Swami's Cycling Club: Guru News

October 2024

President's Corner

Lots to talk about. First, we informed you last month to mark your calendars for Swami’s Fall Club Night, and now we’re asking you to re-mark it. Fall Club Night is now scheduled for Tuesday, October 15. I really hope you all come join us for this fun, informative, and social event. And don’t let all the deals pass you by like an e-bike up a hill! I look forward to seeing you enjoying Rouleur beer and Moto Deli sandwiches and loading up on gear!

I’m also thrilled to introduce a new voice in our newsletter, cycling coach Maddison Russell, who’s contributing coaching tips that we all can benefit from, no matter how long we’ve been riding.

Finally, a heads up that, starting in November, our Saturday rides from Cadence will all start to roll at 8:15, which I hope will clear up any confusion on this matter.

See you on the road!

Mark Steele

10/6 Social Ride

On Sunday, October 6, we're hosting our monthly Swami's Social Ride. It’s a conversationally-paced ride where you can meet long-time as well as new Swami’s members. You can check out all of the details here. A reminder: we now start and finish the Social Rides at Bird Rock Coffee Roasters in Bressi Ranch (map). Wear a Swami's kit from any year to get a coffee and baked good on Swami’s!

Route: 31 miles/1608’ https://ridewithgps.com/routes/41947784

10/15 Fall Club Night (New date!)

Join us on Tuesday, October 15, from 5:00 to 8:00 pm for our Club Night at Cadence Cyclery! There will be great food from Moto Deli, beer from Rouleur, a 2025 Swami’s kit reveal, and discounts on plenty of items at Cadence - see the list below for more details. These will be available until the end of business

on Tuesday, October 22, so if you absolutely have to miss the party, you still have a week to use the discounts. Remember, Club Night is for current Swami’s members – to become one, just sign up here!

Representatives from Enve, Vittoria, CeramicSpeed, Almsthre, and more will be on site to demonstrate products and answer your questions, and coach Maddison Russell will be there to discuss training, nutrition, and performance. We will also have a representative there from 5DEV, ready to show and explain their remarkable products. You love cycling tech, you’ll love what they offer. For the latest on Club Night activities and deals see our website!

Item	Discount
Colnago Bikes	TBD
Enve Melee & Mog bikes	20%
Specialized Bikes	15%
Factor Lando Mountain bikes	15%
SRAM Components	20%
Shimano components and shoes	20%
Specialized helmets, shoes, saddles, tires and helmets	20%
Kask helmets	25%
Oakley sunglasses	20%
Castelli, Specialized and Assos clothing	20%
Burgh or Enve bar tape	20%
Enve wheels	20%
Vittoria tires	30%
Ceramic Speed components	20%
Wahoo computers	15%
Almsthere bags and gloves	30%
KetoneIQ nutrition	30%
Tailwind nutrition	20%
Hammer nutrition	20%
Giro Helmet, Gloves and Shoes	30%
Silca Wax	20%
5Dev	20%
Hammerhead	20%

October Swamdo Training Rides

Although the Swamdo is one month closer, there’s still time for you to get your climbing legs! On three Saturdays this month, the Swamdo training rides will take you gradually up the point where you’ll be ready to conquer the 100 mile, 7500 foot full Swamdo! The rides will leave from Rouleur Brewing (map) at 8:00 am. Note that 10/19 will be our regular monthly Swami’s World Famous ride. More information will be posted on our events calendar and our Facebook page as the dates approach.

10/5 STR #3

Full route: 61.5 miles/3,656’ https://ridewithgps.com/routes/48632935
Short route: 43 miles/2,113′ https://ridewithgps.com/routes/37617321

10/12 STR #4

Full route: 67 miles/4,900’ https://ridewithgps.com/routes/36624311
Short route: 43 miles/2,631′ https://ridewithgps.com/routes/37686489

10/26 STR #5

Full route: 83 miles/6,377′ https://ridewithgps.com/routes/41308273
Short route: 45 miles/4,172′ https://ridewithgps.com/routes/41292881

PS: The full Swamdo is Saturday, November 9. Be looking in your inbox for details and registration!

All Saturday Cadence rides will start rolling at 8:15

What time does the Saturday ride start? We think there should be a simple answer to that question. Therefore, as of November 2, both the Swami’s Saturday B/C/D ride and the Swami’s World Famous ride will leave from Cadence Cyclery starting at 8:15. As always the A/B groups will roll first, followed by the C and D groups.

