For a 12 year old boy, our son showed quite a bit of dedication to the team and our training routine. So much so that I knew he would stick it out and needed a better bike than my old one. My 40 year old road bike had been to Santa Barbara and back in its day, plus into the Mojave – however, it this point in its life it is stuck in 3rd and 4th gears. Just not the bike for a lot of climb.

We did a scouting trip over to Helen’s Cycle’s in Santa Monica to narrow down the choices and be sure we could stay in budget, came home sprang the new bike surprise on Josh and took him back to the shop to show him the 2 Treks and a Diamondback for his final approval.

Instead, we settled on a Cannondale hybrid (Cannondale Quick 5) that appeared magically beween visits. It had seemed to have a frame that would hopefully let Josh and his big puppy self fit together for the next few years. he’s enjoying the heck out of it, tackling the PCH and the Tour de Foothills with his ol’ Mom.

From the Cannondale website:
LIGHTWEIGHT AND COMFORTABLE

We have paired an already comfortable bike at an attractive price point with something even more attractive: A carbon fork. Excellent vibration resistance means you’ll be ready for anything, from long-distance charity rides to a spin around the block.

SPECS:
Frame Quick
Fork TIG-welded Chromoly
Rear Shock N/A
Rims Cannondale C4, 32 hole
Hubs Formula FM-31 front, FM-32 rear
Spokes 15g stainless steel
Tires CST Selecta w/Kevlar belt, 700 x 35c
Pedals Wellgo resin platform w/Kraton insert
Crank Shimano FC-M151, 28/38/48
Chain KMC Z72 8-speed
Rear Cogs Sunrace M66, 11-32
Bottom Bracket TH cartridge
Front Derailleur SRAM 3.0
Rear Derailleur Shimano Alivio
Shifters Shimano SL-EF50 EZ-Fire
Handlebars Cannondale C3, 20mm rise, 600mm wide
Stem Cannondale XC3F 1 1/8″, 31.8mm
Headset VP semi-integrated threadless, 30 mm top cover
Brakeset Lee Chi TX-120 linear pull
Brakelevers Shimano SL-EF50 EZ-Fire
Saddle Selle San Marco Ischea
Seat Post Cannondale C4 Alloy
Sizes S, M, L, X, J
Extras Montague “CLIX” Front QR

For the last two years, since I returned to the saddle, my son had been asking to join one of our teams working towards a Century ride. Because he was so young (12 now) LLS would not allow it and poor Josh got stuck standing in the sun working SAG with his dad or just sitting in the car waiting until his sister and I finished a training ride. So not fun for a kid.

This season is a little different. With the Tour de Cure I am a ride leader that offers weekly training for my own team (Team US Cares) and anyone else who wishes to join in. Its not a ADA thing like Team in Training was, so I can bring my son.

I have to admit, I went into this with the typical mom view of lets-see-if-it-will-stick. I really didn’t expect him to give up Saturdays with friends or attempt putting mid week rides into his already full after school schedule. But he is doing wonderfully. He has even added biking to and from school to his daily routine so that he gets in more hills!

Late Friday night, after the car was loaded and all set for our early o’ dark hundred training start, my husband takes the car to the market. Unfortunately, my bike was on top of the car when he entered the underground parking garage. For the sake of brevity, I’ll tell you that you may insert bad word, bad word here and that the bike is now at the Trek Hospital (Helen’s Cycles) on life support.

Saturday morning had me trying the first climb with a 40 year old bike who’s gears were rusted stuck in 3rd or 4th gear. I tried with two hands to shift and could not do it. I struggled up that climb and finally thought that it was too stupid to try 70 miles of Charlie’s tour like that. I rode back to town via the bike path, bought a new bike to return to training (20 miles round trip). I didn’t have a whole lot of bucks and I wasn’t about to leave without a bike that day but I think the understudy bike will do nicely.

