I was speaking with my coach the other day about my fitness and how I felt that I might be approaching last year’s fitness levels before a string of health issues side lined me and has left me struggling to get back up to speed. Why is this important to me?

When I was younger and studying to be an artist one of my uncles (an artist) shared with me that studying art was like revealing magic. Well I discovered some magic last year when racing! When I was fit enough and working hard but could still breathe in the peleton I was able to truly see the race in front of me. I was able to suddenly see who was getting ready to jump, who was suffering, who was talking to whom and who was riding poorly. It was like having the curtain lifted to reveal a completely different world. I wasn’t worried about holding on to the wheel in front of me or when I could recover and when I thought I would ever get feeling back in my legs. I could move on instinct alone and not burn match.

When I started to train with a purpose and structure I had one real goal in mind – “Get into the mix!’ I just wanted to be involved in that part of the race where athlete’s are responsible for the outcomes of races and not just there to sit in or struggling to hang on. I will continue to train and race this season in an effort to be in the mix. I know I am close and if I can just see it for a shining moment I know I will go into the off season like a man possessed and train even harder so that I am guaranteed to be in the mix in next year’s racing season.

I had some time over the 4th of July weekend to decompress and relax, ride, train on new roads and be with family. This gave me an answer to a question I have had all season, Why am I trying so hard when its obvious I am having a rough season? Its easy I want to live in that moment when the curtain pulls back and I can see the race for what it is.

This leads me to the subject of this post: Believe in your self and your training. For those of you who are coached you know exactly what I mean. You are living on faith that the time, sweat, blood, money and sacrifices are going to pay off. You know they will but you still let doubt creep in. I can’t tell you to stop doing that and it will miraculously get easier it won’t. You have to listen to your self and your coach and make decisions sometimes daily on your day to day progress.

If you are not coached and trying to self coach and you have entered into the vicious cycle of trying harder and not seeing results I have a simple suggestion. Set daily and weekly goals in other words bite off smaller pieces instead of looking at the whole season and saying I have not met this HUGE goal.

Keep trying and you too will get to experience the magic of a bike race.

Need help? It may be time to hire a cycling coach. Give me, Rob Grissom of Positive Performance Coaching a call at 502) 509-7624

Recently someone in the #cycling group on twitter had posted a blog entry on the Myths of Fixed Gear Training. I tried to comment on the article but my weak iPhone twitter client decided to not let me submit my comments.

The gist of the blog post is that investing training time on a fixed gear is not helpful to a competitive cyclist. I wish I could post a URL and a ping back because I am for the most part in agreement. However fixed gear training is not with out its merits. Below I will post the pros and cons based on my own personal experiences.

From Wikipedia: “A fixed-gear bicycle (or fixed wheel bicycle) is a bicycle that has no freewheel, meaning it cannot coast — the pedals are always in motion when the bicycle is moving. The sprocket is screwed directly onto the hub. When the rear wheel turns, the pedals turn in the same direction.^[1] This allows a cyclist to stop without using a brake, by resisting the rotation of the cranks, and also to ride in reverse.

Track cycling in a velodrome has always used fixed-gear track bikes, but fixed-gear bicycles are now again used on the road,^[2] a trend generally seen as being led by bicycle messengers.^[3]”

My experience with a Fixed Gear Bike (fixie’):

Fixies’ are relatively inexpensive to own. I had an old steel Raleigh 12 speed that was no longer in use so I had my buddy at Main Street Bikes convert it for me. I must admit I did this on a lark and riding a fixie’ is a recommended practice by Joe Friel the author of The Cyclists Training Bible. I vividly remember the first time I took my newly minted fixie on a test ride. The start was tricky because I had a hard time getting my left shoe clipped in once I got started. Think a comedy routine and one legged trainer intervals and you will have a good mental picture. Once I got started my mind strayed to how do I stop, get unclipped and not fall off! I decided to try and do some start and stops before my fixie journey went much further. After a while I decided I could ride on with worrying about falling over when stopping and continued down my 10 mile out and back from my home. This 10 mile out an back has a little bit of everything on it so it made for a great test ride.

