News

Schedule
Tuesday ride 4:20 live oak. Wednesday and Thursday 7-8pm bike clinic for BHS MTB riders. Bring your bike to one of the two nights and learn how to fix and maintain it. Wednesday team meeting in H202A (my classroom) at lunch. Thursday ride 4:20 live oak. Sunday RACE.

Race #3
This sunday is the next league race, again down in Monterey (but on a new course). Race duties, packet, and other information this week. Please help out with rides as riders request them.

Spring Break
No practices during spring break, including the 12th. In other words, after the race, the first practice will be April 14th.

Upcoming Events (optional)
Sea Otter is April 16-19. A huge cycling festival with all kinds of road and MTB races. Many league members participate. Velodrome beginner session team trip April 18th. JMP Trail work day April 25th.

Training Tip: Cramping
A number of riders have had trouble with cramping in races in the past, especially as the weather warms up. Here is a primer of what they are, and how to avoid them.

First, let’s talk about side stitches. Sometimes people call them cramps, but they are different than other cramps. Technically called exercise related transient abdominal pain (ETAP), little research has been done about how it is caused, or how to treat it because if you simply stop working hard, the symptoms are relieved. This is, however, not much of a help if you are racing. Here are some recommendations:

• Warm up. Higher incidents of ETAP were reported when a hard effort was started without sufficient warm-up.
• Control breathing. Higher incidents were reported with shallow, frequent breathing.
• Avoid sugary drinks and food before workouts.

The other types of cramps you are likely to have are skeletal muscle cramps, including “true” cramps and contractures. True cramps are often caused by nerves incorrectly working. This is often caused by sodium, potassium, calcium and or magnesium imbalances (usually not enough), and or dehydration. Repetitive motion can also be a cause. These are the easiest to try to prevent. Make sure you are taking enough fluids (which may require thought now that it is getting warmer), and most electrolyte drinks have sufficient amounts of those elements listed above. Having good flexibility is a guard against cramping due to repetitive motion.

Contractures are caused by depletion of adenosine triphosphate, making
it so the actin and myosin “stick” in place, unable to move. This is likely what some of you have experienced right after getting off the bike at the end of a race. Slowing down, rather than completely stopping can help avoid this, as can better fitness and proper nutrition before and during hard workouts.

Once you are cramping, the only thing to do is to stop, try to relax and not focus on the cramp, and try to gently stretch out the muscle. Often this will require the help of a friend. Also, keep replenishing fluids and electrolytes. This is, however, a place where preparation will help you avoid symptoms.

Conditions: clear skies, warm weather, dry trail, no foot traffic.

Route: Big Springs Trail 531′ climbed over 1.2 miles

Note: Excellent effort by all! Times are listed for both the first time trial held
Feb 2 and yesterday’s effort. Notice the improvement in 7 weeks!! Good job
all! Contact Coach Bobo if you have questions or concerns.

DNS: did not start

** 1 second off team record, 16 seconds off world record!

Schedule
Tuesday normal ride at 4:20 live oak. Thursday is time trial day. Meet at live oak at 4:20, but be ready to roll immediately so we have enough time. We will reconvene at the start of the course. Normal workout Sunday at 10am.

Attendance
Attendance has been very poor. Many people have told me about conflicts, but many have not. You must understand that you are hurting not only your own fitness, but also the team’s ability to train by not being at practice. If you must miss, please make sure to email me.

Bike Maintenance
A growing problem is riders showing up with bike problems expecting coaches to be able to help them. While we are happy to help when we can, we should not, and can not, be the ones to fix all of your bikes problems. Make sure that you show up to practice with a working bike. Mikes has been great to us in putting our bikes as priorities in their shop. Every wednesday night there is a maintenance hour from 6-7pm. Also on Wed April 1, and Thursday April 2, from 7-8pm is a clinic just for our team. Plan on being at one of those two nights.

CCCX 4
There is a race down in Monterey (toro park) that is not a league race this Saturday. I am planning on racing this race and would be happy to work out a carpool if others are interested. Let me know.

JMP Trail work
There is also another work day at Joaquin Miller on saturday from 9am to 12pm. Those who were at the last one had a blast, and some good riding after. Also, our team helping out where we ride was noticed and very appreciated. I’ll get back to the list on details of where to meet for this one. Remember, this is also good for CAS hours.

Training Tip: Intervals
A good way to get faster is not to just mindlessly ride as fast as you can, for as long as you can. This will really just make you tired. Intervals, going slow, and then going really fast for a defined period, are the way to get faster. Here are some interval workouts:

Hill Repeats: We did these at a practice a couple of weeks ago. Go up a short steep hill fast, then rest as you go down. 5-8 of these is a good number. Work on either doing more, or doing each rep faster.

Cruise Intervals: These are great for mountain biking. On a flat or rolling trail, do 6-12 minutes of hard, race pace or above sustained efforts. Pedal easy for 2 minutes in between. 4-8 intervals is the goal. Start out short and few, and then increase time and number of intervals.

