USADA and Lance Armstrong

Everyone has their own belief, theory and reason to support or hate Mr. Armstrong.  Did he dope or didn't he.  I don't know if he did it or not.  I do know it made for great entertainment watching him crush the tour every year, and he had a few good books.  He's stories helped get me out on a road bike, I was already rediscovering mountain biking a few years before he became big.

I also know that just about everyone else that was in contention for the tour wins during 'Lance's' time has since been busted for doping.  Which is an interesting aspect to this entire story.

 Anyway, instead of reading all the analysis from the folks trying to sell magazines, have a read through the actual letter Mr. Armstrong received from the US anti doping agency (USADA).  I bet they don't send these to just anyone.  Gad Zooks - Use or attempted use, possession, trafficking, administration or attempted administration, assisting, encouraging, aiding, abetting, covering up, aggravating circumstances.  The letter also lays out similar charges against 4 other people, including team doctors and team director Johan Bruyneel.

What a mess.  Hopefully there will be some benefit to this, through change that improves the sport and protects it's participants from these activities.  Some how I think larger changes than just busting a few doctors and a racer are going to be required.

First/Early Season 2012

It was my plan at the beginning of 2012 to split my season into two blocks.  The first block was to be an early road racing season were I would hit all the big spring road races.  Then I would shut things down, enjoy some summer family time and riding and ramp it back up for cyclocross.  The early season events began with Boulder Roubaix and culminated with the Superior-Morgul Omnium.

At the beginning of the season I had big goals.  I’m a category 3 cyclocross racer so I wanted to raise the bar and upgrade on the road.  I wanted to drop another 5 pounds and increase my threshold power.  Sadly I was unsuccessful at all of those goals.  I did plenty of riding and I worked with a coach.  We tried to plan everything out but it just didn’t happen and to be clear, it wasn’t because I didn’t due the planned work.

In races were I had hoped to be worrying about upgrade points, I was just trying to score Colorado Road Cup points for the team; and I wasn’t even successful at that.  By the time I reached my planned peak for the Superior Omnium I was just hoping I could finish in the top 20.  While I had a lot of fun at each of the races, I certainly didn’t have a shining performance.  In the end, I did finish in 18^th in the omnium, accomplishing my last minute goal of a top 20 finish.

In the end my goals were not meet.  Where they too lofty?  Was everyone else just so much faster because of the warm spring?  I already weight less than I did in high school, my body just didn’t want to give up more, or at least I couldn’t seem to make it.  My threshold power didn’t improve much during the spring even though my aerobic engine was sufficient.  So I’ve made some changes going forward to see if I can improve things going into the second, and more important to me, part of the season.  I’ve returned to my-self coaching ways, they got me upgraded in cyclocross in the first place.  Since I’m calling the shots with my training again and I have time, I’ll be putting more effort in those longer intervals that will result in threshold power improvements.  I’ll also be paying close attention on trying to get a few more pounds off so I’m not throttled on the big stair run-ups like I was last year during cyclocross season.

I’ll be writing about my plans and how they’re coming along, stop back by if you’re interested.