January, 2026

Starting Line

Happy New Year! Time to kick the season into high gear.
- January 10th - Post Practice party at 1821 Ashby Ave, 78704. After practice on Saturday the team will gather at Conrad's to mingle and answer questions about the season and the upcoming races. Food and beverages will be provided. Come meet the team! Noon - 2:00 pm.
- January 18th - Category Petitions are due to Maroons coaching
- January 31st - Our first race is the Tangle at Troy, near Waco. This is a fun, fast, flowy race.
- February 14th - Our second race will be Sugarland, outside of Houston. This race will be a fitness test.
- February 28th - Our third race will happen at Millican preserve in College Station.
With the upcoming race, our new families can check out our team's description of how a race weekend works here, you can also read NICA's description here.
Thanks to everyone who came out to the Travis Country Jingle Bell Ride. AHS Maroons helped to safely shepherd > 160 neighborhood riders for 13 miles across Travis Country!
Team Kit update. Kits are in manufacturing, we should have them soon enough.
Hoodies, T-shirts, and beanies will be available for pick-up early January. We will also have these after some practices.
Be sure to follow our Insta, YouTube, and join our Strava Club. We have some real talent on the team for videography.

SHEGWAT Spotlight

To quote the 90's rap visionary, Ice Cube: "You better SHEG yo' self, before you wreck yo' self"

This month, we’re spotlighting ‘A' - Air .

All riders need to check the pressure in their tires before EVERY ride. One pound of air can mean the difference between a trustworthy hookup or a washout or pinch-flat. Your tires will leak about a pound of air each day.

If you're running tubless tires (you should be), you'll need to maintain your sealant to keep your tires inflated and avoid trailside flats on a ride or in a race. In the winter you should check your sealant levels every 4-6 weeks. In the summer - every 3-4 weeks. Even if old sealant still sloshes around and shows on the dipstick, if the sealant's volatile compounds (usually ammonia) have flashed off, the sealant isn't useful anymore and needs to be replaced.

If you don't have a reliable home floor pump, get some ideas here.

Practice Pulse

Prepare for January, a month of fitness

With only 12 practices to go before our first race, we're going to switch our focus from riding tech and refining skills to training our aerobic engines. The team's ability to navigate tech in the Greenbelt has been encouraging; I'm sure our riders have enough skill to get them around a NICA course safely. Now, we need to make sure we can do it quickly and still have enough gas in the tank for the final sprint!

Monday practices will be focused on intervals early month and Zone 2+ steady efforts to build stamina late month.
Wednesday practices will be focused on interval loops. We will move riders between Blackouts, Green Bridge repeats, Kitty Litter, and VIVAS loops. These loops will allow us to focus on sweet-spot based interval training.
Saturday practices will be focused, again, on Zone 2+ steady state efforts across the South Austin Trail Networks.
All practices will end with a 100-300 meter sprint to simulate sprinting for the win after a hard-fought race
- Maroons are expected to sprint the final 100 yards of any race!
TACO Saturday practices have been posted. Be sure to be there!

Coaches' Corner

Coach's Eyes Up! Application

The application has had several updates this month, the primary being that we were able to figure out the unsupported and largely undocumented TeamSnap API. We are now able to pull rider and coach availability information from TeamSnap into our application, allowing us to see who should be at practice as we're checking riders in. Coach and athlete availability is designated by color and font in the application.

Coach Meeting

The coaches meeting this month led to a few change, primary among them was the assignment of POD leaders. These leaders have the responsibility to make sure each POD has rider ratio, a route that meets the needs of those attending, and communication of any changes to their POD's coaches. POD Leads are described here. POD leaders receive a Maroon Star in the application.

Questions: info@ahsmtbteam.com

Website: https://www.ahsmtbteam.com