Our Ohio valley cyclocross season isn’t over yet, but there are two outs in the ninth. This weekend, the site of the final act is Indianapolis IN. The short, cold and cloudy days of December mesh with the fatigue of year-long competition to deplete one of any remaining remnants of caring. Like 4 AM felt […]
Category: Cycling Wed
Wednesday musings on all things cycling-related
The desire is there. A longing to stand on those rickety rain-soaked hay bales after a hard fought race. To win, to twist someone’s legs off, or perhaps, just to here someone refer to you as a “good rider” fuels the fires of self-validation. And these visceral desires are not only the domain of professional […]
Everyone likes winning. Bike racers like it. So do doctors. When doctors win, lives get better. That’s the ends. The means, the journey, the race itself, vary from the simple to the complex, from the boring to the eventful, from the free to the obscenely expensive. For instance, lives are enhanced when a complex catheter-based […]
“Hey…where did those cupcakes go?” Like a never-ending western North Carolina climb where each switchback reveals another uphill, and the finish is shielded by tall pines, the struggle to lose weight and to stay lean is incessant. In wrestling weight gain competitive cyclists share the same mat as ‘regular’ Americans. Like jockeys, all competitive bike […]
We all know that successful bike racers are mentally strong. But what is unknown, and hotly debated, is the role of mental toughness in an athlete’s success. (Granted, we know it isn’t their predilection to drooling.) So, is it 5% mental, 20% mental or even 50%? In sports psychology, there are the traditionalists who say […]
Bike racer’s blogs are legendary for their self-indulgent, mind-numbing race reports. Professional cyclocross racer, Georgia Gould, characterized this disease best when I asked her whether she had a blog, Facebook fan-page or twitter-feed: “No, I am not into that stuff…Would anyone really care about the details of my racing? To me, it would seem very […]
There are scant few occasions when one can use definitive, non-hedging words like always, never and zero-chance. In assessing Ms Gina Kolata’s recent NY Times piece on how champion-athletes are champions because they are able to push past pain more than most, I can confidently invoke such certainty. Certainty that this notion is utter nonsense. […]
Dear Cyclists, This Wednesday, I am breaking with tradition, and promoting someone other than myself. In the place of my words, I would like to present an up-and-coming professional bike racer, and blogger, Ms Ashley James. All who have ridden with Ashley know that it is not a surprise that she won the 2009 US […]
All is well. It is a great day. You are riding smoothly with friends along a rolling hillside road. It is a peaceful spring morning; there is steam floating off the farmer’s pond, the warmth of the sun warms your body. For the moment life is just right. Then it is not. Suddenly, without warning […]
Hey cyclists, You are fit bunch. Near perfect. You eat right, exercise bunches and surely do not smoke. The “side effects” of such a focused lifestyle is good blood pressure, low cholesterol and smooth arteries. Congratulations. Unfortunately, there is one component of health you cannot control–your parents, your DNA. In heart disease and many cancers […]
“Be the bike.” “Picture the win.” “Visualize success.” In maximizing one’s chance of success in sports (or any of life’s endeavors) such axioms are the conventional wisdom. At least, it is what I have read, been coached on, and overheard from those in the know. But is such optimism the only path to success? Is […]