Herriott Sports Performance

Another great read from the desk of Dr. Aaron Levin M.D., HSP Health Consultant and Pro Shop team rider:

Yeah, I was sick the past few days. Real sick, hot, cold, shivery, achy. For three days. I felt like crawling under a rock and dying. At first I thought it was a bad case of too-much-TH (TMTH) on HSP ProShop lunch ride. But while TMTH usually targets my lungs, legs and morale, this was different. Everything hurt. Turns out, one of my twins had strep throat, and so did I. I was sick for three days until I figured out my diagnosis, but about 6 hours after taking my first dose of antibiotics, I felt better. Not perfect, but better. Next morning, even better: fever gone, myalgias abating, sore throat just a dull ache. So of course I figured it was time to start riding again. After three days off the bike, one part of me expected my legs to be rested and fresh. Another (wiser) part of me expected to feel terrible. Of course, I felt terrible. Riding easy felt like a chore. All the strength and fitness I’d been working on over the winter seemed to be gone. Any athlete who has ever been sick knows this all too well. The time you spend sick isn’t rest for your body, and even after the illness passes, there is a significant amount of recovery that needs to take place before you can expect to be back to 100%. But why does it take so long to come back after illness? Why does it make sense that infected tonsils should weaken my quadriceps? And is there anything one can do to minimize that recovery time?

I’ve actually thought a fair amount about this subject, and while there is no hard scientific proof for what I’m going to suggest, there is some data which may explain this phenomenon, and may also offer a way to speed recovery. The situation I’m talking about occurs not only after illness. After trauma (such as a bad crash or surgery) your body can also require a relatively long recovery time to resume peak performance—even after the acute healing phase is done. The common theme in these situations is stress on your body. Your body reacts to stress by producing a number of hormones—special chemicals designed to help you survive. Cortisol, for example is a hormone that normally helps maintain blood pressure, blood sugar, immune response and even muscle mass. In response to acute stress your body pumps out extra cortisol, giving you a burst of energy, mental acuity, increased pain tolerance, heightened immunity.

As early as the 1930’s, however scientists noticed part of the stress response that was not wholly beneficial. They found something called “obligatory negative nitrogen balance” after injury or illness. Basically, after the body is stressed it triggers a hormone driven system in which protein sources (proteins contain nitrogen) within the body are broken down`and ultimately wasted—even in the presence of adequate nutrition. The theory is nice: your body is facing attack, so it makes available a ready internal stockpile of protein for use in rebuilding damaged tissue. Unfortunately, your body is programmed to use skeletal muscle as a handy source for that protein stockpile. So the bigger better quadriceps I worked on all winter got broken down and ultimately pissed away just to be available as a means of repairing my bacteria ravaged tonsils. That might be why I still feel crappy on the bike even though antibiotics have cured me. (There is no known cure for TMTH.) All the while my body was facing the stress of infection, it created a negative nitrogen balance cycle, breaking down protein just in case. And now I’ve got to rebuild.

There may be a way to avoid the catabolic—muscle breakdown—state after injury or illness. Not all nutrients are created equally, and as I mentioned before, adequate nutrition is not enough to stop the protein wasting cascade. One specific nutrient source may help. Branched-chain amino acids (BCAA) are basic protein building blocks, and there is data that BCAA supplementation, especially the amino acid leucine may blunt, or even eliminate the muscle breakdown seen after stress. Apparently if your body is flooded with a “ready to use” protein substrate it won’t feel the need to cannibalize itself. In theory it would have been best to start branched chain amino-acid supplementation as soon as I got sick. Even after my strep has been treated, however, there still may be some benefit in getting back up to speed. Hammer Amino Endurance caps have plenty of BCAA in them, and I’m going to give them a try. After all, the lunch ride is only three days away.

A lot of people have asked me, “how was the BMC training camp.” and my standard answer has been, “Really good.”. But “really good” does not do the experience I had in Ca. for the past two weeks ANY justice. I figure that most people don’t have the time or the patience to stand around and listen to me go on and on about one of the best experiences of my professional as well as my personal life. That said, I am about to go on and on about it simply because this is the place to go and on and on.
So I won’t bother with “long story short”, I’ll just go long and see where it ends up.

