Waterford Hills Wednesday Night WHRLLs Tonight

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Part of the summer series

This is the kind of stuff that should be on the news

How to Start Bike Racing - Bicycling.com

By Neil Bezdek - Bicycling.com

In 2005, I was riding a similar wave of enthusiasm when I purchased my first road bike. This happens to millions of people each July, and soon-to-be roadies around the world are surely contemplating the same purchase right now. Many even hope to race, and I’m not surprised that a few of my “normal” friends recently have asked for advice on joining the competitive ranks. I’m happy for them.

Bike racing lifted me out of a funk when I started in New York in 2008. I’d just spent a year working as a messenger, and while I knew the city like the back of my hand, I was lost. A recent college grad, I was severed from my cozy campus community and set adrift in the harsh world of adulthood, where I eventually landed a respectable desk job. Suddenly pent up in a cubicle and desperate for an outlet, I gave racing a try. I was hooked immediately. Racing offered a new set of friends and, as crazy as it may sound, a much-needed sense of purpose and identity. Today racing is my job.

OK, so maybe racing won’t work out like that for everyone, but I’d like to think that I gained a few relevant insights along the way. If you’re drawn to the competitive side of the sport, here’s my two cents:

Stop procrastinating.
One of my biggest regrets is waiting until I was 23 to start racing. I’d been interested for years but waited until I could commit to a full season and really “do it right.” If you’re holding out until you feel exceptionally fit, or until you can go buy that speedy new race bike, or until there’s a long break in your busy schedule, keep in mind that there’s no time like the present.

Don’t be intimidated.
I remember showing up to my first races wearing a plain jersey and riding a well-used aluminum bike with second-tier parts. I couldn’t help notice the matching logo-covered clothing and equipment of those around me, and how their chiseled legs sometimes made my absurdly skinny calves look like chopsticks. I’ve since realize that there’s surprising little correlation between a cyclist’s ability and his or her appearance, physical or otherwise.

Read the Full Article @ Bicycling.com

Experiences With Mike Walden & The Wolverine Sports Club

(Via John Coyle’s Cycling Blog)

What do a tennis school in Siberia, a soccer club in Brazil, a music camp in upstate New York, and a baseball club in Curacao all have in common with a bicycling club from Detroit?

They are all “Chicken-Wire Harvards,” a term coined by Daniel Coyle in his great book “The Talent Code”. That is, each of these remote destinations has a number of things in common: they tend to be underfunded, they have programs with a relentless focus on the fundamentals of sportsmanship, and at their helm they have iconic coaches who “say a lot in a little,” and “repeat a little a lot.” 

Daniel Coyle then describes the unique characteristics of the coaches who create the right environment for focus on deliberate practice. In one chapter he details the key elements of a master coach, by documenting the actions of a certain famous athletic coach, Mike Walden…

“There were no lectures, no extended sermons… He rarely spoke longer than twenty seconds. What made this coach great, wasn’t praise, wasn’t denunciation, and certainly wasn’t pep talks - His skill resided in the gatling-gun rattle of targeted information.”

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