Here’s the new addition to our family:

Trek 1.2 WSD

Specifications
Frameset
Sizes Women’s 43, 47, 50, 52, 54, 56cm
Frame Alpha White Aluminum
Fork Bontrager Approved, carbon
Wheels
Wheels Alloy hubs; Alex alloy rims w/eyelets
Tires Bontrager Select, 700×25c (43cm: 650×25c)
Drivetrain
Shifters Shimano 2203 STI, 8 speed
Front Derailleur Shimano 2203
Rear Derailleur Shimano Sora
Crank Bontrager Sport 50/39/30
Cassette SRAM 850 12-26, 8 speed
Pedals Nylon body w/alloy cage; clips and straps
Components
Saddle Bontrager Select FIT CRZ+ Basic
Seat Post Bontrager Carbon
Handlebars Bontrager FIT VR, 31.8mm
Stem Bontrager Select, 7 degree, 31.8mm
Headset Aheadset Slimstak w/semi-cartridge bearings, sealed
Brakeset Alloy dual pivot w/Shimano 2203 STI levers

Why a woman’s bike when I generally don’t have a gender specific bike?

WSD Comfort: Contact Points
Contact points are customized to fit a woman’s anatomy.

1. LESS PAIN
Narrower handlebars keep hands in a more natural position for greater control and less shoulder pain.

2. MORE COMFORT
A woman’s specific saddle with key anatomical features provides optimized comfort and support.

3. LESS FATIGUE
Shorter-reach levers and smaller-diameter grips are sized to fit a woman’s smaller hands.

4. MORE POWER
Shorter crank arms improve leverage for a more efficient pedal stroke.

•    Training
•    Incremental Goals
•    Nutrition, Hydration
•    Sleep

I once went to a presentation by BNI’s Founder, Dr. Ivan Misner; in it he asked “What’s working?”.  The presentation discussed a business consultant that listened to all the problems in a failing business, but continued to focus on what’s working. While the business owner was aghast, assuming that the consult had gone mad by not addressing the problems, the business started to flourish by putting what was working first. This struck a cord with me during my solo ride on the Pacific Coast Highway last Sunday.

Training  – On that Sunday, I had ridden 3 days in a row, each day just a little more than the last. Team in Training puts us on an awesome training schedule of 4 to 5 months, depending on the season length. The schedule is an incremental one. Every Saturday is an incremental increase over the previous week, getting you ready for your Century Ride, with mid week rides to keep muscle memory. Muscle Memory is important in sports as well as physical therapy. It is based on the premise that the more often you do a certain muscular activity, the more likely you are to do it as needed, when needed.

Incremental Goals - My coach last season, Ramone Ocampo, had taught me to ignore the hill, ignore the total miles, ignore it all and just work baby steps. I hated it. He would ask me if I could get as far as the next intersection, the next driveway, the next whatever, pushing me like a sheep dog. This season, I’ve had to ride alone a great deal and I would hear his voice pointing out little goals as I went along. I have no idea when it changed, but during our week 18 of training for Solvang, I heard myself asking the very same things. By week 19 I was gleefully pointing things out that I had passed, “Driveway! Latigo Cyn Road! Mailbox! Grass Clump!” and so on. Might not be the incremental goals of the typical endurance athlete, but it sure helped during the amazing headwinds we tackled on Los Posas yesterday.

Nutrition, Hydration – This might be a BFO (Blinding Flash of the Obvious), but the better set you are in both nutrition and hydration the better off you are. This is not just carbo loading (which I can’t do btw), but its watching your proteins and water intake before, during and after your rides. Everyone gives you the advice to drink and eat before you are hungry or thirsty. I haven’t been able to figure when that meant, until I recently realized that when is always (another BFO). What I’ve started doing is a little celebration of the miles. Every mile I take a drink, every 5 miles I get the big reward of Clif Bar nibbles.

Sleep - Sleep is the gas your body car needs to be at top performance. I have a terrible habit of napping and having shorter sleep cycles then adding up the days naps/sleep claiming to have had 8 hours rest. That was just not working well. I say well because it seemed to work, until I switched to hitting the hay on a real schedule in hopes of getting to sleep before my husband started snoring. It didn’t work in terms of avoiding the snoring by I did notice that my performance improved and my first 10 minutes of waking didn’t seem so groggy or clumsy. Just to prove my point to myself, I tried this over the last two weeks straight and continued to see that it should go on my list of “what’s working”.