With the first race of the season on Saturday morning, we will ask that all riders have a mostly mellow ride. The goal is to familiarize yourself with the course. Recognize what hills you can give an extra effort because there will be a downhill just around the corner. Or what turns are a little loose and need caution. And especially look for all the good passing zones! Feel free to do a couple of 3-5 minute tempo efforts based on how you are feeling. Each rider should keep a comfortable conversational pace in between those efforts. We want to spin our legs, and get our heart rates up, but not to the point where it becomes a workout with impacts that carry over to Saturday morning’s race.
Keep in mind that the heat will feel especially intense as our first evening practice. When the outside temperature is the same or hotter than one’s internal temperature, it’s especially easy to get heat exhaustion. Make sure riders have water and necessary medical equipment (inhalers) before leaving the parking lot.
• HEAT EXHAUSTION NOTES •
Have the riders drink regularly. Watch each rider for any of the symptoms of heat exhaustion during these evening rides:
- Cool, moist/clammy skin with goose bumps when in the heat
- Heavy sweating
- Faintness / Dizziness
- Fatigue
- Weak, rapid pulse
- Low blood pressure upon standing
- Muscle cramps
- Nausea
- Headache
If you observe these symptoms, stop all activity and rest in a cooler place — shade is typically best, in a location with a breeze and with some water on the head, neck, and torso to encourage evaporative cooling. Have the rider drink cool water or sports drinks until the rider feels better. Let the head coaches know if your riders experience any signs of heat exhaustion during the ride. If left unaddressed, heat exhaustion can worsen to heat stroke, which is a life-threatening condition that requires emergency medical attention.
ALL RIDERS and RIDE LEADERS
Please form into groups at the parking lot when you arrive. There will be no colored group assignments as it will be more casual as families arrive. I am hoping all can arrive as close to 6:30pm as possible. If you are a ride leader please don’t leave the lot without about 3-4 riders with you. We have 38 riders coming and 22 ride leaders, so there should be enough supervision for two ride leaders per group. Chat with the riders about race prep, what to do if something goes wrong, and what their goals are. Try to do 1-2 laps based on your rider’s speed. We MUST be off the course by 8:00pm so last laps should start by 7:15.
A FINAL REMINDER ABOUT VOLUNTEERING
As ride leaders, each of you has already donated so much time and effort at practices. We can never repay each of you for your contributions and sacrifices. Thank you. If you are like us, you have felt a significant personal benefit from being out regularly on a bike, interacting with the riders and watching their individual growth, and socializing with a great community of bike-minded human beings. These are a few of the massive benefits of volunteering with the team.
In an effort to share these benefits as widely as possible (after the ride-leader only positions are covered!!), we ask that you remind all of your riders to speak with their parents about volunteering on race day with the team and with the league. If the riders make parental involvement a priority, it may help parents feel more willing and welcomed to jump into the mix and make a contribution. Currently, we have around 50% of the team volunteer positions covered. If this doesn’t change in the next few days, it means some of our riders won’t have the assistance they need getting race plates attached to bikes and jerseys, warming-up, getting staged, and other critical help to make race day a wonderful experience. In some instances, not having sufficient volunteers for these positions may mean our riders aren’t ready to race at start time, which may prevent some of them from racing at all. After all that these riders have done to prepare, that would be a travesty.
Please encourage riders to ask their parents to volunteer.
Thank you all!