First I suppose an introduction would be appropriate. I am Ryan Freund and I suppose the newest member of the ABD elite team. I have been racing for quite a while now... probably about 10 months, so almost a year... OK so maybe not that long. I played football at Elmhurst College and after 4 years of that I decided it was time to give cycling a try, so I bought a bike in January however I was not able to ride it until may. My first race was actually the winfield crit and to this day was probably one of the hardest races I ever have done. I lead the entire race only to get caught. Which led to a break of 2 guys which I then joined immedietly then won the sprint. I went on to get a little smarter about how to race and had a fairly decent year last year and hope to have a great year on ABD.
Well I figured the best way to make up for lost time would be to spend a week training with none other than Thee Mike Ebert. So for my spring break I decided to fly out for a small training camp. I figured since Ebert lived out where it was warm and he has actually climbed mountains before I would show up and he would be dragging me up and down those things. However this was not the case. My days have been filled with comments like - "you go ahead, I'll meet you at the top" or "hey easy man were on a downhill". No I'm just kidding it has been great out here and all of this climbing is definitely a different type of monster. Anyway here is what we've been up to.
Sunday I flew in and when we got back to Ebert's I assembled the madone (the team bikes are great) and we went for an easy 1.5 hr spin. I like the bike alot however I had some derailleur problems but I think that its taken care of now.
Monday - We rode for about 3.5 - 4 hrs about 65 miles. Ebert let me loose on some 10 - 15 minute climbs and most of the day we kept at a moderate pass. The ride was big rolling stuff with those 2 climbs back to back in the middle. This was pretty much my first experience with climbing and suffering. The problem I quickly came across is that I need to get used to a different suffering position. No longer am I all over the front of the bike and over the handle bars. Now I'm kinda pushed back and my chest is up and I'm using a lot more glute and hamstring.
Tuesday: A 65 mile ride with a good amount of climbing and rolling. Also one climb that started not so bad then kicked up a little and then all of a sudden a wall for about 3 minutes. Must be about 12% grade maybe steeper. Ebert let me loose at the bottom and I was going along pretty good. In fact I kept up the pace cause it felt almost easy and then I got to the wall and it was all I had just get to the top. There was no hiding on that climb. I was at probably a 70 or 65 cadence and in the 39X26 cog. I was worried I was going to fall off the bike or that my heart would explode. However when I got to the top I had some time to recover (while waiting for Ebert) so I decided it would be a good idea to ride the steep section again. It seemed like a good idea until about halfway up when I thought it was the worst idea ever.
Wednesday: A slightly shorter day at just under 3 hours for total ride time however the first hour and a half was spent going uphill. We had a pretty decent pace for most of the climb and talked about tactics and lead outs. Kind of Ironic considering we were climbing the whole time.
Today will be a day off before the San Dimas Stage Race.
Happy riding,
Ryan
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