Journal of professional cyclists Ian MacGregor and Timmy Duggan

Fresh Air

Im officially over the bike that goes nowhere in my living room.  Two days in a row of near 60 degree temps with sun and no wind here in Boulder really dampened my spirits stuck inside on my indoor trainer, nice as it is being a Cylops ;).  I gotta say, what is the matter with the crazy army of people at the gym Ive been going too running on the treadmill on a day like this in Boulder, CO?  Youre gonna pay to run on a machine indoors when you can run on some beautiful mountain trail in the warm sun?  I really dont get it.  Ive gone stir crazy from doing my workouts indoors the last 2 weeks.  Luckily my shoulder made a lot of progress the last few days.  I saw the doc on monday and ditched my sling.  Then Tuesday I hopped on the cruiser bike to go to the gym.  Slightly painful and scary but doable.  Wednesday I got out my big cushy Felt Virtue full suspension mountain bike for a mellow ride on a flat straight road with minimal obstacles.  Another step up.  Some more accupuncture and my first (and I think last) day of physical therapy ensued, and then today I woke up and I was pretty much ready for jumping jacks and arm wrestling, so I decided to give a careful ride on the road bike a try.   No problem.  Cant really stand up or really crank on the bars, but 4 1/2 hours on the road and in the sunshine did wonders for my morale.  Super psyched to step up my training a bit more.  Looks like ill be right on track, and not even 3 weeks after my crash.  Not bad so far.  In the meantime I’ll be the guy riding around with a sore butt with a big smile on his face and my trainer back in the garage.  Hopefully it doesnt snow this week.thanks for checking in

Post Op

I had surgery on friday and everything so far is better than I was expecting.  Really not much pain and some solid range of motion.  Lucky for me Dr Reid is a magician, and put me back together with 2 screws and a wire in 3 1/2 hours of surgery, thankfully all with the scope so that makes my recovery a lot friendlier.  There was no soft tissue damage either.  I got out of the post surgery haze and have been doing some serious dog walking, some couch biking at the gym, and some leg extensions.  Im gonna give a modified indoor trainer ride a shot in a little bit here.  Im hoping it just gets better by the day and ill be comfortable on the bike again in no time.

From starting the season to extending the offseason…

At least I’m getting it out of the way early in the season.  On the final day of the Tour of the Med, my first race of the season, I crashed with a few other riders on wet rain slickened roads, knocking myself pretty silly, landing in an ambulance, and leaving with a broken shoulder socket.  Fracture of the Glenoid Fossa to be precise.   Rough way to end a gnarly race with absolutely frigid temperatures, snow, rain, wind, black ice, and neutralized stages.  So already some downtime as I have to get surgery to put the socket back together.  Its kind of a strange injury…pretty much no pain…yet…and decent range of motion but its pretty important for the inside of your shoulder socket to be perfectly smooth or youll be feeling it every day the rest of your life.  So in a couple days Ill go in to pin it back together, and they figure while theyre in there they might as well take out my collarbone plate as well.  So I’ll be a couple ounces lighter, which is nice I guess.  Its always tough to deal with an injury but this is broken collarbone and/or shoulder #4 for me so Ive got the comeback routine down pretty well.  Usually the forced rest is good for me, then a few weeks of super specific training, and Im usually better off than I was before, so not worried about that.  Just not looking forward to the many hours on the indoor trainer.  I better get on Netflix and order some good action movies to watch.  Oh, and the Olympics are on the next couple weeks so that’s good timing for riding the trainer and watching TV as well!  Wont be so bad.

Surgery tomorrow morning, Dr. Reid is planning on doing it all artrhoscopically which will be a lot less invasive.  Hopefully there is no soft tissue damage as well or it could be more complicated.  Ill know more about the recovery after we go in, but for now its looking like a return to racing in 6-8 weeks ish, pretty standard.

Send me some good vibes tomorrow

Thanks for checking in

First Race on Deck

After a few days of well earned recovery following our team training camp (2 1/2 weeks is about a 1/2 week too long for camp in my book ha ha) my first race is already on the horizon, the Tour de Mediteraneen.  A 5 day race in southern France.  Should be cold and crisp but hopefully dry.  Got my share of rain at camp.  Here in Girona the weather is trying to decided between winter and spring on a daily basis.  On my way back from Calpe it was snowing, then we had snow on the road in the morning.  But by the afternoon you could be having lunch outside on the patio it warmed up so much.  Thats been the story lately…so Ive been heading out training a little bit later to wait for it to warm up!  Im in summer mode now…I didnt sign up for any more cold and snow.  We’ll see about that I guess.Thanks for checkin in

New Gear Thats Truly Useful

Our long ride in the inclement weather yesterday really made me appreciate our sponsors and all the work that they put into R and D to give us truly the best equipment.  We started of in rain and 48 degrees, then sun and warm, then snow, then cold and rain again.  The whole range. Big plugs to a lot of our sponsors on that day.  My Pear Izumi elite thermal tights kept the legs warm, while the zephyr gloves and hat kept the pointy ends warm and dry.  I really wasnt even cold all day.  Thats what you need when you have to do your job in that kind of weather all day.  So THANKS Pearl!Then it was a banner day for my new sunglasses from Transitions Optics.  As I said, the weather and light conditions changed drastically throughout the day.  But the cool thing about my new shades was that the Transitions lenses adapted seamlessly to each change.  Between needing clear lenses in the dark and rain when we started, to needing darker lenses for the blue bird sun parts, one pair of lenses had me covered and I didnt even notice.  I could just see great all day and I never had to worry about it.  Pretty sweet stuff.  Thanks Transitions!And then today we got did some solid team time trial work on the new TT rigs.  Pretty amazing bike.  On my new Felt with super smooth electronic shifting and new full carbon 5 spoke aero wheels from new sponsor Mavic, I hardly had to pedal in anger during the hard workout today.  Ok, well when coming around Zabriskie I had to pedal a little harder, ha ha ha.We have quite a range of some amazing wheels from Mavic for a variety of conditions and its pretty exciting to try them all out this month.  You think being sponsored by Mavic we will get even faster wheel changes from Mavic Neutral Support at the back of races??Thanks for checkin in on my here in Calpe,