I’ll start out by saying that I am very much a cycling fan, so for a cycling fan, being able to hang around a team of some of the best cyclists in the world- LITERALLY, along with their management and support staff and to be able to watch them and the program in action for two entire weeks from morning until night was simply awesome- for lack of a more creative word. I got to meet legends of the sport, current and past world champions, serious up and comers and so on. I met a lot of really good people.

And then there was the part of the camp- the reason I was there in the first place, where I got to share my knowledge and approach of strength and conditioning (which has been influenced by many and is always evolving) with a group of world class athletes in the hopes that the information they got form me would help them to some degree perform better on their bicycles. I didn’t take this task lightly in any way and would be lying if I said that I was not REALLY nervous and bit sweaty on that first day in Santa Rosa. I had not met most of the riders before, I did not know how I would be received and I was going to be working in an environment that I was not used to- a hotel conference room. Variables. I have worked with hundreds of athletes during my career as a coach/trainer but working with this group was the biggest challenge I have had to date and I really looked at it as a milestone in my career/life.

The schedule was pretty straight forward and the expectations were very clear. I would be working with the riders every morning starting at 7:45 am to 8:30 am and then through out the course of the camp I would meet with them individually and work through the movements they learned in the morning class and set up a travel/at home workout that they could do on their own. The goal for me was to convince them that the song I was singing was worthy of a listen and to let them know that I was not telling them to stop everything else they had already been doing but to see my exercises as a compliment to what they were (if they were) already doing and that the exercises could stand alone if they weren’t currently on a strength and conditioning program.

I had 20 Dynamax med balls, 20 yoga mats and 20 physio balls (which I got form my good friend Jim at agilefitness.com, and 20 rubber mini bands shipped to the hotel in Santa Rosa. I arrived to the hotel on a Saturday around 11 30 pm, met my good friend Mike Sayers and cycling legend Jim Ochowicz in the lobby, dumped my gear in the room and headed straight to the conference room where my tools of the trade HOPEFULLY were. I was really hoping on the van ride to the hotel that some of the bad karma that I had accumulated over the years was not getting cashed in on me and that my 10 boxes of exercise gear was NOT sitting in some conference room in Alabama. I was PLEASED to find all of my boxes in the “Russian Room” when I unlocked the door. It was a BIG space with lots of space to move- perfect. I spent the next hour unpacking everything and organizing it for the morning. I brought a hand pump to pump up the 65 cm swiss balls (all 20 of them) in case the worst case scenario- NOT having access to an air compressor, played out. The worst case did in fact play out and I spent an hour that eve and a few hours the next day pumping up every one of those DAMN swiss balls. My forearms were PUMPED after that. I slept a little bit that first night with thoughts of strength training in my head.

I won’t go into detail about every day but the first day was jammed full of this and that. First, the weather was AWFUL. It was pouring rain and it continued to rain throughout the first week. I got to the Russian Room at about 6:30, I was early because I wanted to keep pumping up those swiss balls and I wanted to write out a solid class plan that had plenty of good work in it but not so much that it would bust the guys up. The point of the core classes was not to destroy the riders but to help them improve their stability and balance. It was not that long ago when the norm was to simply ride your bike if you wanted to get better at bike racing. The idea that strength training for improved performance on the bicycle is still not widely accepted. As one who has absolutely benefited from a consistent regiment of strength training for the past 25 years (yes it’s true) and who has spent many hours preaching about the benefits of such training, I can’t fathom not including it as a part of a structured training plan. BUT, that’s my belief and I would always agree that there are many approaches to many things. The morning class was also another way to bring all of the riders together which is the point of bringing everyone to camp in the first place: to be together.

