Getting Busy

Okay so it seems like the summer riding/racing is in full swing.  The EFTA New England Championship Series kicks off tomorrow with the Weeping Willow.  I'll be heading down nice and early to help out with the race as my sponsor shop Riverside Cycles is putting on the race and the team will all be there helping out.  Should be a busy day as it looks like the race has been sold out for over a week.  The Elite field looks to be absolutely STACKED with some of the fastest guys in New England, so this should definitely be a rude awakening- I actually might just unofficially change the name of the race.  Riding 4 hour marathon tempo is one thing, but being able to go all out at the gun is something completely different, so we'll just see how that goes and I'll get a review after the race.

Aside from the racing I've got a lot of other little side projects going on as well.  I'm starting to do a lot of writing and presenting on cycling.  I've been working on a monthly education series "Getting Ready for the Dempsey Challenge" looking to reach out to folks in my area who have signed up for The Dempsey Challenge, great charity ride here in Lewiston.  The first two sessions were a little light on attendance, but with the help of Central Maine Medical Center's communications department I'm hoping to reach a much broader audience (there is a reason why this is their full time job- they are GOOD at what they do).

Also starting to work on articles on injury prevention in cycling for an upcoming website geared towards Gran Fondo riders.  Totally fell into this one on LinkedIn, someone posted that they were looking for contributors, I wrote back, and low and behold they wanted me to send them some stuff.  So I'm excited about getting that up and going.

After that I've got a HUGE trip coming up in June where I'll be heading out to Colorado Springs to work with the Rocky Mountain Devo junior development camp, a regional camp put on by USA Cycling.  I'll be out there for a week working and riding with juniors (btw, in USA Cycling they consider juniors to be 14-22...interesting), many of whom I'm sure are looking to get selected to attend a national training camp later in the summer.  Best of all, we'll be in town for when the Pro XCT tour rolls into town for the Ute Valley Pro XCT race that the juniors will compete in.  I'm really excited to have this opportunity to work at an event of this level and I can't wait to see what experience I gain from this and what doors this may open.

Lastly, (holy crap this was supposed to be a short update) I'll be helping a good friend and fellow racer Andrew Freye get ready for his summer Maine Youth Bike Series .  They'll be held at a new venue in Falmouth, ME this year and I think everyone is pretty excited about the change.  With this event I'll be wearing a couple of different hats- prior to the race I'll be acting as a coach organizing skills sessions where kids can practice their bike handling/racing skills while waiting for the race to start.  Once the race begins I'll change hats and go into athletic trainer mode and be providing the medical coverage during the event.  These are going to be some busy summer nights.

Okay, that's enough for now.  Off to enjoy a great Saturday and get ready to race tomorrow.  I'll be back with a post on how the Rude Awakening/ Weeping Willow turns out.