Hi-lo intervals: This is a longer effort, but alternating between higher and lower cadence. The idea is that you spend 2 minutes pedaling 100rpm or above, then keeping the same intensity, shift a few gears up and drop down to 70-80rpm for 2 minutes. Alternate back and forth for 16-20 minutes.

Weekly Schedule
Normally scheduled rides for Tuesday and Thursday. Live oak park at 4:20. As some have found out, we have been leaving on time, so don’t be late. As mentioned at the lunch time meeting, Mike’s is hosting bike fixing clinics for our team on Wednesday and Thursday at 7pm at Mikes bikes. Bring your CLEAN bike to one of those two nights. Team ride on Sunday, but keep up with this list as rain is forecast for the weekend.

Race #2
Great job to BHS riders. That is usually the toughest race of the year for our team and everyone did everything that we could have asked as coaches. There were some incredible individual performances; the ones that stand out to me are Ian, Isaiah and Kirby. I’m sorry I couldn’t stick around, but the diagnosis came back as strep for me, so I really hope I don’t get any of you guys sick.

Clean Bike
Clean your bike. Do it now. Don’t let granite bay sand-blast your brakes and drivetrain.

Training tip: Rest week
Your body can’t keep getting hammered all the time and keep responding. Resting the day after a hard workout is important, but sometimes there is a stress and fatigue that keeps building even with alternating workout days. This is why any effective training plan has rest weeks built in.

Getting there
The race course is around Folsom lake, in the Granite Bay area. Go east on 80, through Sacramento and exit on Douglas. Turn right, (east) and go for about 6 miles (seems like a long time) and eventually you will get there. WARNING. Parking is $7 per car and the line of cars gets loooooooong. Budget extra time to actually enter the park.

Please make sure you have secured a ride for yourself and your bike. Use the list if you need help finding one.

What to bring
The weather forecast is for it to be around 70. This will feel very hot, so start drinking water now. Bring:

• Bike
• Number Plate (same for all races)
• Helmet
• Shoes
• Uniform
• Change of Clothes
• Glasses
• Race kit: (tube, pump, levers, master link, multi-tool)
• Water Bottles or Camelbak FILLED
• Race food
• Sunscreen

Remember NOT to bring any food or drinks with caffein (or any thing with it like Creatine, Guaranine, Matine…)

When to get there
If you did not pre-register, you should plan on being in line for registration by 8am. The line can be very long.
Start times:

• 10:00 am all Girls
• 11:40 am Freshman and Sophomore Boys
• 1:05 pm Varsity and JV Boys

Pre-ride on Sunday will leave promptly at 9am. I recommend all riders pre-ride this course, and maybe session some difficult sections.

What to expect
This race tends to be the one that we struggle the most with. It’s relatively flat, but has a great variety of features. Have fun and do your best. I am not sure exactly what the course will be. In the past there has been an odd start, and some deep sand pits. I’ve heard rumors that this course is a little bit different.

We had a great start to the season and I expect that everyone will be able to improve upon what they did two weeks ago.

EAT BREAKFAST.
Do it. I don’t want to hear any excuses. You should try eating what ever you eat on a normal Sunday before a ride.

Files
Attached is the league flyer and course map.

As I pulled up into the trail of cars snaking along the road to the parking before the race, I was astounded by the sheer amount of people there were. As I peered out the window towards the front of the queue, I noticed a very eclectic mix of kids, parents and schools. As I later found out, there were 415 riders at the race. IT felt more like six or seven hundred. As I pulled my bike of the bike rack and rode it toward the pit area, there were people chasing dogs, kids running around, teams heading out for the pre-ride and then I saw the tents. It was an astounding amount of pits from astoundingly high number of schools. There is no feeling that can describe what it felt like. It was this sense of a small community, even a family like atmosphere and even though I have played in and attended many different sporting events, but there has never been anything like it.

I slowly meandered my way over towards the Berkeley High pit and quickly asked Prolo who I need to talk to obtain a jersey due to the fact that our new jerseys had not arrived yet. For me, this was my first race so I was new to the system. It was not a very nervous moment but it felt a bit new, kind of mind blowing to say the truth. As we headed out on the pre ride, the course did not feel very challenging, there were a couple of parts however where the sand was a bit tricky. As we headed back to the pit I noticed the amount of time that was still left. The girl~Rs start was still an hour away.

As I previously mentioned, I am a 9th grader and relatively new to biking, I had never seen a mass start so I headed over to the start line to see the girls field off. It was a very interesting spectacle. The mass start was swift and after they were all off I headed back to the finish line to cheer some more. Before I knew it, I was taping Cliff Shots to my handlebars and heading out for a quick warm-up before returning to the start line for my start.

My start was not how I expected to be. It was surprising because I did not anticipate it being so quick so I started out towards the back. On the first lap I managed to pass a few people, mostly on the uphills and stayed in front of people behind me. The one little drop I hit perfectly and I did not crash the first lap. As the race continued on, I began getting more and more tired. As I was in the middle of my race, the skies opened up and since the course was sandy, the course hardened up a bit. That allowed us to gain a bit more speed than on the previous lap. It felt relatively easy, I must have been well prepared and at the end, it felt great, like really great. I felt so accomplished, and since rain makes me happy, it made watching the JV and Varsity guys riders much easier. Watching them made me feel like I have something to strive for a goal for the years to come.