I did NOT get all of the balls inflated by the time the class started but I had worked up quite a sweat trying to do so. The riders strolled in slowly and I could tell that they had no idea what to expect as I saw them looking at the med balls with an expression that I would not define as “eager”. By 7:40 I realized that the class was going to be more than just the riders, Och (Jim Ochowicz), Max Testa (legendary team doctor and performance coach), Fabio Baldato (recently retired euro pro with a hyper impressive resume and now working as a assistant team director) and many others joined in that first day- it felt a little bit like an on the job interview. But whatever, I just did what I planned on doing. Jim introduced my to the riders, I introduced me to the riders and I told them that these classes were all about helping them minimize the potential for injury and help them to improve their stability and balance, which could/would ultimately improve their efficiency on the bike. Whether they believed me or not, they lined up and did what I asked them without complaint and were very receptive when I “recommended” trying it “this way”. Most had never done any of the first sessions’ movements and as “basic” as they were it simply takes time to learn a new movement pattern no matter how fundamental it may be. After the 45 mins was up I was really relieved because I go the vibe that the riders understood where I was coming from and believed that what I was showing/telling them might actually help them. Och told me he liked it, Max approved and the riders were all “smiling”- not to be confused with grimacing…… Next.

The weather continued to BLOW in Santa Rosa. It rained and rained and rained some more and the temps were not condusive to anything other that winter gear and of course rain jackets. The new Hincapie e vent rain jakets were tested to the max- which is good. And for the classics guys this kind of weather was the status quo but no one was really excited to get out in it. I personally was looking forward to some good rides but I was not about to take out my new BMC pro machine for its first real ride in the wet and grit- I didn’t want to spend an hour cleaning my bike. HOWEVER, by the 3rd day I gave in and decided I would step out with the team for a 5 hour slog- I was told the weather would be improving during the ride. My first big mistake of the camp was going on this ride. It was pouring when we left, got “nice” by the coast and on the way back in the sky opened up again and it got COLD. That ride broke me. It wasn’t so much that the guys were on it full gas all day, it’s that they were just ON all day. No long stops, not a lot of coasting, not just easy peasy down the descents just ON. And after about 3 hours I was feeling OFF. It didn’t help when Sayers told the riders he would pay them to drop me. They did not have to do anything different than they were already doing….. I held on to the end but after that ride, I was done for about 3 days. My bike and I were a MESS.

Each morning that I met with the team I would introduce another movement with the med ball or a band or the physio ball and continue to repeat what I would call the fundamental movements. And each day they were absorbing more and more information. I was also to meet with the riders on an individual basis and help them work on whatever they needed working on. The morning class served as a great way for me to spot problem areas with each rider and helped me configure a protocol of exercises that would “help”. I did not call people out in class much as I did not want to make anyone feel picked on, especially at 7 45 am. And after class we would head out to the dining room to eat and then they would prepare for another day in the saddle. It was a good routine and a great way for the riders to open up. My first one on one meeting was probably my favorite meeting on a few levels.

I was sitting at lunch and the riders were back from a pretty short day due to the weather. I was sitting at a table with Ballan and one of the BMC brand managers who spoke Italian. He mentioned to me that Alessandro wanted to meet, so of course I said whenever. He then said, “how about 10 minutes.” I then said, “ Ok.”
I stopped eating, bolted to my room and got my clip board and notes and rushed back to the Russian Room. It’s not like this was a big deal, it was just going over a few moves with an athlete. BUT because I am also a cycling fan and happened to be at the Ronde in 2007 when he won the race and the fact that he was a one time world champion made it more…….. stressful? whatever it was, it did not have the vibe of a standard meeting. It was a great session, we laughed a lot, he got the moves down and NEXT. After that meeting I was way more relaxed about setting up the other meetings The toughest part of the camp would be getting the guys when they had “free” time. I’ve done training camps before and the last thing I wanted to do after a day of training and napping was to have some guy telling me how to swing a med ball around. BUT, that’s what I was there for.

