Toguri Training

Max Joly Smith (Rocky Mtn) on the attack at the Tour de Quebec ©2010 Robert Wilson

L-R: Martin Rooseboom (Independant); Martin Gilbert (SpiderTech); Max Joly Smith (Rocky Mtn); Czeslaw Lukaszewicz (VéloSelect); Everado Alejandro (VéloSelect) ©2010 Martin Brisson

PROFILE
Max Joly Smith makes me feel old. It’s not simply his sheer explosiveness on a bike. Max is explosive everywhere. Ask him how a race went, and he bursts into a 20-minute description of the event, and then adds an extra 5 minutes passionately describing his NEED to win and get stronger. Ask him to do plyometric exercises on stairs and he practically jumps over you to get started. Heck, he’s trying to grow some sort of goatee right now and it looks like the whiskers are just exploding straight out of his face! Energy, energy, energy, energy. By the time I’m finished coaching him through a series of intervals performed at 600 watts, I feel like an old talking tree in some crappy Disney animation. The main character, even the birds and animals have left. The wind has stopped blowing and my limbs sag.

Ok, ok... I slammed him into a hill to get this peak watts but still...He did it at the end of a brutal workout just for fun!

I’ve coached Max for 3 years now. When I met him he was battling to finish the Tuesday night crits in Lachine. This year he was sponsored and rode for Rocky Mountain. He rewarded that support by winning two races of the Robert Brisson series, grabbing 3 more podiums during weekend races, numerous top-10s, and providing leadouts for a teammate at the Lachine races.

What’s most impressive about Max, however, is his dedication and attention to details. Beneath all that erratic explosiveness is an athlete who trains with the kind of consistency and thoughtfulness required to succeed at a high level. Max rarely misses a workout, pays attention to nutrition and recovery, and repeatedly makes  suggestions regarding his training that I then incorporate into his program.

It may make Max sound younger than he is to say such things but as you move up to higher and higher levels in sports, the importance of maturity, consistency, passion and sport-specific smarts all become blatantly evident. Just think of the interviewing and profiling process that NHL prospects have to go through! Think of how many stories you’ve heard of amazing athletes who never reached their potential? It’s not all about suffering and power–it’s about the delivery systems that help you perform to the best of your ability.

Max came 3rd at the Tour de la Gaspésie TT, 18 sec behind the winner, David Boily (Spidertech). The position on his road bike was dialed in! ©2010 Robert Wilson

Any cycling coach who only talks about watts will be of limited value. Or worse, they’ll narrow your experience of the sport to a singular yardstick! Here’s a typical scenario that I’ve seen again and again: An athlete falls in love with cycling. They then hire a coach to help them take it to the next level. In a year or two they measure themselves almost entirely by their threshold watts, which improve at first but then often plateau for extended periods. Discouraged and sometimes bored, they move onto another sport having devalued all the experiences that got them into cycling in the first place. This is why I believe that channeled passion and breadth of experience are crucial to sustained improvement. Max wants more than a bundle of watts. He wants to be an amazing cyclist who gets-and gives-as much as he can in relation to the sport.

The uphill battle at Vaudreuil-Solanges in Hudson ©2010 Robert Wilson

Max’s hidden talent, therefore, is a maturity that provides the skeletal frame upon which his muscular explosiveness rests. That said, he must continue to improve at reading races and following race plans, which in turn will help him more precisely direct his training. These are the skills that will allow him to explore his abilities as a cyclist to their fullest extent. Max has the finishing speed to win races. The watts and explosiveness are there. It’s just a matter of putting them in the right place at the right time so he can compete effectively against racers with just as much raw talent. Easier said then done, but every year Max has improved… and he’s already started to win. This old man can live with that.

The first of two back-to-back victories at the Robert Brisson series. ©2010 Martin Brisson

One of the best places in Montreal for cycling is the Mont Royal Cemetery. I know, I know… all the groaning puns slide off the tongue way too easily. “Killer workouts” etc.

"I AM using my hamstrings!!!"

