The problems of not having a coach

       Just to give you a little background on myself before I go on my rant. I raced motocross for 12 years and during those 12 years I never had anyone writing me solid training plans. Of course when I was young the training aspect wasn't as important but as I grew into my teens I started to implement different types of training that I had access to. During these 12 years I also ran xc for 6 years, wrestled for 5 years, and ran track for 4 years in grade school. Then a year of xc and track in college.  These were the only times I had a coach telling me what to do on a daily basis. Also during these years in school sports were the only times that I had teammates to hold me accountable.

    So to start off on my rant about what I have been really realizing the past few years. When your an athletes that has a coach writing all of your training plans and telling you what to do on a daily basis I feel like its much less time consuming and less work compared to an athlete who has to write all of their own plans and stick to them on a daily basis. I'm not saying the athletes who have coaches are lazy because its that's the complete opposite. They are very privileged to have coaches that can help them out. If your an athlete who writes all of their own programs you understand how time consuming this can be. I spend hours and hours evaluating past plans, researching what others are doing and think about what I want to attempt to do for the following season. When your an athlete that is doing everything solo you also understand that its very time consuming looking for sponsors and support for the upcoming season.

     Since it's been about 3 years since I've been apart of a team and had access to a coach I have been writing my own training plans. Last winter was when I really sat down and wrote out an indoor cycling training plan. I am very new to the sport of cycling and my knowledge about training is very limited. I'm learning more and more every year. Now that I'm focusing on the xc mountain bike stuff I'm feeling more comfortable with what I'm doing because I can relate it to what I did during my motocross career. Last season was my first full year racing mountain bikes and I learned so so much on what my strengths and weaknesses are. Last season I lacked in upper body strength. Right after Iceman this past fall I started evaluating what I need to do to be a better cyclist next year. I will share what I have learned in my next blog about training plans and finding sponsors. 

Huge thanks goes out to my sponsors for the 2014 Season.

-Breakaway Bicycles of Muskegon
-Hammer Nutrition
-Crankbrothers
-Renthal Cycling
-Spy Optics

2014 Off Season

        This Year I took a slightly different approach to my "off season". After Iceman I really slowed down on my riding and running. I maintained enough to have decent races over Thanksgiving break. Over Christmas break I had 2 1/2 weeks to train for the Sgt. Preston run on New Years day so I did some very moderate running 5 or 6 days for those few weeks. After the race on New Years I started my month off of doing absolutely no training. This didn't really play out as planned due to some changes in my race plans and dates. I took about 2 full weeks off then last week I got on the rollers and rode for an easy 20 minutes. I was originally planning on starting my training on February 3rd but due to the changes in my race plans this year I moved everything up a week. Overall I spent about two months off the bike but only did about two weeks or so of doing no training at all. Last year I took three months or so off the bike and I was really weak when I started back up again last February. My next blog I will talk about my indoor training and give you all updates on what I do and how I do it. 

2014 Sgt Preston Yukon Run

The Sgt Preston Yukon Run is a race that takes place at the Winter Sports Complex in Muskegon, Michigan. There is an option to either run a flat, fast 5k or a hilly 6 mile races. This race takes place on New Years day no matter what the weather is like. I've ran this race since 1/1/07 when I was a freshman in high school. A friend of mine told me about this race and with me wanting to do an off ball race I decided it sounded fun. Here we are 8 years later and I haven't missed one since. In my history of this race I've ran both races in a wide range of weather conditions. Its been in the 50s and raining or in the 30's and a huge blizzard or like this year in single digit tempetures with snow/ice covered roads.

For this years race I decided to run the 5k for the second year in a row due to the lack of running I do anymore and that I was in the process of finishing off the season before taking a month or so off before indoor training starts in Febuary. I put in a about 2 1/2 weeks of easy running and I was feeling pretty bad about how my times were so I wasn't expecting much out of this years race. I was going to be happy going sub 20 since the 5k I did on thanksgiving day was so slow.  I did my typical 20ish minute warm up and just tried to stay loose and get in the into my zone. I love listening to Lacrae when I'm warming up so that what I did. I lined up toward the front but a few rows back like I always do. Once the gun went off I knew I was in trouble. I got boxed in so I made a few risky passes and pushed a few people out of my way. Once I got around the first courner and onto the main road I had clear path to start clicking people off. Thankfully I decided to wear my track spikes that day because the road was so slippery. I went through the mile mark at 5:56 and was sitting in about 6th or 7th. I got into a pace and just tried to push and stay off the ground. By the turn around point I was into 5th and making a charge for 4th. I went through 2 miles at 11:50 and getting closer and closer to 4th place. I passed into 4th at about the 2 1/2 mile mark and tried to hold it but about 1/4 mile later got passed back. I went through the finish line in 5th with a time of 18:36. I won my age group so that's pretty cool. Thats the 2nd year in a row that I have won my age group.

This years Sgt. Preston was a good one. It's always fun to start the new year out with a race and race with some runners that I battled with throughout high school. In the 8 years I have ran this race I have signed up for 7 of them and ghost ran it one year. I have brought home 6 medals so far. So I would say that I have done pretty well at this race and even though my focus is mountain biking I will probably keep running this race because it just feels normal.

Thanks to my mom and niece for helping me out on race day.
Thanks to my sponsors for 2014

• Crank Brothers
• Spy Optics
• Hammer Nutrition
• Breakaway Bicycles of Muskegon
• Renthal Cycling