Tour de Col-sbad

On the last Saturday in September, we introduced a new ride concept, our first ever Tour De Carlsbad, 50 miles with nearly 5500 feet of climbing, all within the city limits of Carlsbad. As you can imagine, the route resembled a bowl of spaghetti! We really appreciate everyone who came out to support the riders, especially the many Carlsbad residents who cheered us on enthusiastically after overcoming their surprise at seeing a large group of cyclists happily suffering their way up their street! See our Facebook and Instagram accounts for pictures and videos.

Now that we know the ride was a success, we can tell you that it was a test run for the big Tour de Carlsbad: 100 miles with 10,000 feet of climbing, and no, it is not just two laps of the 50 mile route! We’ll roll out this monster next year, with several smaller options available. Thanks to our resident beast Patrick Hailey for conceiving and putting this together!

UCSD Cycling Team

Swamis is happy to sponsor the UCSD cycling team for their 2024-2025 season. The group is looking strong, with four team members completing an Everest at the Soledad Million Challenge, an attempt to collectively climb one million feet on Mt. Soledad, held on September 22. Additionally, at the Fiesta Island Time Trial race on September 29, President Dominic Orlando set a new course record in the Merckx Open Male category and Elisa Luo took first place and broke her own course record in the Merckx Open Female category!

One of the hardest things these college students face is finding a bike to use. If you have a bike that you are willing to donate or are open to selling, please join the Swamis x UC San Diego Cycling Facebook group to let us know what you have. We’ll try to pair it up with a college student who needs it.

The Cycling Coach

Cycling coach Maddison Russell has been a professional endurance sports coach with Carmichael Training Systems for eight years, and an endurance athlete for much of his life. His coaching philosophy centers around taking the time that you have and adapting it into an individualized and science-based training plan that meets you where you are at. He is also a professional bike fitter, working with beginners and experienced riders to optimize their riding position. Here, he will be contributing tips to improve all aspects of your cycling. This month, he’s giving some advice on Taking Pulls!

Pulling Through

In larger groups or racier group rides, you may never see the front, and if you are less confident in your fitness, it is more advantageous to sit further back in the group where you can save more energy. However, if you are next in line to pull through the pace line, don’t accelerate hard, just go ahead and pull through to keep the speed and safety of the group up. If you don’t want to pull, just take a short turn of a few seconds at the front, move to your left, and flick your elbow to signal to the next person to come through. In a big group, you want to keep your pulls short and steady, in a smaller group of 8-10 riders or less, make your pulls longer, not harder. In terms of intensity, aim for a 7-8/10 in terms of perceived exertion. Something that feels controlled, and comfortably hard. If you are aiming to keep the group together, and you are a stronger rider, it is better to pull longer and harder on the flats and downhills instead of the hills, so that riders who are less fit can hang on and contribute to the group’s momentum. Let the riders with less fitness pace the group steady up the climbs, so that the effort stays smooth, people stay together, and the ride is faster.

Pulling Off

You want to pull off the front before you’re completely fatigued, because you need some energy to reestablish your place in the pace line. A good rule of thumb would be to pull off right when you start to feel your perceived exertion going up a little bit. When you pull off, try not to let all your speed drop off at once. I tell people that the pull isn’t done until you get to the back. The group is carrying a ton of speed, so you don’t want them to come flying by resulting in you needing to do a huge effort to catch. Keep your effort up so that you drift back slowly, keep an eye on the right side of the group as it’s moving by, and as you get closer to the last rider, pick up your effort to match the group so you can slot in quickly. This can save you a lot of energy, and in a lot of cases, save you from getting dropped.

Columbia Employee Store Fall Deal

Our partners at Columbia have a spring deal for Swami’s members, valid from September 27 to October 20, at the Columbia employee store in Carlsbad for Swami’s members:

Store Pricing: Brands including Columbia, SOREL, Mountain Hardwear, and prAna are all marked at Employee Store pricing.
Guests must show their valid offer (link here) plus a photo ID for access and can bring up to 4 additional people with them.
The offer is valid at the Carlsbad location, 3209 Lionshead Ave, Carlsbad, 92010.

See the web site for the Columbia employee store in Carlsbad.

Are you sure you're a Swami’s member?

Some Swami’s members have let us know that they’re not sure whether their membership is renewing, or have been getting confusing emails regarding their renewals. To check your membership status, go to https://swamis.org, click on Members Area, and click on your name in the upper right hand corner of the screen. You’ll see your user profile and membership information. If you need to renew, you can do it right there, and let us know if you have any questions!