Sleepy young fox in the cemetery. Cute? That's a dead baby groundhog in front of it! !Redrum !Redrum

While the jokes are bad, the roads in the Mont Royal Cemetery are really good. They are closed to car traffic early in the morning and after 6 pm. And even when the gates are open, there are less cars than all-terrain vehicles used by the grounds crew. The Cemetery’s short, steep hills are challenging but doable for cyclists of all levels. There are also flat areas where we do cornering, bike handling and sprinting drills. Personally, I love the quiet, tree-lined roads and if you’re paying attention you’ll notice the smell of lilacs in the spring and then thyme in the summer. It is not uncommon to be climbing a 10% grade through wafts of incense only to skirt around birdwatchers on the descent. Every now and then foxes will sit down on the grass and check out your form as you pound awkwardly up Murray Hill. If you haven’t tried a workout in the Cemetery, you should check it out…but give yourself an extra 15 mins to find your way out as it is a twisting labyrinthe of winding roads. Don’t believe me? Here’s a map: Mont Royal Cemetery: The Mount Murray hill circuit is marked, and it includes some of the steepest pitches in Montreal.

"My handlebar tape is put on BEAUTIFULLY!" ©2010 JF Houpert

"I'm laughing, but not listening because the hunger in my belly is deafening! I NEED some Gu Chomps" ©2010 JF Houpert

Rod Matheson getting serious... about showing off his calves ©2010 JF Houpert

Daniel Gagnon (Keep your hips back Daniel!) ©2010 JF Houpert

The Coach, huffing but not (gasp) puffing ©2010 JF Houpert

The top tube of two-time National Masters Champ Michelle Paiment shows how steep it is! ©2010 JF Houpert

Fred Fenneteau, the winner of the Ste Marine RR, battles on the cemetery slopes ©2010 JF Houpert

Vanessa Cheung: "I bet Fred is thinking about duck confit!"

David De Sanctis getting strong again after foot surgery forced him to take a step back ©2010 JF Houpert

"Rod, focus on the task at hand. It's not important to notice who's in front" ©2010 JF Houpert

Fred Fenneteau riding faster because she is thinking about duck confit...again!! ©2010 JF Houpert

Now Rod's finishing the workout by showing off his quads. He has no shame. ©2010 JF Houpert 17 mins later and the  first part of the workout was over!

Taking It To the Next Stage

Recap: William Blackburn was selected to represent Quebec at the Tour de Beauce. His goal was to gain experience and finish the UCI 2.2 stage race with more fitness than which he began.

Stage 1 (Lac-Etchemin 165 km): With 15km to go, Rafael Serrano Fernandez (Heraklio-Murcia) responded to the pressure of the bunch closing in and attacked his two breakaway companions, Will Routely (Team Canada) and Jay Thomson (Fly V Australia). He managed to fend off the fast-charging bunch by 8 seconds after being off the front for 120km of the race. Sergiy Grechyn (Amore & Vita) flashed home for second in front of Quebec’s own Charles Dionne (Fly V Australia). William was dropped on one of the final rollers as the peloton was hammering to catch the break. I was happy with William’s performance. If you’ve ever raced in the Beauce, you know the cumulative fatigue that repeated, long rollers stuff into your legs. UCI stage races also expose you to, not so much faster racing, but much longer durations at speed than many local racers are accustomed. This is especially true of the first race in a stage race where early attacks can be relentless, as the teams of the main contenders try to be vigilant while all the guys trying to establish themselves as contenders or going for stage wins light up the road.

For a variety of reasons, I trained William differently than my other young racers. I restricted the hours and intensity of his training during the spring. In effect, he was not trained to participate in a stage race like the Beauce, and it was not in his calendar though we knew it was a possibility. Ironically, his ability to surpass his racing goals and to constantly get into the right breaks led him onto the Quebec Team and into the race. This is a great accomplishment, but the demands of racing the Beauce can also play havoc with your fitness, exhausting you for the rest of the summer in extreme cases. After Stage 1 I was pleased because being exposed to the long efforts of a pro peloton accelerating over rollers to reel in a break was some of the best training he has done all year. And you can’t underestimate the gains in experience. But the fatigue in his legs was obviously a reason for worry.

