Confirmed Mentor and Project

After numerous back and forth emails, someone has finally volunteered to become my mentor and guide me through the Senior Project. Ray Gildea who is a board member of the Peninsula Velo Cycling Club, is also a USA Cycling Level 3 Certified Cycling coach. He has offered to teach me about the demands of cycling, specifically those in Time Trialing, so that it complements my volunteering efforts at the Beat The Clock To Help Beat Cancer time trials. I'm excited to get that started!

So today we met for about an hour. I was with Kenneth and another Peninsula Velo member, who also turns out to be a Junior (under 18) rider. What we did was we discussed that successful cyclists need a structured training regime. In other words, cyclists can't do what ever they want and need to hold themselves back in the beginning of the year, the winter season, so that they peak their fitness during Spring and Summer. He really stressed on about that, but I've actually been doing that since December after reading "The Cyclist's Training Bible" by Joe Friel. Then we did a practice paceline to learn how to conserve energy during a race. We summed it up by talking more about what we will plan to do, discussed the importance of a bike fit, and again the importance of structuring training. We ended with him signing our mentor agreement forms!

The next time we will meet will probably be in a few weeks where he will go over workouts, and next month I will attend the first BTCTHBC TT to meet Patt Baenen Tapscott, the cancer survivor who promotes the events, and to help volunteer for awareness.

Total Mentoring Time Today: 1:00:00 hours
Total Mentoring Time TOTAL: 1:00:00 hours
Total Volunteering Time Today: 0:00:00 hours
Total Volunteering Time Total: 0:00:00 hours

Anticipated Hours: 2/19/11, 3/19/11, 4/16/11, 5/28/11

Finding A Mentor

I recently massed-email a message to the Peninsula Velo Group concerning my senior project help. To my surprise, over 10 guys replied. I also attended their monthly meeting on Tuesday (1-11-11), and I met the head coach who was a national cyclocross champion for a five times, and he's also the head coach for the Peninsula Velo racing team. I asked him if he could help me and my classmate, Kenneth (who is doing a related project to mine), by being our mentor and helping us get connected to the charity/ community service aspect of cycling. With all the coaching going on and everything, it seems he was a bit busy.

However another member emailed me about a local charity event called the Beat the Clock to help beat cancer Time Trials, and said that he can really help me out since he knows the host, who is a Cancer survivor, personally. It sounded really exciting to me, especially since I have no idea how to do a Time Trial.

I think if this member gets back to me, I will proceed with this, since I've always wanted to do a Time Trial (especially since this is a good cause). I also want to meet the cancer survivor and hopefully get my volunteer hours by helping out at the events.

Initiating the Senior Project!

After a two-week winter break full of eventful occasions, my final High-School winter break has come to an end. Thus begins the most significant portion of senior year; the infamous Senior Project. Fortunately, I've already decided that I will base the Senior Project off of bicycling because it's solely the one thing I'm particularly interested in. I've been cycling for a year and a half, and I'm ready to take it to the next level of exploring what cycling has to offer, that is, bike racing, bike training, and cycling charity events. For the physical portion of Senior Project, I'm looking forward to volunteering and participating in cycling events in Northern California. However to do that, I will need to be taught the basics of bicycling, and learning how to apply the different skills and abilities that cycling has to offer.

So how it is a learning stretch? Well, there are just so many aspects of cycling that one person just can't learn everything. In general, everyone learns something everyday. We never stop learning. In this case, for the past year ever since I first got my bike I've just gone out and rode however I felt like. Sure I've done a few races and even won one two days ago. But I know that somehow there is a way to get better. There is some sort of formula which I need to learn, which I can then apply someday to raise money and awareness for a cause.

I recently joined Peninsula Velo, which is a cycling group that has recreational riders and avid racers. In a week or two, I plan on attending their monthly meeting, and look for ideas and also find a mentor. They're email list is great so I think I will contact someone from there.

See? Already, just by joining Peninsula Velo, I have access to so many resources and I'm about to meet tons of new people. I'm excited for the Senior Project because I can't wait to get out there and help raise awareness for a cause, by riding my bike and helping out at events. I'm hoping that I can find everything I need to get this done, and overall have fun!