Seven Seconds: The Separation (of a Shoulder) from a Dream

This is not a rant, not about being steadfast with rules, and not about making noise.

After writing this, I realized this was an expression of nervousness (for Ted King), hope (for his health AND continuing on in the Tour), and a sort of frustrated sadness (or sad frustration?)...all because I can't imagine what Ted King feels right now. I say "Ted King" and not "Ted" because I am not one of the many fortunate individuals who knows him personally. Although from the hundreds of stories I hear about him, I really need to meet this awesome guy! My only hope is that whatever the day holds tomorrow, he can recover - emotionally and physically - and grow for the part of cycling's future that he is.

Let me begin with this: It was the start of the 2012 Dempsey Challenge. It was miserable. 41F, steady rain, and the pre-ride proceedings felt like an eternity as all the riders stood (shivering/convulsing) in the rain while the required speeches, thank you's, and introductions were made. If this was a race, I would have been annoyed, but this was a wonderful cause, so the emotion of the event made the misery far more bearable. The pros who attended the race were in the same boat as all of us...except maybe a touch better dressed with their sweet sponsor clothing. It was going to be a very long, and very well earned 100 miles...

After the opening kilometers, we caught up to the VIPs and Pros. While riding through this group, I rode next to (and talked to!!!) Ted King for a minute or two. If you knew me 10-15 years ago, my life revolved around skiing. My heroes were guys like Jonny Moseley, Eric Bergoust, Nikki Stone, and Veronica Brenner. Chatting with a guy like Ted King, it was the first time I felt the excitement of that which I had when I was a little kid. That one time I got to "try on" both Jonny Moseley's Mogul & Nikki Stone's Aerials Gold Medals from the 1998 Nagano Olympics...in the same day.

I (unfortunately) do not know Ted King like many of my friends do, but I hope to really get the chance to meet him somewhere down the line...maybe on a 200 Not On 100 event.

So, to the 'recent events'. I know that this REALLY SUCKS about Ted King, given a separated shoulder and only a mere 7 seconds of time for missing the cut. I know he is very highly respected by his teammates, sponsors, and all his competitors and colleagues. He is absolutely loved by the people who like, enjoy, and love the sport of cycling. He represents everything cyclists want to be - as an athlete and, more importantly, as a person. However, these are the rules - sometimes they work as intended and make sense...and sometimes they work as intended and really seriously screw over a really great human being.

Better put: Professional cycling (and the world as a whole) needs more people like Ted King.

That being said, I have every expectation that the actual time for Ted's finish (which seems a bit unsure) should be re-evaluated and ensured that it is, in fact, correct. If it does remain 7 seconds short, I also expect the race organizers to take the fact of stage one's finishing time neutralization into account when passing a judgement on ending Ted's Tour.

If he makes it into stage 5, I pray he steadily gains strength and health AND doesn't permanently damage his body in hopes of recovering enough to complete this first Tour of his. If he does not make stage 5, I look forward to his speedy recovery and him training even harder (if such a thing is possible) than he has in the past to prepare to support his team for the rest of 2013...and to prepare for whatever squad is lucky enough to have him in 2014.

One BIG thing is that clearly he can still ride sufficiently with the separated shoulder. He absolutely CRUSHED a solo TT, instead of the TTT he would have hoped to help crush with the Cannondale squad. The biggest thing though, is if he can recover quickly (or at all) to be the Ted King we all hoped to see in this year's Tour de France. That is up in the air with the seriousness of his injury. He needs to survive 5 more stages and time cuts, two of which have a pretty damn hellish amount/difficulty of climbing...and another that has a lot. Then he gets ONE REST DAY. At that point stages 10-13 are "easy" (ha, 'easy') except for the individual TT, which will be hellish on the shoulder. After that the mountains are here and if he hasn't recovered a lot it up to that point it will be damage control and him playing a support role on Cannondale.

I'm no expert and do not claim to be. I feel like I'm a reasonable person and - most of the time - think before I speak or write. I've only broken my collarbone (and "only" once). When it happened I did ride the next day, but I rode on a trainer for a few weeks and didn't hit the road until I was well healed. So I can't imagine the absolute toughness or horror or fear of future damage that Ted King (and all the injured riders in races) is going through.

#lettedride - whether it be tomorrow (well, technically, 'today' for him) or in a future tour.

Look at this guy. How could you NOT like him!