Stage 2 (Thetford Mines, 160km): An early break established itself within the first 20km and contained Javier Megias (Team Type 1), Jamie Sparling (Team Canada), Darren Rolfe (Fly V Australia), John Murphy (BMC Racing), Walker Savidge (Holowesko Partners), Francois Parisien (SpiderTech p/b Planet Energy), Jean-Sebastien Perron (Garneau Club Chausseres) and Flavio Pasquino (Restore Cycling Team Holland). Designed as an out-and-back road race, the stage ended with 3 laps on a finishing circuit where it began–Thetford Mines. The break held on until 2 laps to go, with David Tanner (Fly V Australia) winning the bunch sprint over Yuriy Metlushenko (Amore e Vita) and Andrew Pinfold (UnitedHealthcare p/b Maxxis). William’s legs felt much more lively than in Stage 1. He made it over all the considerably longer rollers that characterize the stage (2-4km climbs averaging 3% but with little steep pitches everywhere) but he flatted twice in the last 30 km and was effectively forced to perform a 30km TT at the end. This made me very nervous about his overall fatigue with 4 hard stages to go.

Stage 3 (Saint-Georges – Mont Megantic, 154 km): The race finishing on the 9km ascent up Mont Megantic is the Queen Stage of the Tour de Beauce. An early break containing Valeriy Kobzarenko (Team Type 1), Jeff Louder (BMC Racing), Sergiy Grechyn (Amore e Vita), Darren Rolfe (Fly V Australia), Bjorne Papstein (SC Wledenbruck 2000) and Derrick St John (Garneau Club Chaussures) spread out on Megantic but survived to the finish… almost. Dutch rider, Marc de Maar (UnitedHealthcare p/b Maxxis), leap-frogged through the tired members of the break and caught St John with under 200 metres to go for the win.

It is great to see riders such as St John, who also races locally, able to step up their game when necessary at the Beauce. The quality of racing in this province is very high right now with many Quebec riders on teams such as Spidertech, Fly V and Garneau consistently performing well at all levels. Special kudos as well to Quebec Team members, Raphael Gagné, Arnaud Papillon, Vincent Quirion and André Tremblay, who all finished within less than 5 min of the winner at Megantic.

I asked William to try and get in an early break, with the goal of moving away from a survivor mentality to trying to race the race. Chasing and attacking in races changes the way you ride in a peloton. It makes you more active and more involved. It is often a good way to survive in races because you psychologically come out of your shell, even if your legs feel dead. William asserted his presence early but then the toll of Stage 2′s flats left him with little in his legs. He fell off on the rollers before Megantic and then paced himself up the climb.

Up until this point in the race he had been suffering from mild stomach cramps in the evening. They became more acute after Stage 3. Gastrointestinal cramps are not uncommon in cycling, and are of course very familiar to runners. Usually there are many factors causing GI cramps. The two most obvious causes are the physical/mechanical banging around of your stomach and the sometimes dramatic change in blood flow to your digestive system as it is redirected to your muscles while hammering. It is important to remember that your stomach moves around as you navigate the bumps and potholes of Quebec roads. It also gets shifts as you change riding position. Importantly, it also gets slapped around by your diaphragm when you’re breathing under stress. Proper breathing is about more than just oxygen delivery!! Also, if you are frequently suffering from stomach cramps after hard, sustained efforts, you should have your eating and hydrating habits–if not your entire nutrition regime–evaluated. It is easy, for example, to be more dehydrated than you think. If you experience a >3.5% weight loss during a long, hot ride/race, you are much more likely to suffer stomach problems than if you are hydrating well. How many of us have been concentrating so hard in a race that we barely drink? Well, now imagine you’re bouncing through the rollers of the Beauce, hammering for extended periods above 70% of your lactate threshold, including repeated efforts above threshold… Your digestive system goes out of whack, and then you add the stress of the race, hydrating too late, not eating well… Cramps, or worse–the “d” word–are therefore very common, especially amongst inexperienced riders who do not, for example, have the same level of fitness as others in the peloton, and who don’t know the race courses well, or have a predisposition to expressing stress through their stomachs. They can disrupt sleep and therefore recovery, as the body starts to work in overdrive. These first signs of overtraining are also the first signs of a rider potentially losing, instead of gaining, fitness during a stage race. The goal was for William to get through the next day’s TT and see where he was at…

