The Hangover 11/20/06

Section head text.

We’re a little out of practice with the hangover due to actual hangovers taking up too much brain power, so do it yourself! Let us know who won at the Turkey race. I know Ricky Lowe took the A race and that the mighty Dan Schmalz drafted his way to classiness, but other than that we’ve got nothin…

86 Comments

Littlefield

New Hope Evo Cross.

WTF?!!?

I had to get off my bike three times during the race to dislodge huge wheel-jamming clumps of mud and hay just so the bike would go forward. You knew the clogs were bad when it felt like you were climbing steep hills but you were riding on flat ground.

And did I mention that there was mud? Oh yes, there was mud. If you thought last weekend’s ‘cross race at Jamesburg was muddy (and I did) let me just say you can’t even imagine what this was like.

And let me mention that I passed Shaw on the last lap. I beat Shaw! I beat Shaw! (Of course, he was standing next to his bike using a twig to try to get the wheels unstuck when I rode past.)

Christophe

Littlefield,

sounds like a hilariously muddy time, srry i couldnt make it (LT test was-a-callin)

are you going to be at the race on sunday in augusta?

if so, lets hope its just as muddy!

Littlefield

I have out-of-town Holiday obligations this weekend. I tried to sell stopping at the Westport CX race on the way home, but I got an unfriendly "we’ll see" from the wife on that one. Augusta is out of the question due to location. Is this W/E the last Augusta race?

Tony S

B Race – 5 man break:

1. Scott (Foundation)

2. Metro guy (sorry dude, don;t know your name)

3. Craig Goodstein (Metro)

4. Tony Slokar (Edgemont)

5. Anthony Accardi (Edgemont)

Foundation dude smoked all of us, super strong. He’ll be kicking ass in the 3’s soon.

Addled Fan

Jay, the lone representative of Addled, rode a very smart race by staying as far away from the break and field sprint as possible.

lee3

nice…..does Aspholm get a jersey to flash? National team should come ‘a’ knockin!

A Navigator beats a 3 Protour riders on the track – wow. Even though B.McGhee is conti – I still count’em protour with a bad agent!

mud guy

thanks for the mud link Matt. I was teammates with the author of that for a couple years, and he was a wizard on the bike. I’ve seen him ride through crashes where the guys in front of him and behind him all do down, and he clears everything.

Coach L

Congrats everbody on a fine season. Now its time to kick back, reflect on what you’ve done this year, try to get on a better team, and start mapping out your goals for next season. And remember: Easy on the sweets if you’re not riding as much anymore!

Thanks for a great year,

Coach L

Coach L

Sorry – I’m not taking on any clients at this point – just wanted to say thanks to the CRCA for welcoming me into the family and giving legs to my business after relocating. My existing clients feel like they’re getting some kind of edge and I’d promised them in the contract that I wouldn’t offer my services to more than 30 riders (nationwide) or 15 in New York. Thanks for your interest though – I’ll post with contact info if any decide, for whatever reason, not to renew for 2007.

Cheers,

L

Coach L

Again – I coach anonymously. But I will tell you that 2 of my A’s were in the top 10 in the Turkey race and 3 of the top 10 B’s. I’m not trying to be elusive here – it’s just part of the contract I have with my riders.

A Wannabee

Hey fellas, let’s not take this too seriously, I mean, this is New York and "if you can make it there, you’ll make it anywhere" only applies to Wall Street and Broadway, definitely not cycling.

I mean, we ride the same lap around the same park every friggin race. Who really needs a coach, particularly this Coach L. At best he just steals stuff from Dirk Friel and Andy Pruitt.

A Wannabee

Hey fellas, let’s not take this too seriously, I mean, this is New York and "if you can make it there, you’ll make it anywhere" only applies to Wall Street and Broadway, definitely not cycling.

I mean, we ride the same lap around the same park every friggin race. Who really needs a coach, particularly this Coach L. At best he just steals stuff from Dirk Friel and Andy Pruitt.

Anonymous

Coach L …….losing bike racers can be mean @ x-mas.

Hey wannabee – go tank some eggnog and ride laps on 34th/Brdwy.

Coach L

Sorry guys (and gals). I should have just kept to myself. I’ve just had such a good time this year, but have upset a couple of my clients by drawing attention here on the site. I forget that NY isn’t like New England or Canada and has some edge to it. I’ll keep my postings in the future to general, non-proprietary training advice. Thanks and good night,

Coach L

Anonymous

Going easy on the sweets is proprietary training advice? Wow, I’m glad someone let the cat out of the bag on that one or I might have been in for a rough winter.

Just curious

Does anonomous coaching = anonomous posting squared? Here’s to you giving your clients 30 meters on cat’s paw next year?

