Taking a step away for a moment

While my assorted teammates prepared for the first race weekend of the season and arrived at camp in Chula Juana, I was driving once again to LA. This time training was not the reason for my visit. I headed south to hang out with a group of friends from my first year at SB, all cyclists who are now scattered through out Southern California.
Due to a mildly serious health issue affecting one of my friends I took the weekend easy after whipping myself silly in the days prior. We had a great time in LA, we went to Whole Foods and bought about eighty dollars in veggies which we promptly fed to my buddy Pat's juicer. Between lazy mornings on the pool deck and rides up the San Gabriel Mountains we remembered our time at UCSB as a team; the hard racing, the half-hearted partying, and endless antics traveling around California. These discussions left us in tears, falling over with laughter. It is times like these that remind me why I started to race my bike, it's not just that I love riding bikes, It's the time I spend with the crazy group of people I call my friends and teammates during training and racing.
I also was reminded that no matter where I go, that I need to maintain my good friendships to remind me who I am and why I'm riding my bike in pursuit of excellence.

being lazy between camps

after 5:30 wake ups for 4 straight days I have no running desire to rush out the door to get my training done during the few days between camps. Camp 2 was a success, strong start laps all camp long and i finally found my distance legs. Camp 2 was great, no ER visit and i discovered the wonders of benadryl, allowing me to go to bed after our night sessions on the track. It is right about now, a couple recovery days have passed since camp and my mind and body are seriously doubting one of my goals for world championships, not having a beer or glass of wine until after competition.

Now, I'm not a heavy drinker by any means but as someone who has made making alcohol a career goal i do enjoy a tasty beverage quite often. It really hasn't performance in the past, but with the biggest race of my young career on the horizon I wanted to see if abstaining for alcohol could give me one or two percent more in training and competition. Up until now the experiment has been decent, no nice meals with my parents to tempt me with good wine, no imported micro brews offered to me at friend's houses. Last weekend I almost broke down. Walking, no (hobbling is a more accurate term), into my coach's room to make a sandwich I was offered a Stella by my teammate, with instructions that the six pack needed to be finished before people left for their flights home. I bit the bullet and declined, as much as my mind wanted to say yes, sticking to my plan was and is more important than a Stella from a bottle. But, on the bright side, it's game on the day after worlds; when my Dad, brother, Clark, and I begin our short but whirlwind tour of the wineries, vineyards and cooperage of northern Italy.

Track camp number one

I figure this camp will be remembered as the camp where Will crashed again. I did go down on day 2, session 3, but only ended up missing that session. after consulting with a doctor via text and picture message, Adam and I headed out to the ER for a late night ending in 7 stitches. The broken veneer on my front tooth was painless and i ended up getting fixed today in an easy session in the dentist's chair. After too few hrs of sleep i was at the track again, a bit sore, but ready to push just as hard as the prior sessions to get the most out of our valuable track time. Even with all my soreness and accumulated exhaustion, I still was able to stomp out some vital PR start laps in our team sprint practice.
While this camp left me wasted, still recovering two days later, I found myself loving every minute i spent suffering during the pain inducing sessions. Unlike the last few months where I found myself suffering alone, wondering for what purpose I was wailing on myself for, this camp was unlike that at all. after every effort I was not the only slumped over attempting to not puke, or later cry from the pain of accumulated lactic acid, but joined my teammates to suffer together. With the provided mutual support and encouragement, we pushed past our personal bests, all in preparation for another camp in a weeks times, and ultimately in competition against the world's best.

new year-temporary new job

With track worlds in Italy in March i took the quarter off of school to fully prepare for competition. I left last quarter in good standing, having even boosted my suffering GPA with some solid results. Beyond the bike my experiences and results last spring and summer have transferred over to school as well. In the past few months I was not scared by tests, but rather approached each one with confidence in myself and the effort i put in preparing for each test. With this mindset i was able to get good grades as well as train hard in the gym and on the bike in preparation for the new year and four prep camps before our March departure.
With my return to SB i found myself with a few days of training and an equal number of recovery. Before going to LA i stoked up on coffee as well as catching up with my friends Aaron and Kim at handlebarcoffee.com. After hanging out and cooking dinner with my UCSB teammates when they got back in town, it was time to head to camp number one.

unearthed inabilities

As I found out last week my disability follows me where ever i go. On a day to day basis i forget that anything is wrong with my body, having lived with it for 22 years i have know nothing else. Last week I left the ranch and the family and drove to LA, a week on the velodrome awaiting me.
Over the next 4 days I was challenged both physically and mentally. While I am able to ride the velodrome my cerebral palsy affects my pedal stroke on my track bike more than on my road bike. Mostly i have to concentrate on pedaling or else i could find myself in a situation similar to '09 in Colorado.
After 4 days of training and efforts, I think it may be close to impossible for me to stand and sprint at speed on the track. I have no problem standing from a dead start, thankfully the only start position for my races at worlds, but cannot get out of the saddle to wind up a flying effort from the rail. After thinking about it I realized the biggest impact that being "Disabled" has had is in the little actions. i have 90%, that last 10% is just out of reach.