To truly line up on the start line requires focus, planning, commitment, and preparedness in your Physical, Mental, Recovery, Nutrition,Team and Luck.
Physical training is putting your body through incredible stress, and suffering so come race day whatever the course and opponents have to offer, it feels easy in comparison to what you have been doing in training. Maybe not easy… but you are prepared and ready for the challenge.
Not every race is won by pure power. It takes a strong, confident, sharp mind to know your opponents, course and winning strategy, to navigate through the peloton like a boss, and conduct your face with a cool calm nose breathing demeanor even though your legs are screaming at you to stop. It means believing in yourself and the work you have done, and knowing you can suffer even harder and won’t die from the pain you are feeling in your legs, and lungs. It means trusting your instinct, and to be patient so when you do strike it is with purpose, because you have played this moment over and over again in your head, arms out stretched over your head because you just won.
Recovery is not just a shake, its easy spins to the coffee shop to meet your neglected friends, its visiting that person who spends hours working your muscles like rising dough, often inflicting giggles because thats what you do when you’re in pain. It means guilt-free naps in the middle of the day, sleeping in and sleeping often. It means pretending like you are a vegetable posted up on the couch sipping on your Maxim water bottle.
Nutrition – this is a BIG one. Nutrition matters on the bike off the bike, in training and recovery. It takes time and experimentation to learn what works for you. For me I am still learning how to properly fuel on the bike. Off the bike I feel pretty solid but getting myself to eat and drink on the bike, and to do enough of both is a challenge. This year we, the Fearless Femme Team made the switch to Maxim, a European company now in the US which has been the fuel of the Tour de France teams for over 25 years. I had found a nutrition product in the past that had worked for me so I was a bit nervous to make the change, but it was an easy transition that has produced amazing results.
The first and most important is simply that I want to use it. The Hypotonic Sports Drink tastes great in all three flavors, and is not too sweet like a lot of other sport drinks, so when I get a bottle feed I’m never disappointed in what I get. I’m satisfied knowing I’m getting a drink with all the essential vitamins, electrolytes and energy that I need so if I fall short on my other nutrition intake needs I know I am getting optimum nutrition from just my bottles. It’s like this product was made for me. All they have to offer from Carb load to gels are effective, so this encourages me to use them.
Without a team to race with, and a team of people to support you its hard to be a professional in any sport. I am fortunate to surrounded by an incredible team.
Race Team: Fearless Femme p/b Haute Wheels Racing, is a merger of two teams and sponsors with long term vision and goals chartered to advance and advocate youth and community cycling, as part of Pure Energy Velo, a 501c-3 based non-profit organization.
With the team comes a star cast of sponsors:
Guru Cycles, Vie 13 Custom Apparel, Maxim Sports Nutrition, Pure Energy Velo, Arundel, Bont Cycling, Chamois Butt’r, Cobb Cycling, Coffee Bean Direct, Custom Velo, Defeet International, Echelon Asset Management, Hutchinson Tires,Kask Helmets, Kogel Bearings, Kuat Racks, Museum District Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, ROL Wheels, SPY Optics, Taygan Point Consulting, Thomson Bike Parts
Coaching: Kendra Wenzel of Wenzel Coaching has been an integral part of my training and progression on the bike. We have an exciting path ahead of us.
Recovery/ Massage: Colleen Mcclenahan is experienced working with athletes. Her technique is slow and deliberate, which encourages the tissue to soften and melt. She has been amazing for recovery and correcting injury.
Mental Preparedness: Melinda at GritPerformance fills the gap between hard work and mental strength. Melinda has experienced both the thrill of success and the challenge of adversity as an athlete throughout her life, battling her own addictions to running, skiing, swimming, yoga and recently mountain biking. As a coach and instructor Melinda speaks the language of an athlete while implementing brain based research skills for success.
Nutrition: Not only has Maxim Sports Nutrition properly fueled me but the team of Laura Borgelt, PharmD an English Channel swimmer, USA Aqua Bike National Champion and Ironman triathlete, and Brendan Lundy MBA co-founder of many start-ups, both domestically and internationally and athlete, as a former European cyclist and as an international triathlete, have both been a great resource with a plethora of knowledge and experience.
Luck: There is no practicing luck, but to be successful in a race you need to have a lot of luck on your side. In my mind that means being a good person on and off the bike and keeping your good karma bucket full.
Want to build good karma and build an awesome Nutrition regime?
Then go to Maxim Sports Nutrition and get a SPECIAL DISCOUNT of 20% off when you use Discount Code : FearlessFemme Use this code and you will support Fearless Femme p/b Haute Wheels Racing and this may even gain you some luck in your next race.
I cannot thank this team enough.
