Apr 19 2022 13 mins 1
Today the Old Guy talks about BMX training.
Hey Team ….. well, I now had 2 bikes ready for training and racing, I had a coach lined up and I was ready to start.
BOOM !!! ….. the very week in March 2022 that I was set to start training, our city of Brisbane experienced some of it’s worst flooding since the floods of 2011. Everything went underwater including the track at Caboolture BMX Club.
Caboolture BMX (north of Brisbane City) was the club that I had joined and through the club I had been introduced to the Club Coach, Craig Jones from Tri Five Fitness
In response to the track being under water, Coach Craig from Tri Five set up some coaching sessions away from the track and after a week or two delay I was off and training BMX. Right from the start I rode my 24″ Diamondback RM24 and also right from the start I just could not get comfortable with it. After a lifetime of riding all sorts, shapes and sizes of bikes and being pretty able to just jump on any bike and ride, the RM24 just wasn’t doing it for me. I immediately switched to my 20″ Mosh Expert AL and felt pretty good right away. For the remainder of this initial Tri Five training session and for my own training during the next week I jumped back and forth between the RM24 and the Mosh and it was becoming clear that I was enjoying the little bike much more than the RM24.
Everyone I spoke to kept telling me I was wrong and that all old guys should be on a long top tube 24″ cruiser bmx …… I think Coach Craig hit the nail on the head when he said “just ride what you feel most comfortable on”. By the end of the first 2 weeks I had pretty much made the decision that I would stick it out with the Mosh and learn my skills on that bike and then introduce the 24″ Cruiser further down the road if I wanted to race an additional class.
April 5th 2022 – Todays session was a mix of sprints and bike control doing weaving drills around witches hats and holding the bike in a straight line through witches hats.
April 10th 2022 – Todays session was a hugeeeee breakout for me as Coach Craig declared that all riders had to be on flat pedals for this session. I have been clipped into my pedals for almost 30 years and even though I have tried flat pedals from time to time, it is not something that I have used for serious training or riding. I guess my saving grace is the time we spend in Japan riding Mama Chari commuter bikes which of course have flat pedals …. but that is a long cry from punting a BMX at speed on flat pedals when you ain’t used to it.
I settled for some old Redline pedals which had some pretty good long pins on them and then used my Dunlop Volley Canvas shoes which have a nice flat grippy sole. I spent a longggg time warming up and trying to get a feel for not being clipped in and even during the warmup I slipped my pedals a few times. I decided that this would be a great learning session for me and that I should stay relaxed and not go to hard during this training set.
The “flat pedal” session was the usual sprints and bike control ……… but then Coach Craig switched it up and we all had turns in wooden bike stands getting a feel for being in the “manual” position whilst being stationary and being assisted to remain in the manual pose. Next up was doing actual real manuals and it was here that I was pretty happy to be on flats. For anyone that has tried doing manual or wheelies you will know how often you will “loop out” and that is a time you don’t want to be clipped in !! We finished the session with a manual challenge over a marked course of 1 to 20 ……. I was pretty happy to manual a 12 out of 20. This was a great session for me and as always I learnt heaps and have heaps to work on.
See ya back here for more shortly
Subscribe to the Coach Jeff Podcast HERE
Check out our old shows on The Coach Jeff Podcast Archives
Check out our book …. Running for Donuts
