The calm before the storm

It’s not the just racers who get nervous before the start of the Trans-Sylvania Epic. Co-promoter Mike Kuhn has his share of butterflies too.

By Mike Kuhn

The hardest part is just ahead. Lots of volume, lots of intensity, little time for rest. No time to stop. Less sleep. More stress. Go, go GO!

If you think this sounds exactly like the opposite of what athletes are supposed to do to bring about peak performance you’d be right.

If however you are promoting TSEpic…

This ain’t about the athletes. This is about the other side of the event, a look behind the curtain. What’s back there?

Surprise. Everything is about the athletes. And the volunteers and camp staff and media and sponsors and medical providers and our wives and kids and more than a few things I’m probably forgetting (as I write this I keep pausing to add to the “to do” list). The race won’t be a race without happy riders and it won’t survive without happy volunteers. It won’t flourish without media and won’t grow without support. Ray and I won’t be welcome at home if we don’t keep our better halves happy as we pull this thing together. Over a year of work has gone into bringing us to this point – this is the peak of our season!

The garages are filling with Pactimo, Hammer, WTB, Club Ride, Twin Six and Ergon boxes and trips have been made to Camp TSEpic with cars stuffed with Nuun and TSE swag. The constant contact with all sorts of folks keeps us hopping and focused while taking us in a hundred different directions at once.

How do we do it? Same way athletes gets ready for their challenge. We work hard. We set goals. We start from a long way out (TSEpic 2012? May 27-June 2) and won’t stop until long after all the racers go home (if at all, did I mention 2012…). We look for better ways to do things. We surround ourselves with an incredible group of people, organizations and companies who not only help us bring this together, but make TSEpic much better than we could on our own.

My athletes are putting in their final efforts. From here on in coach says it is all about rest, recovery, final prep. Get the bike straight. Get the head straight. Map out the week. Focus and visualize. Some of that is pretty similar and some of that is the exact opposite of what Ray and I will be up to over the next 10 days.

What do we all have in common? We’re all a bit nervous. And we’re all awfully excited to see how TSEpic 2011 unfolds! Join us!

More from TSE: Read all our racers’ exclusive dispatches from the race.