Mountaineer Minutes

Spring Electives: Cycling

By Brittany Moorehead

As the winter sports come to an end, it’s time to gear up for spring electives at NSA. Every year NSA offers multiple electives to the students. They have a wide variety to choose from including yoga, rock art, rock climbing, bouldering, gardening, tennis and many more that make it very easy to fill up their seven weekly blocks with. Cycling is also offered at the school which is a very popular sport in the Adirondack region.

This course is offered by NSA’s own, Jim Williams who is a Math and Exercise Physiology teacher. This program is made possible by Williams as well as Allen Rego and Dave McCahill. Williams has years of experience with biking. He has worked with a variety of professional cycling teams such as Rona and Colavita and started riding as a kid as cross training for hockey.

“Eric Heiden inspired me,” said Williams “I figured if he could win five gold medals[in speed skating] with biking, it could help me as well.”

Cycling is a great way to stay in shape during the off season because there is far less impact when compared to running. Running can be very demanding on the body, especially the knees. This year NSA welcomes its largest group to the cycling community with 9 boys and 8 girls. It appears that young athletes are starting to realize how beneficial biking is in their sport.

“Cycling builds a tremendous aerobic base,” stated Williams, “that all athletes competing in sports here can benefit from.”

This is a great program to have at NSA because it introduces kids to something new and unfamiliar from their one sport. Lake Placid is also the perfect place for biking with all the hills and picturesque views in the surrounding. Every bend in the road leads to a new scene which beats riding a stationary bike in a gym any day.

The cycling crew is scheduled to meet every day, Monday through Friday but with weather and other factors that is impossible to do. On average, they probably end up meeting three times a week which is plenty of biking when out for two hours. Biking is also very flexible if students had to sign up for another elective that consumes most of their time, they are welcome to come whenever they are free.

For the kids who don’t get enough biking in with the Spring program, they hold Thursday night worlds. This is a race that brings the competiveness out in everyone. The route loops around River Road twice. A variety of bikers come to compete in this fun race that are out to push themselves as well as one another.

Also, every Wednesday night there is a time trial which consists of 16 to 20 minutes of intense effort. This is demanding but shows the kids how they are improving and building a better aerobic base.

Transitioning from working with professional athletes to students who are new to the sport can be frustrating, but Williams seems to love helping out.

“Working with this program is completely different,” said Williams “it’s much more relaxed and fun working with the students here.”

With the help of Williams, Rego, and McCahill, the NSA biking squad should have no problem tearing up the roads of Lake Placid.