Raimundo

Raymond came to me with one month to prepare for the Epica Atacama 130K race. The Epica Atacama is a famous 500K 6 stage mountain bike race through the dryest desert on earth, the Atacama Desert in Chile. Raymond had experience racing short 20K mountain bike races and is a super technical rider, however racing 130K over two days on a mountain bike is an entirely different beast. Raymond engaged me after being referred by Kevin Goldberg at TrainingPeaks, for whom I'm a Certified Level 2 Coach, because of my extensive experience in endurance, multi day ultra type events both on and off road. Raymond was a dream client in that he followed the training perfectly. There was little room for error given the proximity of the race. In addition to his cycling training, he also performed strength training and we completely modified both his daily nutrition to get him more fat adaptive and his race day nutrition for optimal performance. He landed on the podium and was ecstatic with his results. A month later he went on to crush the BMC 30K race in the citizen division (a race he had DNF'd the previous year). We at Clare Zecher Coaching are proud of his 2016 race season.

Why did you hire Coach Clare for your event?

Because I had an experience of riding through the Atacama desert before and it was a disaster. Dehydration cause muscle cramping, It was the worst experience riding my bike. This time, I knew, I needed a professional coach to reach the finish line without going through unnecessary pain and to avoid the risk of suffering an injury.

What was your race, and what was your race experience like?

My race was the Epica Gaes Atacama Series that consists of a two stage race through the Atacama Desert in Chile which is the driest Desert in the world.

The first stage was a 114k on very rough terrain, sand, quartz rocks, loose sand, dust. I felt pretty good during this first day, fresh legs and plenty of energy thanks to the nutrition and hydration plan that Coach Clare gave me according to my sweat rate and the calories burned per hour. The plan was followed step by step and it worked perfectly. It was the longest ride I've ever ridden in one day and I was impressed by how good i was feeling. Overall I finished 3rd place this day in my category, Male 30 - 39 years old.

The second stage was a 42k race and I felt pretty confident this time but I felt pressure to defend my 3rd place so I ate and hydratate as planned but my strategy for this day was to go as fast a I could and to not stop at the hydratation points. I knew I could do it because 42k is a distance that I'm used to race back home and of course the result and good feeling of the previous day gave me the confidence needed. Once again the hydration and feeding plan was followed as my Coach told me, nothing more and nothing less. I set the alarm on my Garmin every 10 minutes so that remind me to drink and eat as planned.
At the end I did kept my 3rd place in my category but my overall ranking improved a few places from place 19th to 17th.

How do you feel the coaching enabled you to achieve your goals?

Without the wisdom of Coach Clare its would be impossible to get to the finish line in a race like this. Considering we started the training program only one month before the event I consider the training was successful according to my needs and goals to achieve. It is very important to follow the schedule through the Training Peaks app and web site. Some time is was hard and painful but the regard was a podium on my first big stage race, so that worth every drop of sweat during those hard and long training days.

What's one thing you'd say about Coach Clare's coaching?

All that I can tell about her is that she knows what she is doing. Besides that she is kind and tough when I needed. I've learned a lot about how my body and mind work through tough sport requirement. If anyone wants to achieve a goal to an Endurance Race, look no further and get Clare as your coach, you won't regret!