After the first week the team moved south to Agoura Hills. And when I say they moved, I meant that they rode. They got dropped off in San Fran and headed south, stopping at a hotel on the coast along the way. I spent the weekend in San Fran with my wife at her sisters place and recharged for round 2 in Agoura Hills. I flew into LA on Monday afternoon, connected with the some of the Euro directors, including main director John Lelangue. Cadel and George were also there, fresh off of TDU and Cadel also had his wife with him, her first trip to the USA. A van picked us up and off we went to the hotel. My evening was all planned out: re-inflate those damn swiss balls again, unpack the mats and the med balls and scope out my new “studio” space. This time around a few of the mechanics graciously let me use the air compressor on the team truck to do the inflating (amen) which saved me about 3 hours. Class would be a 7 45 am again and my quest to meet with the riders one on one continued. The weather was MUCH better and I was looking forward to riding in and around Malibu for a few days- roads I had ridden/trained on many years ago when I first got back into racing. That was 10 years ago and I felt 10 years older. RATS.

The second week was also filled with sponsor meetings, media training and photo sessions for the riders. That was good for me as I got to sit in on many of the sponsor meetings. The First Endurance presentation was really interesting and as a dealer of their products I was pretty g’d up to have the opportunity to talk with the owners about the different FE offerings. And after using them exclusively at camp, I’m more sold on them than ever. I also got to sit in on the meeting with the team nutritionist. I also got to spend time meeting with Bookwalter, one of the riders I work with. There were a lot more photographers and press people around that second week, not doubt due in part to the arrival of Cadel and George as both command a lot of attention in the cycling world. I even got to share in a bit of the limelight on a few days. One morning Versus was in in the morning doing a shoot during core training class ans afterward Robbie Ventura did a quick Q and A session with me on camera. It was NOT my best interview ever, but it was an interview so whatever. Bottom line, it was nice to be recognized. Camp was getting into the last few days and I was starting to scramble to meet with every one.

I joined in on a team ride that week as well, or last part of it. We went up the Rock store climb which is featured on the final stage of this years TOC. It was only about a 20 mins ride from the hotel which was NOT an ideal amount of time for me to warm up. Rich Hincapie and a few others started out that day with the team but when we hit that climb, it was GAME ON. I clung to the back in my 39×17 as I watched Burghardt at the front, seated, ripping the 53×17. Impressive to say the least. The team went on to do another 4 hours. I flipped soon after and retreated back to the hotel, humbled yet again. Busted up. The last ride I did with the team was on the final day of camp.

On that final day I headed out to the team truck to get a bottle for my ride to the PCH and onto Malibu, where I planned to hit the Starbucks and take in the sights. I met up with Mattias Frank at the truck and we decided to roll out together. A few days earlier he crashed hard and had some stitches in his elbow and was very much in recovery mode and that was good for me because Mattias is a straight up bad ass and under normal circumstances he would be out riding with his boys. I was psyched to ride with him as he was one of the most easy going and un assuming Euro pros that I had ever met. We ended up running into the rest of the team down on the PCH as the Malibu Starbucks was THE destination that day. If I had to get stuck into a routine day after day, it would be riding some canyons in Malibu and ending up at Starbucks.

Packing up all of my gear after that final morning workout with the team was easy knowing that I would not have to re inflate those damn swiss balls again. The pack up was bitter sweet because that meant the end to an amazing two weeks. The riders had all progressed really well and seemed anxious to continue on with the workouts on their own time. It was hectic that afternoon trying to get last minute meetings with the riders I had yet to meet with and also packing up my own gear. That night was a big team dinner in LA at at an Italian restaurant owned by Max Sciandri’s parents- Max rode for Motorola back in the day- a team also run by Jim Ochowicz and Testa was the team doctor there as well. The airport shuttle to LAX was to leave the hotel at 4 30 am so anything left undone before leaving on the rented bus for dinner was most likely going to remain undone. I know how these team dinners can go once the wine starts to flow. Och had personally invited me and I’ll admit to being pretty fired up about it- I really felt a part of the team.