Down time at camp…finally

My Garmin-Transitions mates and I are taking a recovery day here in Calpe, watching the rain pour down and the big waves batter the shore over breakfast and coffee.  We did a double session in the pouring rain yesterday but decided not to keep pushing it in the wet today, saving the energy for some big rides in hopefully sunnier weather the next few days to finish off our camp strong.  Not too much rest though…still have some photo shoots and some vision testing for our Transitions lenses to do today as well.Thanks for checking in

Starting 2010 at Training Camp

I’ve joined most of my Garmin-Transitions teammates in sunny Calpe, Spain this week for our main pre-season training camp.  It is quite a massive operation, with nearly every member of the team both riders and staff, as well as consultants, doctors, and sponsors, here at some point getting some work done while we have everyone in one place.  Its a taxing couple of weeks.  We are getting in a serious load of training each day, all the while bonding with new teammates and staff, tinkering with new equipment, doing physiological testing, and learning about team operations and new sponsors.  There’s barely enough time in the day to just sit down and relax for a bit, which would be nice given the beachfront view we have here!  Anyway, today is the first day I’ve had that chance to sit down so I thought I’d write a little update.The last couple days we have been meeting with our new co-sponsors, Transitions Optics.  They provide a technology that changes the tint of sunglass and regular glasses lenses according to varying light conditions.  Pretty amazing stuff and Im really excited to try them out in tough racing and light conditions.More to come from Calpe in the coming days….Looking forward to a double training session tomorrow, first on the TT bikes and then some sprint work.  At this time in the winter theres hardly enough time in the day for that!Thanks for checking in

Starting 2010 at Training Camp

I’ve joined most of my Garmin-Transitions teammates in sunny Calpe, Spain this week for our main pre-season training camp.  It is quite a massive operation, with nearly every member of the team both riders and staff, as well as consultants, doctors, and sponsors, here at some point getting some work done while we have everyone in one place.  Its a taxing couple of weeks.  We are getting in a serious load of training each day, all the while bonding with new teammates and staff, tinkering with new equipment, doing physiological testing, and learning about team operations and new sponsors.  There’s barely enough time in the day to just sit down and relax for a bit, which would be nice given the beachfront view we have here!  Anyway, today is the first day I’ve had that chance to sit down so I thought I’d write a little update.The last couple days we have been meeting with our new co-sponsors, Transitions Optics.  They provide a technology that changes the tint of sunglass and regular glasses lenses according to varying light conditions.  Pretty amazing stuff and Im really excited to try them out in tough racing and light conditions.More to come from Calpe in the coming days….Looking forward to a double training session tomorrow, first on the TT bikes and then some sprint work.  At this time in the winter theres hardly enough time in the day for that!Thanks for checking in

2009 Just Go Harder Scholarship Recipient Ray McDermott

 We are proud to announce that Ray McDermott of the Eldora Mountain Ski Clup is the recipient of the 2009 Just Go Harder Scholarship for support in Alpine Ski Racing.  We wish him the best of luck in his progression through life and sport in the upcoming season.

See Ray’s thoughts on what ski racing means to him.

 

Thanks for checking in

 

 

With this scholarship The Just Go Harder Foundation is helping me get the support, coaching, and gear I need to go skiing. 

My family can’t afford all of my gear and training fees sometimes, so when we need help, we can 

 rely on the scholarship to get the other things I need. Thanks to the Just Go Harder Foundation I can enjoy the 

things about skiing that I love. The vibe of the ski culture. The way to ski the deep snow and get blasted 

with a chill of happiness that surges through my body, and to feel the all around freedom of when you 

start to slide down the mountain. That is my inspiration to ski. 

 My skiing couldn’t have progressed if I didn’t get the coaching and experience I needed from 

this racing program. You work on drills and improve stance, stability, confidence, and turning. In the 

beginning it may seem that these little drills aren’t going to help you and that’s what I thought but as I 

watched myself and my teammates progress I found that everything that the coaches were doing where 

changing my skiing dramatically. 

 There is another reason that I enjoy the ski team. I enjoy meeting the other kids that like skiing 

as much as I do. It is something that I look forward to the whole week. I can go up on the weekends 

and ski instead of having to stay down here and be bored. I will be able to take what I have learned and 

what I will keep learning and use it for the rest of my life. 

 

Thank you so much for this opportunity to go skiing, 

Ray McDermott 

                                                     

2009 scholarship recipient Ray McDermott

To New York City

Hopping on a plane tomorrow for a whirlwind trip to NYC with my teammates David Miller and Tyler Farrar for a round of media stuff and a special event for NYC Velocity benefiting junior cycling.  Im actually looking forward to getting out of CO for a couple days as its snowy and super-cold.  Not missing a whole lot of training there ha ha.Also, check out my interview with Dan Schmalz on podcast hereThe past few weeks have been good, a little family downtime with the family but mostly a fair amount of training and getting back into a routine despite the gnarly cold weather we’ve been having.  The other day I was so wet and cold after 2 hours I returned home for some hot chocolate and a dry set of clothes and went back out for more!  I think the body can only handle cold like that in 2 hour doses.Well keep an eye out for me in NYCThanks for checking in