Stage 4 (Saint René, 20kmTT): Australians went 1-2-3, with Benjamin Day (Fly V Australia) taking top honors from former Beauce winner Nathan O’Neil (Bahati Foundation) and teammate Darren Rolfe (Fly V Australia). Day’s trouncing of the competition by over a minute helped him move into first in the GC, followed by Rolfe, with Kobzarenko’s (Team Type 1) climb up Megantic still holding him on the third step. William “walked” the TT, as he was unable to eat beforehand except for a serving of yogurt. Later, he was able to finally sleep after taking some advils. Sounds rough, but overall he was hanging in and getting valuable experience for next year. Also, the battle wasn’t lost. His goal of increased fitness was still very much in the cards. With proper recovery he could come out of the Beauce flying, and ready for one-day races.

Stage 5 (Quebec City, 127.6km): Stage 5 was a technical circuit race, up and down the historic escarpment shielding Quebec City plus the challenges of winding through the avenues of the old, fortified part of town. Chris Jones (Team Type 1) and Hector Gonzalez (Heraklio-Murcia) mashed their way out of an early break and hovered up the road until Danny Summerhill (Holowesko Partners) joined the slogging task of holding off race leader Benjamin Day’s Fly V Australia-led peloton. On the sixth lap, Lucas Euser (SpiderTech p/b Planet Energy), who had been in the original break, and Chad Beyer (BMC Racing) bridged. Two laps later the always active Jamie Sparling (Team Canada) joined the front runners in giving it a shot. Fly V, however, did their job and closed things down with a lap to go, opening the gates for those with the legs to be opportunistic. Marc De Maar (Unitedhealthcare p/b Maxxis) struck from 800m out, taking his second stage win, while Javier Megias (Team Type 1) and teammate Morgan Schmitt (Unitedhealthcare p/b Maxxis) led the snaking peloton over the line for the shorter steps on the podium. For those with nothing left in their legs, the escarpment hit hard and hit early as riders kicked their way up looking for sprint points and long-shot breaks. William ended up in a chase group, and after he was dropped with a couple laps to go he withdrew from the race.

Now the real test begins. Can we figure out a good recovery strategy so William achieves his goal of gaining fitness? He has already succeeded in gaining the confidence of having worn a Quebec Team jersey. He has already succeeded in gaining crucial experience, including the physiological and emotional experience of racing at the next level. You have to ride with fast guys to get fast. Doing so allows you to take the knowledge of the speed, power, strength and endurance required to succeed and put it into the way you train. You get a better sense of what it means to work on a bike. It all has to do with your frames of reference. You are constantly moving in and out of these frames while riding. They are the frames by which you picture yourself. And you ride through them to get to the next stage of your development, with all the excitement and anxiety of having to reestablish a new framework and thus a new picture of yourself on a bike. The next month should give us a working framework, and a more clear picture of where William’s fitness is at. There are plenty of reasons to be patient because there are so many signs that he is on a fast track.

(Scroll down for race results)

The Other Side of Pont Rouge

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The wise gasp and rub their eyes
the smoke of victory wafts
on the fumes of sighs
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Rod and I slowly exited the parking lot and drove away from Pont Rouge. The day wasn’t over, but the straw-coloured sun had lost its fire. On the way to the race, we had talked specifically about racing, bikes, coaching and teammates. Now, as the waning sunlight mingled with the breezy treetops, we were talking broadly of work, reading, finance, the oil spill and what happened to Debbie Brown.

Staring at the highway rushing under our speeding vehicle, I couldn’t help but think of all the different lines that lead us in and out of bike races. We can talk about family lines and genetic inheritance. We can talk about sporting history, and the routes by which we came to race bikes. We can talk about social networks, peer groups or the webs from which we draw in order to train. As a coach, I think about these things when planning schedules, putting groups together and interacting with clients, but earlier in the day I needed more specific language. Rod and I arrived at the race and two of my clients had already been dropped from their race. And yet I had seen the peloton go past, with Debbie pushing the pace.

I believe that both dropped riders are both capable of getting on the podium (one has already done so). I believe that both need to get stronger and more experienced to consistently succeed at the level they desire, but this is doable. I believe that racing can provide a sense of fulfillment for them. I believe that they both contribute in important ways to any group with which they train. They have a lot to offer and to gain through racing. But what lines could I offer to express the need to trust in the path they are on? How could I convince them to stay on course–just after they’ve been dropped?