The food was amazing and the wine did in fact flow. It was a really great night. I heard some AMAZING stories from Testa caught up with Rich Hancapie, heard about Cadels Worlds win from Cadel- sick, helped celebrate Steve Morabito’s b-day with more wine, enjoyed a shot or 3? And laughed more than I have in a while. When it was finally time to get in the bus it was really late and when we finally got back to the hotel it was ridiculous late. Sadly for me, I had neglected to pack up my bike. I somehow made it to the shuttle on time and somehow I did manage to get my bike into the bike bag as it was ready to go when I “woke” up. We crammed 6 bodies and plenty of gear into an airport shuttle and we were off.

It was a very rewarding two weeks on many levels and an opportunity that I was very fortunate to have. Working with professional athletes is something that I have aspired to do for a long time but one of the great limiters is experience. How do you get that experience? Time and opportunities like the one I just enjoyed. I hope to be back next year, with another year of experience and some new techniques.

Best,
TH

It was an amazing decade and I didn’t really think about it much until around 11:30 on New Years Eve. The last decade was filled with a lot more downs than ups. I guess you can call that paying your dues, taking your lashes or whatever else. I was in the “suck” more often than I care to remember and often times the periods of woe were self-induced. I’m not the only one that was having issues and in reality, I was never without food, water or shelter so how bad was it really? Anyway.

1999 was a rough year, I was living in NYC’s Hells Kitchen on 46th between 9th and 10th. I was married to my first wife, and I had just started thinking about riding a bike again after walking away from cycling in May of 1994. My training and coaching business were really getting going. Things were on a downward spiral in my personal life and that was causing unrest in every part of my world.

On New Years Eve 1999 I was in a BIG apartment/house on Manhattan’s upper East side with a bunch of people I hardly new. I was unhappy and a new decade was about to begin. I was NOT looking forward to the new year. I would not have believed you if you had come up to me that night and said that in Jan 2010 I would be sitting in Seattle writing a blog about a decade that tuned out to be the best one yet- out of the 4 that I have been on the planet. In Jan 2000 I knew what I wanted to do, I just wasn’t in a place yet that I could make it happen. It’s happening now.

2000: I started riding a bike again, a Merlin with Campy Chorus. Powercranks. My personal training business was thriving. I separated from my wife and moved in with a friend on the Upper West Side. Yuppie status? Not really. I moved to London in the Fall and was hoping to open a training gym there. Swore never to return to NYC. NOT a well thought out plan. No work permit, no work. Lived with “friend” from upper West side. Returned to NY 3 months later. Tail between legs. Moved into a friends place in Brooklyn (Carol Gardens). Started my training business back up. Started riding a LOT. Spent New Years eve alone. Sad. Too much gin.

2001. Really rough. No stable place to live, slept in a gym, storage facility, a couch here and a couch there. Not awesome. I was really riding a lot now, you might even call it training. Training business was back up to speed. Started racing local races. 2nd my first race back in 7 years. Curious. Overheard: “who is that guy?”
Inspired. Spending a lot of time in the gym, studying.

2002. Only 2 address changes this year, Upper West and Upper East side. Stability? Training and racing going really well, no plans other than training and racing. Won Univest GP……. nice! Game changer. Might be something to this racing. Starting to do a lot more coaching. Developing a system.

2003. Living on Upper East side. Won Tour of Cuba, that was insane and it was in February. Fizzled soon after at Tour of Chile- too much too soon. Got a message on my old school Blackberry from Gord Fraser: Do you want to ride the big races? Easy answer. YES. Signed not so lucrative contract to join Fraser and Sayers on Heath net in March. First race was Gila- ROUGH introduction. A year of ups and downs and the biggest races in the country. End of season comes, verbal agreement for contract fizzles and enter late Fall with no contract. Over already? Sign with Colavita in November. Move into a plush loft apartment in Chelsea area with new-ish girl friend. Training and coaching business still rolling along, lots of clinics, trips and research. First Bikram yoga experience as well as LAST.

2004. Start the year with a big trip Tucson, feels like home. Team training camp also in Tucson. Break up with loft apartment girlfriend and a few months later meet Thea, current wife, at my training studio. She was looking for a coach, and i was looking for a date. We started dating after I returned form training camp. Long season of racing with lots of successes for the team. Learning a LOT about bike racing, life on the road and thinking about the HSP concept.