Coach J

Fruit plus oatmeal with rice milk and raisins for breakfast. A banana, a plum and a ham sandwich for lunch. And big green salad, a little pasta with olive oil, garlic and broccoli rabe, and a small piece of grilled fish or meat for dinner! And lots of fruit juice cut 50% with water all day long.

Send payment to coachj@paypal.com.

You’re welcome.

coach schmalz

Drink and eat whatever the hell you want, it’s one day a year for crying out loud! Continue your nutcase habits the day after.

Dude

Don’t bust on Coach L. he is just trying to help some guys win races and improve. I was hoping he would give us tips for getting on a better team.

Urgent Advice Needed--Coach L and J

I don’t like brocolli rob and I loooove sweets. Is there any hope for me as a bike racer?

Coach L

I’m sorry guys. I can’t tell which of these questions are serious and which are just for fun. Irregardless, and like I said yesterday, I really can’t be handing out free advice on things like diet and yoga – things my guys spend a lotof time talking to me about. Good luck and happy Thanksgiving. Eat what you want – its a free day!

Coach L = lee3?

Perhaps, but Coach L’s posts tend to be less serious and more useful while lee3’s posts are more serious and less useful.

Dude

Does anyone have advice on how to upgrade teams over the offseason. My team is not that good and I would like to get on a better one.

schmalz

Upgrade teams? Easy, get a load of cash, spread it around like a drunken debutant at Barney’s, and buy yourself a better team…

bi(ke) curious

Perhaps if Coach L spent less posting about how he can’t take on any new riders, he might be able to add more to his coveted list of successful riders.

Hey Coach L!!!

As a Canadian I take offense to the insinuation that we are somehow soft and polite. We are as mean and tough as any of you yankees. Why do you think we make such good hockey players and comedians?

Chris M

Coach L (aka. Mr. Miagi of NYC cycling)

This anon coaching with limited clients thing is kinda dorky if you ask me – hence the "busting" comments. NYC does indeed have an "edge" and its still a small cycling community, so trying to stay anon is just a bit funny – wont last a week, and who cares anyway? Not like you are dispensing advice that’s not avail from other sources, unless you’ve been living in Mongolia and meditating for 50 yrs and figured out how riders can levitate themselves up the hills through Far Eastern techniques. In my experience across many sports, 60% of coaching is just about having someone to provide motivation and support and establishing the rapport to get the rider through the season on a set schedule.

Meanwhile, no rider could legitimately complain about a coach taking on more clients, since you don’t get rich coaching and who can complain about their coach being good enough to attract more clients and help pay the bills? As long as you don’t go all crazy and start trying to coach 100 riders with equal attention, a few more than 15 local clients would seem to be not only acceptable, but smart for any coach.

I’m no cycling guru myself, but I believe I do speak common sense fairly fluently…

OK, now you can slam me back at will…

Dude

Chris M,

This is not a slam, but does is make sense if all the riders are using the same coach? races would be boring becuase people would all train the same and be too similar in races. Same skills and weaknesses.

Chris M

Oh yeah, note that I always identify myself in my posts, so like Lee or Schmalz or other brave souls, you can feel free to just talk to me directly as well. Open discussion – what a novel concept! More of you all should join us…

Chris M

To Mr. Dude.

I dont think so. Every rider is a unique individual with specific strengths and weaknesses. Any coach will adjust a program accordingly. As such, its not like a coach produces a bunch of clones. Coaching is all about training to ones personal best and getting general support and encouragement for the overall goal set, including diet, sticking to a plan, and ultimately the details of training for events. Having a diff coach for every rider in the pack would not likely change the race in a way we would all notice. At least in my opinion…

Good question though I suppose…food for thought!

Anonymous

3 in the top 10 of the B field turkey race?! errr, since it’s not accardi or joel, wtf is there to be bragging about?

Coach L

In response to both Chris M and and Dude:

Well, first let me apologize about my Canada comparrison. I spent a lot of time in Michigan and knew a lot of Canadians and found them to be more friendly than anywhere else. But sorry to generalize.

As for the coaching, my philosophy is grounded in the notion that cycling is as much about the driver as it is the engine. Its true that folks like Friel and and Carmichael have the bulk of the information on training the body avaialble at Borders. This isn’t what I do. I work more on the minds of my riders. I discuss their goals and challenge them. We work on toughness as a concept. Some of this involves time-intensive visualization techniques which are exhausting for both coach and rider. I can only do 2 sessions a day at most, but usually just 1. Using the "mile wide/inch deep" vs. "inch wide/mile deep" analogy, I prefer to get way deep with my riders and make sure no stone is left unturned. This coaching service is more expensive than just writing a training program, which is what allows me to have less clients. I’ve worked hard on these techniques and have had good results. I hope that is helpful.

