La Voix May 2022

RACING NEWS

April Racing in Pictures

 
 

 
 

 

American Bike Racing is Broken. Can it be Fixed?

If you follow local road racing, then you may have noticed the lackluster turnouts and lethargic interest in bike racing nowadays. This is not a new phenomenon, as bike racing’s popularity has been declining for decades, but it is a disturbing one. Some critics point at timed Fondos and online racing for the downswing. Global pandemics don’t help either. Peter Abraham, a local cyclist and writer, shares his 10-Point Plan for reviving our beloved sport.

As a bonus, LG’s very own Arielle Miller is featured as the face of a new wave of racers.

Read the full article here.

Velo Club La Grange is committed to supporting local racing.

 

CLUB NEWS

April's LG50 Ride to the Hollywood Sign

 
 

Big SHOUT OUT to SAG by Robert Yates and sons, Alistair and Simon. Road leader: Jaycee Cary PHOTOS: Robert Yates, Ray Dillman, and Jaycee Cary.

Winner, Winner, TV Dinner!

 

This month, Nir of Nir Wheels and Bike Improve delivered an amazing set of custom hand-built wheels to club member, Guy Dutton.  Generously donated by Bike Improve, Guy won these wheels at the La Grange Annual Banquet raffle. 

These wheels were made to order with the following specs:

C50 Rim Brakes: 50mm x 27mm 20/24 holes, tubeless Ready, 1500 grams.  Front rim: symmetric; Rear rim: 2.5mm offset to maximize power transfer and longevity. Both rims are directionally drilled to accommodate the spokes angle.

If you are interested in an amazing set of wheels be sure to reach out to Nir and he will work with you to make the perfect wheels for your needs. Thanks, Nir and Bike Improve for being a La Grange sponsor.  And thanks Guy for being a long-time member of La Grange!

 

An Evening with Canyon Bikes

 

Last week, a few La Grange members had the fortune of attending a Happy Hour at Canyon HQ in Carlsbad. Everybody was super nice, great food and drink were flowing, and of course, the bikes were gleaming! Thank you, Canyon. We are super proud to be partners with a great group of people. Vive La Grange et Canyon!

 

IN THE NEWS
Operation Firefly is Back!! You can help!

 
 

Free bike lights to those in need!

Operation Firefly has begun a new season and we're always looking for volunteers. Meet us in the field as we hand out lights and collect feedback from some of our most vulnerable communities. This project serves areas marked on the High-Injury Network.
Sign up to volunteer here!

Velo Club La Grange proudly supports Operation Firefly

 

The Biking Bank Robber: A La Grange Connection

When Tom Justice failed to make the Olympics in the 1990s, he decided that if his cycling skills wouldn’t win medals, then he’d use them to rob banks instead.

His prowess on a bike gave him a speedy getaway, but there are only so many robberies you can commit before your ego, and the FBI, start catching up with you.

Hear his story in video here…

 

PKRS.AI: How to Train the Mind (Part 1)

 
 

You work hard. You train your body. You’re disciplined and committed to improving your fitness. You follow a plan for getting stronger and faster and are pursuing goals that matter. In your life of being an athlete, one important element may be getting left behind, however. Your mind. Sure, we’ve all been hearing so much about sports psychology and how important things like “mental toughness” and “grit” are in reaching peak performance. But has anyone ever structured a training plan for your mind in a similar fashion to how you train your body? We are here to change that. Here’s how we get started.

How to begin training the mental side of sport. 

The best place to start training your mind is to recognize the thoughts, self-talk, and narrative that occur before, during, and after your training. In order to get to a place where you can make adjustments and deliberately focus on the advanced mental skills of attentional control, motivational and instructional self-talk, enhancing your chance for flow, and clutch state, you need to first develop an awareness platform for how your mind is processing information and what stories are being told about your experience as it’s happening in real-time. This is the first exercise in your mental training plan, and it comes from one of my favorite tag lines as a sports psychology coach: “You cannot change what you are not aware of.” 

Start by recognizing that every workout has 3 timeline components:

 1. Pre-training. The thoughts and stories that float through your mind as you think about today’s session. For many workouts these thoughts are likely brief and relatively benign, occurring only in the moments you’re lacing up your sneakers or loading your bottles on your bike. During other sessions (especially those on more challenging workout days) you may start thinking about hours earlier, while you’re tied up in work or family responsibilities. Notice when you start to think about your workout, paying close attention not only to the thoughts themselves, but the quality of those thoughts (For example are they positive or negative? Excited or dreadful? Encouraging or questioning?)

2. During training. The meat and potatoes of any sports psychology framework is to be aware of the thoughts and cognitive appraisals that occur while you’re out training, paying keen attention to the qualitative differences between easier and more challenging efforts. What thoughts pop up when you’re tired? How would you describe your use of self-talk? Do you convince yourself you’re strong, courageous, and curious and lean into challenge or discomfort? Or, do you tell yourself you’re unable to continue? And importantly, how is the effort, intensity, or quality of your session impacted by your attitude, thoughts, and ability to regulate your emotions.

3. Post-training. How you mentally put your training away is a vastly underutilized exercise in developing an athlete’s mind. Every time you complete a workout you have a chance to enhance your athletic belief system by what you say to yourself in reviewing what you just did. As you hit stop on your watch or bike computer, or hop out of the pool, what do you say to yourself? Do you congratulate yourself for staying with harder efforts, and remind yourself of how you stayed mentally tough? Or do you blast yourself for cutting off the last rep and reinforce the ideas that you’re not as mentally strong as you could be?

Pay close attention to these types of thoughts in your training. After each session, write some notes about what you noticed in your thinking; what worked well, what you learned, and what you can enhance and share them with us. This is the starting point for us to work together on dialing in performance psychology to get you performing at your peak.

Written by Dr. Justin Ross (PKRS.AI Mindset Expert Coach)

https://www.pkrs.ai/

Support Our Sponsors

 
 
 

Vie 13

Vie 13 is a cycling apparel company focused on quality with a passion for functional performance. Using some of the fastest Italian fabrics, Vie 13 — speed you can wear. Learn more here…

PKRS.AI

For a limited time, get 20% off a custom adaptive training membership with PKRS.AI! Get Fit…Get Fast. Built by champions.
Free trial, no risk.
Check them out here…

 

New and Returning Members

Please welcome our new members who joined in April 2022!

  • New members: Larry L., Giao N., and our friends at Velofix. And a hearty welcome back to Dean La Grange.

Welcome, everyone! We are happy to have you.

LG Event Calendar for May

This calendar is where you’ll find all of our upcoming events IN ONE PLACE. You’ll find both LG On-Bike and Off-Bike events as well as non-LG events. Check it out and bookmark it! Here is the schedule for May. Bold events are LG Team Targeted Events.

  • May 1 – Rosena Ranch Circuit Race

  • May 11 – LG Board of Directors Meeting (All Members Welcome)

  • May 14 – Barrio Logan Grand Prix

  • May 22 – CBR Crit Dominguez Hills

Have an event you would like to add? Send a request to Sam at sam.selfridge@lagrange.org

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