2005. Back with Colavita. Back to Tucson to start the year off right, rent a room in a house with Mike jones and Danny Pate. Short lived. Team camp in St. Helena this year. Take on the job of taking care of Italian teammate Davide Frattini, he becomes my NYC roommate in 116 St. apartment in the “safe” part of Harlem. FUN. Making lots of notes about training protocols, continuing to refine strength training concepts for cycling. HSP is taking shape in the brain. Another really good season, some good personal performances. Move to another apartment in Harlem with Thea, Davide moves with us- it’s SMALL. Thea takes an Opera job in Seattle and likes it. I visit Seattle in June to see her and decide I LOVE Seattle, good place for HSP master plan. Spend the Fall working the training business and figuring out the move. Plan is to move to Seattle in Decemeber.

2006. Move to Seattle during a terrible winter. No sun for weeks! I crack and bail to Tucson for a few weeks. Sign on for another year with Colavita. Still having fun but not so eager to take the risks I once was. Problem? REALLY starting to plot HSP.
Settle into Queen Ann rental and learn the local training rides. WAY better than life in NYC. Solid season. 12th at US Pro RR at end of year and crash out of last pro race, Univest…….. how ironic. Time to hang up the bike and start the next phase at age 36. Open first HSP office in Downtown Seattle in late October- a sub lease in a medical office, NOT much space. Let the games begin! GOOD YEAR!

2007. HSP is up ad running and starting to bring in local clients. Small training gym is outfitted. H logo comes to life. Looking for bigger space. Take on a partner in the business. Direct local team at NRC events- is this what I want to do? Take on another partner in the business. Biz plan created for 2.0. Go to Classics in Europe, discover brave new world! Find a new space for HSP, the move begins. Lots of build out. Should have gone to business school…. feels like I AM in business school. Move in and start working in new place in October. Thomas starts doing repairs out of back room- poor lighting, bad tool selection but a step towards the Pro Shop. Thinking about knocking down a wall and opening Pro Shop.

2008. Getting the business up to speed. Back to riding a little bit more. Tri coaches at HSP, Tri club concept being developed. New website. Coaching clientele continues to grow. Flash starts work at HSP: exercise phys. and bike fitting. Richter signs on as cycling coach. Company shake-up, HSP has 1 less owner- weight lifted, real progress beings! HSP moves away from Tri coaching, tri website and tri club – back to basics. Relief. HSP back to what we do best! Clear vision. Understanding business relationships. Start discussion with neighbor next door HSP to MAYBE take over his space for Pro Shop. Pro Shop concept gets dialed in. HSP gets lease for next door! Carpenter hired. Sleepless nights. More money needed. Less sleep. Build out begins. HSP shop team concept realized. Time to get back to bike racing again. Richter wins Washington Cup and B.A.R.R. And stamp.

2009. Is it really 2009? Shop construction underway. Turn 40. Bike shop opens.
Racing goes well all things considered. Brand growing locally. Shop picks up steam.
Already thinking about a bigger space. Some re-modeling of HSP gym. Planning on line store. Do first cross race. Plan a trip to 2010 Spring Classics. Professional network growing in leaps and bounds. Put name in the hat for BMC strength and conditioning coach. GET job as BMC strength and conditioning coach.

2010. I REALLY can’t believe the decade has ended! New motivation to start training and racing more. Got another dog- Beanie. Still happily married! Getting ready to head to BMC team camp. Making plans for HSP 3.0.

I need to keep better notes for the next one of these in 10 years. I get pretty worked up when I think back to when I was just starting to think about riding a bike again and where I might be in my life if I had decided to take up golf instead. I’m thankful to everyone who told me that I was too old to get back into racing and even more thankful to those who told me to do what makes me happy- it’s not always easy. I won’t forget for minute how this past decade started out as it motivates me to keep pushing forward.

Happy New Year. Never stop.

