Meet Whitey Bulger. Customized and built with Project One.

Specs:
Trek Madone 6.5
Groupo: SRAM Red
Wheels: Bontrager Race X Lite (RXL)
Paint job: Custom matte white, minimal logo design
Pedals: Speedplay Zero Team Green Stainless

Shortly after this bike was dubbed Whitey Bulger, its namesake was apprehended after 16 years at large. We can only assume that the sudden success of his capture can be credited to us. You’re welcome.

Thanks to Michael Foley for the sweet video, featuring Pedal Power team members Dana and Christine.

I’m not sure who I am anymore.

The die hard roadie just got herself a mountain bike??

Oh, but it sure is PRETTY.

Lord Kegasus

Meet Lord Kegasus, my new (to me) 2010 Trek Top Fuel 9.8. I’m still not sure what exactly I’ll be doing with it (probably riding/falling/crashing/flailing more than racing or showing any signs of competence), but hey maybe I’ll acquire some much desired steering skillz that have eluded me riding exclusively on the road.

Thanks to Uri for letting me borrow his extra Fisher for the last year and helping me commit to yet another financially zapping hobby.. disposable income is overrated, anyway.

And to all my mtb friends.. you may regret offering to teach me the ways of the dirt. It’s a good thing I have so many of you to burn through.

This just in! Pedal Power caps are here.. and they are HOT.

Contact orders [@] pedalpowercoaching.com if you would like to purchase one of our extras.

Ready to leave the nest

Can you say it’s a whiteout?

Birch's wheelz

Whitey Bulger

Pics to come: Sara, Anne and Julie’s new digz.

Thanks to Trek and Landry’s for hooking us up with such sweet rides.

Well, if I look out my window and it is snowing and cold, it must mean that I am home from guest coaching at the Pedal Power Tucson Training Camp in Arizona. I spent the last month helping to run a cycling training camp in the hills and desert of Southern Arizona with Sara Bresnick and her company, Pedal Power Training Solutions.

We had several week long camps and one of them was dedicated as a women’s category 3/4 development session. With support from the local USAC association we welcomed 7 women racers from the New England area on a warm Sunday morning. We immediately assembled everyone’s bikes and out we went for a beautiful ride with all of them and camp staff Sara and Linnea.

The Pedro's van sags up Mt. Lemmon

On the first full day of camp, the group attacked the 25 mile long infamous climb up Mt Lemmon; a smooth and steady uphill grind that starts in 80 degree desert and climbs through scenic rocky views up to 8200 foot high trees and cool temperatures. It was getting the group ready for this trip that I fully understood how being a cycling coach involves a great deal more than just assigning workouts and interval sessions.

Dana takes a stretch alongside the road

There were the little things like giving advice about where and when to eat and drink on the climb, and how to adjust power efforts as the riders climbed up to higher altitudes. Time was also spent giving descending and cornering tips to some of the riders as very rarely do we get the chance to go twisting and turning downhill for an hour or so here in New England.

After the rides we would download the power and heart rate data from everyone and review the day’s efforts using the WKO+ software. We would compare the different riders to each other and on the final night we showed how the riders had adapted and improved in such a short period. It was amazing to see how much everyone improved in just one week!

Using the Multi File Analysis function allowed us to overlay files and see how the
different riders handled the elevation on the climbs, the rolling terrain and wind of the desert and the difficulty of the week in whole.

As a change from other camps in the area, we scheduled a nice lazy ride into the Saguaro National Park on Wednesday of each week. This allowed everyone to recharge their “batteries” and to give them the energy and legs they needed to tackle the rest of the week. We were able to show the positive effect of this easy day with a Performance Management Chart based on the week alone. One can see the yellow bar signifying “form” improve in just one day and allowing the riders to make it all the way to Saturday with no problems or issues. Tired yes, broken, no.

Every day we did a different type of ride and route: from long trips across the desert to easy recovery rides to the epic 6 ½ hour trip to Kitt and back, these “girls” really showed how strong and determined they were by handling every mile with ease and speed. Over the week they rode 26 hours for over 435 miles and up 28,000 feet of total climbing. This was no joke of a training camp and they were fantastic!

We were lucky to have Matt S. and Matt B. from Pedro’s stay with us for the first few days to drive the support van and give lessons on bike cleaning and maintenance. Their help combined with the high quality and vegan friendly Hammer Nutrition products made the camp perfect.

I was amazed and impressed every day by these hard core women bike racers and look forward to another camp next year. My thanks go out to them for making the camp easy and fun (despite my being horribly out numbered!)

Kyle Wolfe is a USA Cycling Level 2D coach and is also Power Based Training Certified. Based in CT, Kyle is a full time cycling coach and was happy to help out in the warmth of the desert sun!

About 350 miles down this week, here are a few pictures!

We’ve added additional pictures from Mt Lemmon and Kitt Peak.