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