To me, biking is a mindset. You need to be willing to not give up, fight through pain, and finish what you started. These are some of the lessons I learned in the fist race, and I am positive more will come later. Thank you to all the parents, sponsors and coaches that made this race possible and those who made it possible for Berkeley High to attend.

- Camilo Vilaseca

Weekly Schedule
Tuesday and Thursday ride. 4:20 sharp at live oak park. The weather is good and we have another hour of daylight! Wednesday meeting at lunch in H202A. Sunday Race!

Attendance
Sunday’s attendance was very poor. A number of riders had mechanical problems, sickness or other conflicts. Yes, these are excused absences. No, they aren’t just OK. We do not have tons of time to practice so you are doing yourselves (and your team) a disservice by not making it a priority to make sure you can be there. I’m not mad at anyone, but I want to be clear: a practice weekend in between races is not a free weekend.

Team Kits.
They finally got here. We will be sorting and sending out info soon. Probably also info given out on wednesday.

Race #2
Handbook to come out tomorrow. If you haven’t registered for the race, avoid the line and do it now online.

Training tip: Mental calm
At Berkeley High, in the east bay, we sometimes have a disadvantage in terrain. We climb like nobody else (a normal practice has about 2500ft of climbing (for reference, 16 states don’t even have a location 2500ft above sea level) but most all of our riding happens on wide trails and fire roads. This race will be a challenge for many because it features the most varied terrain of any of our races. There are rocks, creek crossings, switchbacks, rocks, fast road sections, trees, rocks, sand and did I mention rocks? However, it is not considered a challenging course by many. For you to be successful it is going to take a high degree of mental control.

Now that everyone has racing experience you know that races can be a really stressful event. An easy trail can be very challenging when you add passing people, getting passed, different categories on the same trail, speed and whatever the weather is doing. You will do better if you are at ease. As all the coaches have always said, you are most in control when you are loose, have your knees and elbows bent and mind alert. Stress causes you to lock your elbows, sit straight up and try to fight your bike. It may take finding what your stress response is and using it as an indicator to force yourself to relax.

For instance, I pull my shoulders up to my ears when I get stressed out. I try to notice this, take a deep breath, pull my shoulders down, flatten my back, bend my elbows and repeat a little self- affirmation like “Let’s do this” or “Focus and be strong.” It seems silly sitting on the couch, but try it. Having a little mantra to focus yourself during a race can make a big difference.

Your tasks: 1. Find what your body does when you get stressed. 2. Have a little physical routine to reset the stress. 3. Have a little saying. And don’t worry–nobody is going to ask what it is.

Schedule
The forecast is for rain all week. This means that we will be spinning at Ironworks. Meet at the gym at 4:05. As usual, there are not enough bikes for the entire team. I will be contacting some riders about alternative workouts. Sunday the forecast looks promising, so we should be able to have a team ride at 10am.

Race 1 Recap
I, and all of the coaches, are very proud of our riders work at the first race. There were many personal and team victories and a whole lot of great riding and fun. I am especially proud of how good rider’s spirits were in crummy weather. Race results will be posted at the league website: www.norcalmtb.org when they have them. I would invite anyone who is interested in writing a short race report to do so. If I don’t get any by thursday, I’ll be less “inviting” and more “instructing”. Parents and sponsors really like reading race reports.

JMP Trail Work
A HUGE thanks to those who helped out with clearing some trails at Joaquin Miller. We specifically got recognized as having a large group and the trail work organizers and the local MTB community noticed. If you participated, please let me know so I can keep track. Also if I need to sign off on CAS/Community Service hours I can do so.

Team Clothing
The shipment should have come in yesterday. Keep your eyes and ears peeled to find out when we will be distributing these items. If you haven’t placed your order yet, please do so now!

Dues
We will be contacting families to acquire team dues for those who have not yet paid them. If you are in need of working out a different payment plan, or a scholarship, please contact either myself or Larry asap.

Training Tip: Assessment
All the riders I got to talk to on race day had made quality goals. There is a next step for using these goals: assessment of how you did.

If you can say “I accomplished this goal” Quickly reflect on something that made made it possible and then it’s time to set a new goal. Some riders were already doing this. For instance, a new rider who’s goal was “Finish the race” is now “Make the time cut” because he didn’t get to do his last lap. Make the next goal just a little bit more to provide the right motivation for workouts.

If you didn’t accomplish your goals, were they out of your control, or is there something you can change to help you accomplish them? Unmet goals should be carried over. Now with additional experience, change the things you can to try to meet your goal.

Sometimes it may be important to adjust one’s goals. For example, my goal for my last race was to stay with the lead pack until 2 laps to go. I based this goal off of the results I had from the first race. It was clear after 1.5 laps that I would not be able to do so; the race was either much faster, or I was not very well prepared (still working on figuring that out). So I changed my goal to having “negative splits” (faster laps going forward) for the last two laps. I was able to do so. That allowed me to have a reason to keep racing, and I was able to accomplish something in my race, even though my previous plan did not work out.