I told one rider that all racers get dropped at some point. I told them that many successful racers spent a couple years getting dropped before building the fitness and skill set to succeed. But most racers know this already. Such comments don’t build commitment; they only momentarily alleviate doubt until the rider starts replaying what happened in their head again. Ultimately, continuity in competitive sports is determined by the lines you learn to tell yourself after your race is over. And those lines will constantly change. People can help you with your lines, but the muttering that goes on in your head is your own, even if you’re hearing the voices of others! The main point I want to make here is that how you deal with setbacks is not simply a measure of character. It is an essential aspect of athleticism. Prospects go through interviews not simply to see if they are nice people. Those running the selection process want to know what you can bring to the table to produce a championship. What is your attitude towards the sport? This is a question related specifically to your athletic ability.

So why do you stay in the sport? This is a question cyclists of all ages and abilities should ask themselves. Many will phrase the question this way: “Considering how much I put into it, what do I get out of bike racing?” This is a question of value and economy. We can measure gains in power, strength, speed, and so forth. Let’s call this quantitative gains in fitness. We can also try to assess how much fun we’re having, or the social benefits of racing. And we can take note of gains in experience and knowledge. These are qualitative aspects of the sport–aspects that I believe are undervalued in relation to performance.

But cycling has another aspect that we cannot properly measure at all. In sports, we call it “grace.” Over the last few years, I have come to appreciate the grace of cycling more and more. It has to do with my role as a coach. I no longer train myself. I don’t set personal racing or riding goals, or create workout schedules for myself. I train others. My stake in cycling is now watching and learning from the performance of others. I spend hours a day watching people move, and many other hours planning ways to make them move differently, or to become more aware of how they cycle. By doing this I’ve come to believe that grace is expressed in a massive variety of ways.

Grace is effortless beauty of movement, form or proportion. That means that what is graceful about cycling does NOT involve all the work it takes to move a bike quickly. Grace is effortless. You might think it is about an economy of movement but grace is more intangible because movement requires work. Have you ever sprinted or whipped around a corner in a way that seemed effortless? Or, have you ever been hammering while having an experience that was “in the zone” or somewhat out of body? Some athletes are able to repeatedly represent the dual experience of bodily power and out of body grace in the way they move. Sprinters carving their way to the line; climbers accelerating up the road; time trialists wrapping their chains through every pedal stroke. Even entire pelotons can move gracefully, and learning to read the flows of pelotons is a good racing skill. There are many reasons why I’m involved in cycling, but witnessing and helping to produce graceful movement is one of them. The problem is that grace is very hard to describe accurately. It’s more poetic than technical.

Sounds corny? Perhaps. But while I was standing in line to register for the Pont Rouge road race, I saw Robert Ralph accelerate his cadence over the final 50 metres–at maximum speed–to win his race. Shortly afterwards I saw a nervous Judith Hayes tighten her core and churn her quads with relentless consistency through the power portion of the pedal stroke to win her race. Two clients winning races within minutes!! But as Judith crossed the line I looked back up the road. Debbie was one of several riders left lying on the road. We all know these things can happen, and what to do in these situations, but there is always something missing, or that can’t quite be articulated in a satisfying way.

While Debra and those who had crashed in front of her were still on the road, Max Joly Smith was on his way to propelling himself over the line in second place. His ability to accelerate a bike is phenomenal–and getting better. Later, Rod Matheson would flat, but Patrick Russell would slip into a late break of four and finish second in his race. And after a great team effort, I was able to win the final race of the day.

On one hand, Toguri Training clients dominated the podium at Pont Rouge. On the other hand, it is hard to know what to say. As Rod and I drove back to Montreal we got a call from Vanessa Cheong updating us on Debbie’s condition. She had, as we suspected, separated her shoulder and fractured a rib. The body will repair its own lines, and there will be time to absorb the impact of the fall. New lines will be drawn. What a strange day. Amidst the highs and lows, the sun seemed stuck in the sky, like the period at the base of a question mark’s hook. The day was hanging on that hook–and it wasn’t over yet.