Great new Mountain Biking site for Women

For all the ladies, there is a new site geared towards Women's Mountain Biking, called Women's Mountain Bike. Looks like it could be a great resource. Check it out at www.womensmountainbike.net

How much do you hate to lose?

Here's a "Tip of the Week" that I needed to remind myself of...

Posted by: "Nate Llerandi" natellerandi@yahoo.com Mon Aug 25 2008

A few weeks back, I wrote about Cadel Evans riding not to lose the Tour and, by doing so, he lost it. In a similar vein, our mindset toward racing is every bit as important to our successes and shortcomings as how we race. If not more so. Racing not to lose is how one racesour mindset might be "I love to win." And this is great. To be clear, "winning" to me is not necessarily defined as crossing the finish line first. Certainly, for some it is. Winning can be the act of setting a PR at a given race or over a given distance. Or it can mean beating a particular individual who normally beats you. Or it could simply be completing a particular distance of race for the first time. The definition of winning can be far-reaching. When someone says to me "I love to win", my immediate follow-on question is this: "OK, but how much do you hate to lose?" To me, hating to lose is more important than loving to win. Those who hate to lose seem to extract more out of themselves and their performances than those who either have not contemplated this aspect of preparation or who instead just focus on the "winning" side of things. If you hate to lose, you tend to bloody your nose as you try to smash through your limitations and barriers. Sometimes, you are an effective battering ram and you do smash those barriers to pieces. In any event, you are constantly trying to be the absolute best you can be. I do not equate the love of winning with the hatred of losing. They are two different things, intertwined but separate. So, I guess this week's Tip boils down to this. Have you asked yourself how much you hate to lose? If not, you should. Whatever your answer, you will learn something about yourself and, hopefully, be able to apply something new to your racing experiences. Happy Training, Nate Llerandi

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Chains don't like me

Today, I went out for a 4 hour training ride on the Divide Loop, and POP! Again? After breaking my chain at the last race, I was pissed. First ride on a brand new chain and I tore one of the links apart. Good thing I was carrying tools.

Now, I wish I could say that I'm just so strong, my chains can't handle me. But even when I spent 6 days a week in the gym, weighed almost 200lbs and was MUCH stronger, this didn't happen. In the last year, between the road and mountain bikes, I think I've broken 5 chains.

I've seen the belt drive systems coming out, but they are only for single speeds at this point... what's a dude to do?