Week 2: Actual Update: Growth and Learning

I figured I would hold off from posting my real update until Sunday was complete. A good, long ride...my first century of 2013. Luckily it was with a group, as yesterday's 82 miles was solo with a very solid 3 hour endurance block with +/- 1500ft that easily topped 20mph, not bad for February...I did this in May last year and my HR was 10 beats higher. Looks like the year is starting quite well!

Yesterday I rode with Adam Myerson, a long-time pro cyclist and very well known rider and 'ambassador' to the sport in the Northeast. Most of you in the cycling scene know of him as I did - tatted up, clever, 'cross guy, wins crits, gauge earring, Twitter-pro - until about two weeks ago. It's cool to ride with someone who you simply knew as "be near him on the last lap and you'll place". As one would expect, there's a hell of a lot more to him. He's been kind, patient, and happily introduced me to some gems of Tucson. We rode to the top of Lemmon, reminisced old training he did a decade ago with Dan Vaillancourt, and had the best chance encounter on a ride that I have ever had. Spending 3+ hours at a time on a bike with someone you didn't know one bit is probably the best way to get to know someone. I rode with him a bunch that past 2 weeks, but 6.5 hours yesterday was pretty awesome. 3.5 hours of absolutely miserable headwind that makes most people want to quit biking altogether. We were going under 15mph for the full 3.5 hours. A one hour climb where Adam taught me the the difference between being fast and being fast when it counts, hours into a ride/race/workout...all without the exchanging of a single word. He calls it Old Man Power. I call it 'painful glory'. Towards the end of the ride we talked training, coaching, and all the skills you need across the board. I had written the rest of this post prior to the ride - and the stress Adam put on communication and learning only strengthened how important those things are in sport and life.

Here's some shots from my longest duration ride ever - due to elevation and winds it wasn't my longest ride ever, but it was easily my best long ride ever. And it was only 50F in Arizona.

As Adam said: "No Girls Allowed"

Yeah. Wind.

Flavors of the Southwest!

Beer #1 of Tucson.

This marks the first 20+ hour week of 2013 as well. By this time last year I had (foolishly and unstructured-ly) put in 3 and just hit mini-burnout #1. Luckily, I am a year wiser and have guidance that is more intelligent than "raw excitement and fun". I'm also more involved in the process behind my training than I ever have been.

I'm happy about my fitness, there is no doubt about that. But what I am much more pleased with is my understanding, both of myself and my training.

Now for a little insight into "Growth and Learning":

My involvement in my training is greater this year - when I have a coach - than last year when I was 'coaching' myself. How does that make sense? Communication. Which is the first thing I would tell anyone is the first key to finding a coach. It doesn't matter if that person coached an Olympic medalist or what their credentials are if you don't have good communication! My second key is be involved. If you're new to a sport, this might just be listening and absorbing ("knowing the work") rather than simply "doing the work". If you've been involved in the sport, you should be learning the "why" of each workout, then the "how" of progress, then begin to understand "what" the specific gains of each workout, block, or period. Once you have the understanding down, the next big (huge) step is "feel". This is the concept of learning one's own body; if learning things is an endless process (answer: it is!), then learning your body is an endless process that yields exponentially more powerful results.

Just like life, sport is a continuum of growth and learning. And the more you grow and learn, the more powerful your knowledge becomes - especially because you are now able to share that knowledge!

Share your life, sport, joy, and knowledge. Not only will you benefit from growth and learning, but someone will benefit from your teaching.

Yours in Glory,

Travis

If you want a bit more to read about a pretty cool Pro athlete who also has one heck of a crazy busy life, check this out. Otherwise, see you next time!

(As an addition to my above statements: I stayed with a guy in Tennessee (Craig Evans - self dubbed "Endurance Daddy") who can only be described in a LOT of words: Husband, father of two, medical device manager (his job is massively demanding), local cycling ambassador,  owner of triathlon shop, and - oh yeah - Pro Triathlete. The night I spent at his house, I didn't see him until the morning, known as 5AM for him, because he got home at 1AM from work...in Cleveland! Due to this busy lifestyle, Craig's former coach, who I am sure is a great coach, couldn't relate to him and wasn't able to work with his schedule. Clearly, this led to a gap in communication. Once he was able to find a great coach who could also communicate on his level, great things happened. He got second at the World Championships in Offroad ITU Triathlon...to a guy named Conrad Stoltz. Communication led to growth and progress, led to a silver at Worlds. The coach that had this great communication just happens to be my coach as well and he's very skilled at communicating with a 20-something starting out and a busy father, who is professional in many things aside from sport. To see an adrenaline pumping video about Craig, his lifestyle, and season go here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRU_Bzgygjw&feature=youtube_gdata_player)