While on my ride I was remembering everything my buddy Tom at Main Street Bikes had told me about riding a fixie on an open road. I became ultra focused and was watching for every dog, squirrel and car like a sniper. Everytime I rode through a corner I was planning on how I might need to bale off the bike. Needless to say I was bit nervous. Why? Well as the Wikipedia snippet covers the wheel has no freewheel so you cannot coast when you feel like it. The bike will propel you along on the slightest force of the pedals once you are up and moving. Feels a bit like perpetual motion.

I discovered two interesting things about my riding style during that maiden voyage. I had a bad habit of coasting once cresting a hill. Not all hills mind you but usually the 3rd hill after a series of rollers. If you do this on a fixie’ guess what happens? If you are not careful it can throw you over your handle bars! I did not go over, but man that woke me up.

After the hill I completely understood what other coaches had told me about managing my momentum clearing the top of a hill climb. The other item I learned was that my pedal stroke was not as efficient as I thought it was. Once I got comfortable riding my fixie I found that I did not need to work so hard to maintain my cadence and speed. I was able to better judge what RPM and levels of leg pressure were really necessary to get up an over hills and around corners with ease. Pedal efficiency is the Achilles heel of most cyclist I have ridden with. They either mash the pedals or maintain the RPM of a rabid squirrel in an easy gear.

I no longer have the fixie. I decided I had learned some valuable lessons and I thought that my 40 something year old knees would thank me if I would get rid of it. Did the fixie’ make me a faster cyclist? No. It made me a smarter cyclist.

Pros of training on a fixie:

• Cheap to build up an old road bike to try it out
• Will show you the errors you are making in your pedal stroke
• Will show you focus by keeping you mentally alert
• Will make you more efficient on rolling terain
• Will give you something new to experience as a cyclist

Cons of training on a fixie’:

• Fixies’ are starting to get a bad reputation in urban areas because of the Hipsters that ride them
• Braking is more of an art than a reality for some fixie’ riders
• Some cities are starting to regulate the use of fixed gear bikes especially the requirement of having brakes.
• Knee damage due to trying to back pedal to stop
• Coasting is impossible (this could also be considered a pro to some)
• Do you really want to explain to your spouse why you “need” this bike

The usual claim I see with riding a fixie is that it will help you develop leg speed. I can think of several other ways to do this with out the use of a fixie’. My favorite would be to train on rollers in the off season as well as neuro-muscular focused intervals on a trainer or the open road.

If the person who I was following and disagreeing with, thanks for the inspiration and helping to remember my first fixie’ experience. Oh and those who are curious about what I replaced that fixie with, I purchased a Single Speed Mountain Bike! Its a blast to ride.

Have a great weekend and get out and spin fast.

If you have been riding on the open roads for 6 months or longer I am sure you have had an unfavorable encounter with a motorist. I hope you have come out the other side with zero injuries.

To many times I see beginners and us old timmers riding close to the center of the road or ridding the shoulder. Both are problematic but maybe necessary from time to time, but not every ride.

Motorists, myself included, want to see cyclists who are confident and aware of what is going on around them. Motorists also dont want cyclists hogging the road.

I do agree that we will never make all motorists happy with our precence on the road but we can be safe and courteous in an effort to win over a few crtics.

Here are a few tips:
Ride to the right and give yourself 2′ of space from the solid white line. Doing so will give motorists ample space to pass you. For some reason if I ride the shoulder/white line many motorists think this is an invitation to pass me with only inches to spare.

Another reason for riding to the right is to dodge motorists with less that stellar driving abilities. As motorists come over hills on back roads they may cross the cener line and the same holds true for blind corners.

Be in the now and listen. Its easy to drift off into our own thoughts while out on a long solo ride. We should be keeping our ears open. I live in a rural area so everytime I here a Diesel Truck my next thought is does it have a trailer too.

Finally keep it friendly out there. My team has orders that if they are riding together or on their own they are expected to give a friendly wave to passing motorists. This has done wonders in my own community. We more oftten than not get a smile and wave back.

Be safe out there and enjoy the ride.