I have an ugly face and I wear it proudly... when I race. Which is to say that I'm not trying to scare people away when I'm not racing. In fact, I've been told that I have a nice smile. But, the smile goes away when I get to the point in a race when I suffer.
As the director of the Team Specialized Juniors I have an important role in helping these young men. That might include listening to their performance goals for any given event, or advising them on the nuances of a certain course or how that race might play out, or it could be fetching a bike from the top of the van. Whatever it takes, right?
Wyatt and I had a discussion a few months ago, but first let me give you the race setting: Wyatt and I raced with masters teammates at the 2008 Brisbane Circuit Race. Wyatt's wife and two young boys were at the race hugging the fence as we approached the finish, me sprinting to 3rd after teammate Dylan Casey had won the race over Chris Phipps. I didn't know it at the time but my loud huffing and puffing combined with my ugly face had scared the young boys. Fast forward to Wyatt and my coaching discussion... how do you bring that level of effort out of a junior? Can you teach them to go so deep that they don't care what the spectators say about their huffing and puffing or their ugly (er, race) face? I'm old, I'm married and I'm not pretty so I really don't care what people say about my ugly face, but what about a teenager? what would a parent say if they saw their junior cyclist turn themselves inside out in pain? What would their friends say?
Well, I'm happy to report that I've seen a few efforts that have amazed me. I've heard a few good stories too, and then there's this one: http://teamspecializedracing.blogspot.com/2014/04/my-limits.html
How badly do you want to reach your goals?
Thanks for supporting our team! Larry Nolan
No comments:
Post a Comment