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Off Season Considerations

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What is the “Off-Season” all about? Many will say not training, not racing, really not doing anything. Others will say not racing, but still training. Some say training big hours at low intensities while others are off to the gym lifting weights. It seems that the possibilities are endless for the “Off-Season,” so the right approach can be awfully hard to formulate on your own.

Following several months of hard racing and training during the Competitive Season it is important to allow the body a chance to rest up physically while getting away from the mental stresses of the season. By this time of the year chances are that you’re feeling worn out and need a time to recharge. Taking some time away from the demands of training is the first step. You don’t have to stop exercising altogether, rather get out there and do whatever might be different or refreshing instead. If this means more mountain biking, excellent, or maybe you like to tear around on the singlespeed, so be it.  Spend time doing something active, but don’t concern yourself about the specifics of it too much. 

Eventually you’ll start thinking about next year and the approach you can take to improve upon what you’ve done in past seasons. You’ll plot out the races you intend to do and think about how you will refine the training and preparation. Perhaps this is where you are right now, as December is when many of us start preparations for the coming season.  Choosing to work with a coach is an excellent way to speed up your natural learning curve.  As a coach it is my job to help educate you about how your body best responds to various training methods. It is with this information that you’ll improve at the rate of your full potential – with little or no training time spent doing fruitless tasks.

It is my approach to first address the athlete as an individual when beginning Off-Season training. The experience of the athlete needs to be considered along with personal strength or weaknesses. Any injuries or imbalances should be addressed before delving back into the same old training habits. It is important that the whole athlete be considered before training plans are constructed. Some athletes might benefit from strength training while others might be better off to focus their time and energy elsewhere.  If your schedule is such that you can’t train more than a couple hours on weekdays, then perhaps the low-intensity base building regime won’t work quite as it’s intended to.  Every athlete carries different goals, experiences, and life constraints, each of which factors into what the optimal off-season might look like. Determining how all of these components best fit together should be your primary goal of the Off Season. 

The Off-Season is a time that you are able to step away from what you have always done, evaluate it, get an expert’s opinion on it, tweak it, plot changes, and finally go for it in new, perhaps more effective manner.  Don’t let a wasted Off-Season keep you from achieving your goals; rather put your time and energy to use and make the most of the opportunities you have at hand. Your next Competitive Season will be all the proof you need to show that your Off-Season was well spent.

University of Arizona Cycling Team Well Represented at MTB Nationals

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The University of Arizona Cycling Club Team took Angel Fire, New Mexico by storm this past weekend as they accumulated four podium results in the Women’s Division I field. I was pleased to attend this Collegiate National Championship event with the club and to see them perform at such outstanding levels.  Freshman, Chloe Forsman won both the Short Track Cross Country (STXC) and the Cross Country (XC) events while her senior teammate, Melanie Meyers, finished third in STXC and second in the XC event.

In Friday’s STXC competition Forsman led from the start and never looked back. She maintained a sizable 30+ second gap over the chasing duo of teammate Melanie Meyers and Heather Holmes (University of Utah). Meyers fought hard in the late stages and finished third place on the day. In Saturday morning’s XC event it was Meyers who controlled the pace from the start. Meyers would only be surpassed by her teammate Forsman late in the race.   The University of Arizona Duo claimed the top two podium spots in this, the most prestigious of all weekend competitions. The best riders from all across were country were there to compete, but could not touch these Wildcat riders.

Two Wildcats competed in the Men’s B STXC on Friday. Arthur Breme’s finished eleventh in his first ever mountain bike race while teammate Brian Meyer finished strong for twelfth following a crash that took skin from his chin and tore the sole from his cycling shoe. Both Men’s riders were exhausted, but ready for the XC event the following day. They had surely survived the Hurricane of Pain.  For the Men’s B XC competition they were joined by teammate Colby Moeller. Moeller rode strong to finish fourth, Meyer finished an impressive eleventh after snapping his seatpost early on, and Breme completed his first ever XC event in twelfth place.

On Sunday Forsman and Meyers joined their downhill (DH) teammate, Nolan Mayer, for the DH competition. All three riders took on the gnarly World Cup course that snaked its way down the mountain from high above.  The two XC women held their own in this their first ever attempts at DH racing. Forsman placed 18th and Meyers was 33rd.  Mayer competed in the Men’s B field and placed 17th despite crashing on one of the challenging sections of the course.  All three came out alive which was success enough in the opinion of many!

This was quite a showing for the University of Arizona. They plan to return in 2007 to defend their titles, bringing more racers along with them so that they can compete for the team omnium which is traditionally won by a Colorado school.  This year it was the team from Fort Lewis College of Durango, Colorado who successfully repeated as Division I Omnium champions.

Choosing Appropriate Gearing for Cycling

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Choosing Appropriate Gearing for Cycling

Now hosted at Roadcycling.com, this article was originally published in the September 2005 issue of CycleSport. Explore how choosing a compact crank or a different cassette might improve your cycling. Physiological and mechanical considerations are covered in this published work. Enjoy and feel to ask any questions that this article might raise.

-Travis

Investment opportunities

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Investing in equities, bonds or property can offer a good opportunity of growing your money over the longer term. A normal investor can be expected to be comfortable with such investments. Just because you’re a long-term investor doesn’t mean you have to buy one stock or one bond to stay invested over the long term, there are many more options that you could take a look at, like those at
SoFi.

The future is always uncertain. It is therefore better to hold some liquid investments such as cash or an account, such as a regular savings account, that can be withdrawn and converted back into cash, as needed.

This article is intended as general advice and information and should not be taken as investment advice. Use your own financial circumstances and circumstances where applicable when making decisions. The article should not be relied upon for investment purposes other than those permitted by law.

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One strategy is to allocate your cash balance every year to one asset or asset class (stocks, bonds, property) and invest the rest in a diversified portfolio of low-risk assets. With the higher total returns and returns that these investments achieve, you will have time to earn a greater portion of the returns before losing your entire investment.
If you’re a businessman investing in different markets, then you might want to check out WECU: Business Banking and see how they can help with your finances.

Pros and cons of liquid investing vs. stable investments

Liquid investing has higher potential returns and lower potential volatility than stable investments. These higher returns and lower volatility mean that a liquid investor can generate a higher expected total return and income over time. There is no such thing as risk-free investing.

But there are also downsides to holding liquid investments, such as the need for greater liquidity. Liquid assets usually have less liquidity which results in higher volatility. Liquid assets may be less liquid than their stable or volatile counterparts. Although it does not take much time to transfer a steady amount of liquid assets from one account to another, it takes longer to fully liquidate a highly liquid asset (such as shares in a large company).

Liquid Assets

One is unlikely to be able to earn the same average returns on a liquid asset as one who holds an equally liquid stable investment such as equities or bonds. The average return a liquid investor can expect on a single liquid investment over the long-term is higher (after tax) than the expected return of a stable investment. For example, liquid assets can generate roughly three times the annual return of equities as compared to bonds, three times the annual return of property as compared to equities, and over 4.5 times the annual return of cash as compared to equities. These are expected to be accurate estimates based on historical returns and the general factors that tend to influence investment returns.

The additional returns from liquid assets come from the fact that they often perform better in value terms and in volatile markets.