Master’s Track Nationals is being held this week at the Marymoor Velodrome in Redmond, WA. Last night one of the athletes that I coach, Jim Flynn, took 2nd in the men’s 45-49 Points Race. I was pretty psyched to hear about Jim’s result and even more so when I heard how he did it which he described in this awesome text message I received from him in answer to my text from The Netherlands asking how it went:
“Fucking A. I did a 20 lap solo break away in the 50 lap points race. I got caught by a guy who then left me and lapped the field. I took more sprints off the front for a total of about 30 laps solo. I got back in and won another sprint towards the end. The spectators were going ballistic for the fat Keller Rohrback guy. I had some crazy adrenaline going. You’re a great endurance coach, 210 lbs stays away for 30 laps. Holy shit, what the fuck?! That’s my race report …scratch race on Friday…gotta get some sleep…”
Nice!
I coached Jim a few years ago and then life threw some curve balls at him. We would still ride now and then on some of the local group rides but we were no longer working together as coach-athlete. But then towards the end of April I received this email from him:
“Hey Joe,…my fat ass needs a baby sitter desperately…If I can salvage a late season I want to focuses on weight loss first then whatever you think is best…When I used you as a coach two years ago one major benefit for my type of personality was the accountability factor. I would like to be held to a no alcohol , shitty food, ect ect standard until I get my weight down to 190.. I am currently at 215… I was as heavy as 225 in January. I went to Arizona at 219 lbs and did 600 miles in 9 days and came back heavier wtf? Lots of beer. My life has been a roller coaster the last year and…now…trying to get back to normal. I can’t seem to stay on track with any consistency in training and diet. If I dont feel like riding I don’t and when I used you as a coach I can remember getting on my trainer in the garage only because I would have to answer to you later. Nationals would be a nice goal.”
I told Jim that I would work with him only if he committed to a program through Nationals which were going to be held on our home track. I realized that getting him ready in time to be competitive at Nationals in four months and starting from his current state could be a stretch but I also figured, fuck it, why not shoot for the moon? Nationals were on our home track so let’s circle that on the calendar and go for it. We might crash and burn but then again, the spoils seldom go to the timid.
Fortunately Jim hadn’t stopped riding entirely and had raced the season before so we weren’t starting from zero. .004 maybe, but not zero. I started him out with seven weeks of base riding which included having him get on the trainer at least twice a week as soon as he rolled out of bed for an easy 20-30 min spin. No breakfast – straight onto the trainer with another scheduled ride later that day. Then at eight weeks I threw him right into racing two to three times a week which he was able to do between race nights at the track and some of the local criteriums. There were a few stumbles along the way (Jim isn’t the greatest at uploading his training and let’s just say that he didn’t always heed my comments to him that “beer is not a recovery drink especially in your case”) but for the most part Jim did what I asked of him and BAM!…a Silver National Championship medal now belongs to him.
Congratulations Jim. Very well done.
