if possible (I recently crunched one of my fingers and the vibration of the road bike is just enough to make me cry).
• Draft, draft, draft.  Don’t let a roadie pass you without getting a chance to draft.

Simple enough ruleset.  An effective one.

Roadie 1

I’ve seen this guy on San Tomas Expressway a lot.  He use to have a mountain bike like me with really narrow slicks.  He used to drop me everytime I tried to draft, now I can keep up, but exchanging pulls would mean he would have to slow down, a lot.  At the next light I thank him for the pull and he says “no problem”.

We exchange small talk – “Where you headed?” “You do this everyday?” “Have a safe ride.”  Done.  Nice chit-chat, light turns green and he’s off.

Roadie 2

Roadie 2 is the kind of guy that makes sure you know he’s passing you.  Which is good communication really.  But that’s not why he’s doing it.  He’s says it with a “Morning.  I’m kicking your ass mountain biker.  Guess I won’t be seeing you anytime soon.”

He doesn’t say it like that, but that’s what his face was saying.  I don’t care what he’s saying actually, I’m more interested in following my basic ruleset.  Draft, draft, draft.  So I seize the opportunity.

He’s moving.  My bike computer says we’re going 22, 23 mph.  Not bad, that’s about as fast as I can pull on a MTB anyway. I’m inches off of his rear wheel.

He sees my shadow.  He speeds up.  24, 25 mph.  Whew, my legs are starting to get burned.  This is fun, but there’s no way I could reciprocate this.  Usually I am good, but most people I draft off of understand that mountain bikes just aren’t as fast as their road bikes.

Overpass.  We climb, and he accellerates.  I’m getting the feeling he’s trying to lose me.  I push HARD to keep up.  Down the back side.  26, 27, 28  mph.

Suddenly and without warning, roadie 2 decides enough is enough and I need to pull and jerks his bike to the left.  Clearly he is familiar with the concept of exchanging pulls.  But I’m spent, and we’re going 27 mph.  I can maintain the speed, but he’s not slowing down enough for me to pass.  Oh well.  Guess we get to keep moving fast.

He moves back into the forward position and I get back on his wheel.  My first thought is to make sure I thank him for the pull.  It’s the least I can do.

We get to the light.

“Thanks for the pull, I really couldn’t have..”  and that’s all I get out of my mouth.

“DO YOU KNOW WHAT TAKING A PULL MEANS?”  He grunts out at me.

Internally I say, ‘Yes that’s what you’ve been doing this whole time.” But I smile, and before I can reply with something smart, be blurts out,

“GUESS NOT!” and turns back around to glare at the road in front of him.

He was furious, not your characteristically low-stress bike commuter.  This man has blood pressure issues.

Part of me felt bad, but most of me was like, You have got to be kidding me.  I was RED-LINING.  Didn’t he see the blood vessels popping out of my face to keep up?  Any more and I would have been exchanging pukes, not pulls.

The red light stop was a little tense.  He wanted to punch me, and I did not want a punch in the face.  I was on bike shoes that are little too warn down to hold any ground.  Plus that would just look bad if two cyclists were duking it out at a stoplight.  Isn’t that half the reason we’re riding our bikes to work anyway?  Stress relief from being locked up in a car?

Ah well.

So that is the short morning tale of two roadies.  I did the same thing to different riders, and I got different reactions.  Next time you are out there on your road bike, be kind to the poor mountain biker trying to keep up.  Use it as an opportunity to make someone’s ride fun and fast.   Share the speed!

Cheers,

-Brandon