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Spring Training

For two years now, I have joined team mates in Atlanta area for some spring training. For those of you familiar with the area, you know that the hills have a demonic attribute to seemingly go up, and up, and up. We even discuss the fact that the laws of physics dictate that you must get as much ‘up miles’ as ‘down miles’ if you start and stop at the same spot….it just does not seem to be that way.

I like spring training because it is a wake up call for my body that I need to get ready for the impending race season. I also like it because it is a little bit of a fantasy camp, we ride, and rest, and eat well. Had I planned it better, we would have had a massage or two and some core work-outs to top off the ideal training. Next year, our plans are to include more mountain training in the smokies and include more and more core and flexibility training.

We rode about 2 hours on Thursday morning to shake off the 13 hour drive on Wednesday night.  Nothing over the top, but enough to remember that the hills are something that cannot be replicated.  (Even though the temperatures in Michigan were about the same as Atlanta, the hills are unlike anything I have been on.)  After a nice meal and a nap, we hammered out a significant 2 and a half hour ride.  The miles are not as important as the time…there needs to be a conversion table for Atlanta miles to ‘flat miles’.  On Friday, we had a nice 2 hour effort in the morning and another 2  hour effort on Friday night.  We treated out hosts to a big meal and a bigger margarita and prepared for our return on Saturday.

On saturday morning, we put in an hour and a half ‘recovery ride’ to spin out some lactic acid before our 13 hour return trip to Michigan.  We donned our compression socks and shorts and hoped that people would not beat the crap out of us in the rest areas for wearing support hose in public!

We are all excited to don our new Team Active Powered by WSI team kits and get the race season started. In the mean time, more training, a little recovery and some rest.

Next up, Barry Roubaix!

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End of Winter Party With Chris Carmichael, Donation and First Wednesday Night Ride

Ok… So, this update is just a bit tardy (several weeks actually, but better late than never). However, I’m pleased to report that Team Active’s End of Winter Party was another huge success. For a while it was “bumper to bumper” people in the shop (all three floors) and I even helped sell at least one bike during the event. Another excellent showing for Team Active and getting everyone jazzed up about the coming year of cycling that awaits us.

In addition to celebrating the “end of winter” and getting everyone excited about the coming cycling season, Team Active always seems to figure out a way to get a celebrity (at least to the cycling industry) make an appearance. This year we were fortunate to have Chris Carmichael, of Carmichael Training Systems. In addition to being a Tour de France veteran with Team 7-11 “back in the day”, he’s also most well known as the cycling coach that helped Lance Armstrong to his seven victories in the Tour.

Mike Wood (Team Active) and Eric Cook (WSI Cycling) present a donation check to Chris Carmichael for Kids on Bikes from WSI Corporate .

One thing that Mike Wood, the owner of Team Active, and I talked about when we were lining up Chris for the event was how cool it would be to somehow connect his appearance with some sort of charity effort. When we asked, we discovered he supports (and is a big part of) Kids on Bikes (www.kidsonbikes.net), a non-profit established to help disadvantaged children get exposed to the sport (and freedom) of cycling. So, we had a special invitation-only ($100/plate) dinner with Chris before the event to help raise money for this worthwhile organization. Additionally, WSI Corporate in Toronto sent along a check for $1,000, which I personally presented to Chris later at the store during the party.

Doug, Linda, Chris, Alicia and Me at Dinner

Also on-hand for the check presentation (and dinner) were Doug Schust and Linda Dinelle from M3-SocialMindz, another team sponsor and part of the WSI “family” (as well as being great friends of ours). Doug and Linda came in for the weekend from Kitchener, Ontario (just outside of Toronto) and were amazed at the turnout for an event like this. “I never would have believed this many people would turn out for a party at a bike shop,” Doug said. “We are excited to be part of the team as a sponsor this year and support WSI Cycling, but had no idea the amount of people we’d reach by being part of the team.”

After the party was over, WSI Cycling team members stuck around for a team meeting and we got to meet some of the new faces for the 2012 season. You’ll be seeing many of these new faces on this blog over the season, so keep an eye out for updates! We’ve got what looks to be a great lineup of racers for this  year covering road, mountain, triathlon, time trial and even adventure racing throughout the coming season. We’re also going to get some of the others from the team posting to the blog (so you won’t have to wait for me to post) and let you know what’s going on.

Some of the team sporting their new "kit" before the first Wednesday night ride of the 2012 season.

If you live in the Battle Creek area and have a road bike, be sure to mark your calendars for our Wednesday night road rides. They started this week and leave from behind Team Active at 6 pm. Normal start time is 6:30, but for the next few weeks we’ll start a little earlier to take advantage of the daylight. As the days get longer, we’ll move back to 6:30, so keep an eye on the Team Active website for more information (and I’m sure we’ll post it here as well).

Until next time, keep the rubber side down…
Eric 🙂
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