Brad Huff Cycling

So ya I am schedule to race in the Points Race on Thursday and then our Team Pursuit on Saturday.  Points Race?  That thing is the most insane race around.  OK well the Madison is a little worse, but in the Points you are not able to rest unlike the Madison.  Ya I am a little worried, but I know that my fitness is WAY higher than it has ever been with all the insane racing that we have done over the past 3 weeks.  We shall see what happens, but first of all I am going to do my best to qualifiy Thursday Morning for the Final in the evening.  Race to Race.
Oh Lord look over me.

so riding around 58.065 to 60kph in a 50×14 gear behind the motor is murder on the old taint.  Even though my saddle is nice and level it feels like it is sticking straight up.  ouch! 
It is amazing how fast the track makes one feel totally knackered!  The first day is ALWAYS the worst of all, it feels like every part of you lower body is going to be ripped off from the gear.  Muscles that you seem to have been using for a while on the road are totally destroyed in no time.  Then by the 3rd or 4th day the efforts seem to be better and the RPM’s are not destroying one as bad. 
We have been lucky in our training session, but I know that come next week it is going to be like a ZOO on the track.  Attempting to do any type of effort as a team is going to be close to impossiable.  A rider that thinks he or she is a good bike handler and is not bothered by pack riding will be wide eyed and whited knucked within 2 laps.  On competition day, I have already won if I am able to make it on to the track for warm up and back off the track once I am done.  Totally crazy.  But it is a controlled crazyiness.  One just needs to experiance this first hand to understand the insanity.

Paris-Roubaix is tomorrow, but for me it might be next year?

This is pretty much what we will be doing over the next week, bumper to bumper, wheel to wheel, insane speeds, with cadence meters reading way too high, VO2max tapped, left turns only, cross-eyed, no clutch, no brakes, fun fun FUN!
 

http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/?id=2006/tiaa_cref_protour 

Can we TIAA-Cref win? YES!  Can we win against big Pro-Tour Teams now? I will say 50/50, because the group of guys (Pate, Creed, Tolleson, Friedman, Hartley, Bahati) that I am riding with right now have everything it takes to win….except for a little more experience.  Ya a few of us, including myself need to develop more of an engine, but we all can see the progression happening!

Man I am excited about all of this.  I will say that my CNS (Central Nervous System) is a little tapped, but having an easy week is really helpful + I have been able to talk with Melissa quite a bit also!  It is a little more than I can handle at times, Huge races, Excruciating intensities, dramatically Longer races, Language barrier, Obivous dislike of americans, No more ham, cross-Winds, Ham, frEnch bread, frEnch bread, Loneliness, and manure soaked roadS.  Looking back over the past 2 years I start to realize how much I have been preparing myself this.  One might have the biggest engine around, but if he or she is not able to handle non-optimal conditions, well then they just will not make it. It is never simple or easy, although with prayer and faith I know that anything is possible!   

I have not really thought too much about form until I came over to Europe.  Ya, ya I have trained hard to ensure that I was prepped and ready for certain races in the US, but nothing like here in Europe.  When I speak of form I can now actually have a real understanding of what form is.  You here of riders speaking of being blocked up, and doing openers.  I really did not actually understand these simple terms until I have entered the last few races here in France.  After totally destroying myself at Normandy I took this past week at a Brad Huff Recovery pace to ensure that I would be ready for this past weekends racing.  Wrong, the first day I was totally blocked up, legs felt good, but it was like I had a governor on my top end?  After getting totally dropped in the first 40km of Fridays race, Johny Weltz (goolge his name!) our Director told me to keep going for at least another hour to ensure that I was ready for Sunday.  What?  I am totally off the back and you want me to keep going?  The whole blocked up thing was starting to make sense.  So Nat Mitchell and I continued to so-so chase for around another hour and then spun easy for another hourish.  Come Sunday I was feeling much better and I could actually hit my top end more easily…although this did not make the racing easier, because it is just simple insane!  Opened up, blocked, sore legs (a good thing? As Johny has stated!), no sore legs in a stage race (a bad thing? As Johny has stated), or simple knowing how to actually race is totally being reveled in every race I do. 
Euro form is much MUCH different that US form, not the disregard the racing in the US, but it is just different over here.  It is a deaper feeling that is only felt @ 55-60kph in the crosswind.  You just do not get that in the states.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/road.php?id=road/2006/apr06/rennes06 

Brad has been feeling sick the last few days, but is still kicking it harder than anyone else out there!  This is the last race before Track Worlds and said he just didn’t have the legs.  I know this isn’t a great Brad post, but keep looking for his update soon!  In the meantime, I thought some of you would like to know his progress. 

Melissa