With the first race of the season on Saturday morning, we will ask that all ride groups have a mostly mellow ride with a few intentional efforts. Do a couple of 3-5 minute tempo efforts based on how your group is feeling. Each group 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.
RED / ORANGE
Red and orange will (kind of) combine and split into 3 groups. These groups will meet together so Meghan and AnnaMae can organize the three split groups before hitting the trails.
MECHANIC STATION AT THE FIVE-WAY:
To make sure all of our riders have an opportunity to ride on a well-tuned bike, Mike Drechsel along with other ride leaders will be stationary at the five-way intersection up the fire road running a mechanic station during practice this evening. Please ride your groups up the fire road and stop by the mechanic station with your riders for a quick assessment and tune-up for the riders in your group. We are having the mechanic station at the five-way so that all of your riders have a chance to focus on the performance of their bikes on the ride up to that point. Ask that all riders assess their shifting (up and down the gears), braking, tire pressure, suspension, etc. on the way up the road. If a rider in your group has an issue that needs to be addressed, you can leave that rider at the mechanic station and ride a short loop with the rest of the group, swinging back around to pick up that rider 5-10 minutes later. We hope this helps ensure riders are in good shape mechanically for the race on Saturday.
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 (and to ensure rider leaders and coaches aren’t doing all of the lifting at races), 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!