Coach L

Tony S

I really doubt coach L is a real coach – its just another message board clown trying to get a response from people.

Chris M

Wow – My Mr. Miagi poke was closer that I thought!

Ive got a mental image now of Yoda with his face all wrinkled in concentration as he helps Luke raise the fighter from the swamp. Exhausting.

Im just kidding, of course. I personally believe in visualization techniques myself, and can actually raise my pulse to v. high levels just by thinking about competition and stuff.

And no, Schmalz (to pre-empt), Im not talking about that stuff…though true as well!

Still, I wonder why you couldn’t do this with more riders, assuming you arent having these sessions every day with current clients, which would be pretty intensive indeed and likely very expensive…

Chris M

No Tony S – hes gotta be real, since he’s neither particularly funny nor controversial…

Amusing that we’d question it, though, simply because people refuse to ID themselves and make this whole discussion so abstract and impersonal…

bi(ke) curious

Coach L

I think you have really hit on something. We all train our butts off and show up on race day as fit and physically prepared as can be. So many times it is the mental aspect of our sport that can make the difference between getting dropped the first time we "go into the red zone" or whether we amp it up and have a great result.

It’s like Yogi Berra said about hitting : It is 90% mental and the other half is physical.

Certainly a couple of tips here wouldn’t dig too far into your proprietary database???

Dude

Do you think racing is more about ability to suffer or proper training so you don’t have to suffer?

I have always thought that the people who are capable of winning the race don’t really have to ride that hard, they are just a lot stronger and wait for the right moment to make their move. If you are dieing in the middle of the race, when it is all together, you have no chance to win.

lee3

Dude wrote: "….I have always thought that the people who are capable of winning the race don’t really have to ride that hard, they are just a lot stronger and wait for the right moment to make their move."

That’s hogwash "dude". Its the other way around. Guys that win race smarter + are willing to suffer more than the folks not willing to put out there. As far as fitness is concerned, perhaps guys that win are able to suffer for longer periods. This sounds more plausible than your theory.

Paris

Coach L wrote:

‘techniques which are exhausting for both coach and rider. I can only do 2 sessions a day at most, but usually just 1. Using the "mile wide/inch deep" vs. "inch wide/mile deep" analogy, I prefer to get way deep with my riders’

That’s hot.

Chris M

Paris

Your little jibes are repetitive and juvenile……….but funny as shit. 🙂

Lee3 and Dude: We dont know all that much about attacking and soloing to win, but I can generally see from the looks on faces of those who do this that it hurts plenty, just at a level of fitness and sustained speed we haven’t yet achieved. Dont kid yourself about the effort expended…

lee3

I remember the A field win of the first race of the 05′ season in CPK. Mike Sherry crossed the line with a huge gap to second place and he looked like he was asking a waiter to bring the check! I thought that was funniest shit ever. I think there may be a photo.

Sherry

Just to clarify…. to:

"Nov 22,2006 by anonymous

Is Coach L = M Sherry?"

HELL no! I rarely comment on this site but I always use my name on NYVC.

JM

I’ve worked with a lot of coaches over the years in both cyclng and running. My best coaches were on the track (running), but that’s probably because there are so many more track coaches in this world than cycling coaches, so the talent pool in the track world is broader. With cycling coaches, I’ve found it to be sort of hit or miss. Of all the bike coaches I’ve had, the best was Coach L. I stopped working with him 3 years ago, but his methods are sound, his commitment is unmatched, and he is genuinely a good guy. I would call him late at night before races to go over race plans and strategy and he never refused a call and always answered. He once left his brother’s wedding to take my call when I was having trouble deciding what gearing I should bring to Killington Stage Race. Although I’m currently riding coach-free, it’s only because L taught me so much over the years that I have the confidence to plan my workouts and race my bike. Coach L rocks and we’re lucky that he’s here on the scene. I hope some of his clients drop him (sorry, L) so that others of you can experience what I have. Those visualization techniques are killer. I almost quit cycling after the first one.

Rivera

Coach L and his riders are all quite stealthy that coupled with the bragging = not a great sign to me. Mike Sherry is just a hard working guy no jedi tricks you just get out what you put in, I have never employed either, just have a lot of friends who work with Mike and Craig.

Anonymous

If coach L is not Lyon, he would be wise to stop being cute and out himself now. This message board could get ugly with Lyon stories quickly.

PR

Also Mike has actually raced his bike before, with results everyone can see, on the web. Im thinking thats got to help if you want to be a coach. Can L make that claim, or is it all just talk?

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