Sal Ruibal is 55. This year was his best ever in mountain biking. He won the 55-and-older category in the prestigious and grueling "24 Hours of Big Bear Lake' in West Virginia, coming in 13th overall in a world-class field that included elite riders like Tinker Juarez and John Stamstad. Forget his age; Ruibal is getting more skilled, and faster. His secret? "I got a coach," he said. He advises all serious weekend warriors to do the same. "I think that if people want to succeed in a sport, they should get a coach."
Ruibal, who began mountain biking in 1995, explains that he was stuck in the middle of the pack, "Trying to figure out what I needed to do to be a better rider and get closer to winning, to be with the fast guys at the front. That was important to me."
He first worked with Chris Carmichael, who is Lance Armstrong's coach. Carmichael runs an online coaching service called Carmichael Training Systems, for cyclists, mountain bikers, runners and athletes in numerous other sports. Ruibal said all athletes, from elite to novice, need a structured training plan. "When you have a coach who is your teacher and (training) organizer, then there's an order, a progression, and progress."
He adds, "The coach that made the biggest difference in me was Jason Tullous. He's almost psychic in terms of what I need to do in my training." Ruibal brings up an important point: finding the right coach is essential. There must be a shared energy as well as a beyond-words kind of communication between coach and athlete to make it work. There's also a discipline involved with learning from a coach that helps make anyone a better athlete.
But there's more to making the podium than just hiring a coach. "If (you are) passionate about a sport, you first have to be realistic about your willingness to suffer," Ruibal said. Working to the limits of your endurance in any sport, whether it's climbing a long hill in cycling, or dealing with burning thighs in a ski race, means being able to deal emotionally with the pain. "Your brain has a tendency to panic with pain and want to do something to stop it. You have to do what you know will let you get through it instead of freaking out over it," Ruibal said.
He offers another important piece of improvement advice; "Try to get with a group of people who are better than you. Train with the people you want to be like, not so far ahead of you that you can't keep up with them, but people with whom you will be last for a long time. You can observe what the better riders do, how they handle things."
His passion for mountain biking is also part of his career; Ruibal is an editor and reporter at USA Today. He reports on mountain biking and the culture surrounding it; as well as about other sports. While the research he does as a reporter may give him an edge, his career gives him no breaks as an athlete. He only wins from what he pulls out of himself. In a race, it doesn't matter who he works for.
In 2007, Ruibal was inducted into the Mountain Biking Hall Of Fame as a journalist. In his acceptance speech, he said, "I'm glad to be going in as a writer, but I think I also deserve to be here as a rider, because mountain biking is a sport I feel in my heart more than any other."
