Recovery, France, and Coaching

After a solid 5 or 6 weeks of traveling and racing, it was finally time for a rest. I came back to Vancouver after that long week in Bend and got some quality couch time in preparation for U23 nationals. After a week of easy riding, however, it seems inevitable that I start to fight off a cold. Like clockwork on my recovery weeks, I woke up halfway through it with a scratchy throat. Seems as though the body knows when its shutting down and allows all sorts of things to go wrong. Either way, I was able to hold it off last time and I'm going at it with the same intensity this time around. Between Zicam, Airborne, gargling salt water, Chloroseptic spray, doubled immune support vitamins, gargling Listerine, and sinus rinsing, I am hopefully doing enough to keep everything suppressed. So far it has gone to plan, training has resumed and symptoms seem to be going away after only 2 days, keep your fingers crossed.

With a ton of extra time on my hands, the Tour couldn't have come at a better time. Unfortunately the stage results don't change after the fourth showing... I am looking forward to Friday though, when we see if Astana can actually work together or if they implode drastically. Just for fun, my top 5 in Paris are: Contador, Kloden, A.Schleck, Evans, Kreuziger. You heard it here first!

In other news, I recently decided to start up a coaching business. After a few inquiries about where my training comes from, I decided it would be worth a shot. My coach, Kyle Mendenhall(formerly Kyle Smith), learned this training format through pros such as Tim Quigley, Jonathan Vaughters, Marty Nothstein, and Trent Klasna. It's evolved slightly over the years, but the basic principles are the same and proven to work. After seeing how well my current clients have responded, I decided to make it available to everyone. I'm hoping I get to work with a variety of athletes, from young racers looking to progress to local riders hoping to crush the next group ride.

That's it for now, up next is the Tour de Delta in Vancouver, Canada from July 10th-12th. Driving up there(8 hrs) on Thursday and racing the 3k prologue Friday evening, should be a blast.