Best,
TH

From the desk of Dr. Aaron Levin M.D., HSP health consultant and shop team rider:

I just got scooped by the New York Times. (Those pointy-headed east-coast liberal-elitist, blog scooping bastards!) I swear to God, after cross natz I read a twitter post from Jonathan Page, cyclocross superstar. After notching a 3rd place at Nationals, he wrote “It is official. I do not travel well.” Page flew from Europe to Oregon a couple of days before the race, and while 3rd is nothing to sneeze at, I’m guessing the former World silver medalist might have been wearing stars and stripes if the Atlantic Ocean wasn’t so big. That got me thinking about the ways in which travel in general, and jet lag in particular can screw up athletic performance. I did my research, was about to submit this blog for your reading pleasure, and Boom! page B1 (contd. B10) of the January 7 NY Times had two articles on drugs for jet lag. I sulked for a while, but I’m over that now. Besides, my article was better, so here goes.

Travel, especially lengthy air travel can detract from an athlete’s performance in a number of ways. Some of these are obvious. For example, travel days often are enforced “rest days” from training, but they are anything but restful. Walking long distances in airports, lugging heavy bags around, sitting scrunched in a seat while your circulation is impaired are not conducive to muscle recovery. Compression garments like Skinz or 2XU can help and should be part of any athlete’s travel wardrobe. Food options during travel can also be suboptimal. Then there is the dehydration factor. Airplane air usually has a humidity level of about 10 or 20%, much lower than usual indoor humidity of 30 to 65%. Dry air can make you more susceptible to catching a cold, and dehydration itself can lead to fatigue. One rule of thumb is to drink eight ounces of water for every hour in the air. (Unlike during training, when you need to replace lost water as well as electrolytes, in a plane’s dry environment, water is all you are losing.)

A more subtle physiological effect of airplane travel has to do with altitude. Commercial planes routinely fly between 30,000 and 40,000 feet above sea level, and cabins are pressurized to make those altitudes survivable. The cabins are not, however, pressurized to match sea level. Instead, airplane cabin air is typically maintained between approximately 5,000 and 9,000 feet above sea level. At 5,000 feet, there is 17% less oxygen in the air than at sea level. At 9,000 feet, that drops to less than 25%. Those oxygen levels are not enough to cause altitude sickness, but definitely have consequences relating to recovery.

So it’s no surprise if after a big day of travel you feel worn out. The double whammy occurs when, like J. Page, you cross a bunch of time zones and mess up your circadian rhythms. Circadian rhythms are variations in physiologic characteristics that recur every 24 hours. Hormone levels within the body rise and fall over the course of each day in a predictable fashion. A number of scientific experiments have looked at peak physiologic performance and circadian rhythms. They have found that flexibility, muscle strength, and short term power output vary as a group throughout the day, but peak in the early evening. Other studies have shown that the steroid hormone cortisol, which the body produces to counteract stress, plummets late at night. Crossing multiple time zones, in addition to simply screwing up your sleep schedule, also screws up your body’s hormone schedule. So instead of racing when your body is primed, you might be trying to go hard when your body’s stress response system is literally asleep. In one Australian study, athletes who traveled to Canada had morning cortisol levels 67% lower than athletes who did not travel.

It takes a while for your body to adjust to a new time zone, and not surprisingly, athletic performance is diminished while your body is doing the adjusting. A German study measured perfomance and hormone levels in athletes who traveled either 6 time zones westward, or 8 time zones eastward. They found that jet lag symptoms, including decreased cortisol levels, body temperature, and physiologic performance, lasted for 5-6 days for westbound travel and 7 days for eastbound travel. Training performance was worst in the first four days after westbound travel.

How can one avoid the jet lag blues? There are few options and none is perfect. One strategy involves beginning to adjust your sleep schedule before you travel. This involves waking up early (or going to sleep late) depending on which direction you are traveling, and exposing yourself to bright light from the sun or a light box at your targeted wakeup time. Light and dark cycles are one of the main determinants of circadian rhythms. Melatonin has also been used to help with jet lag symptoms. It is a naturally occurring hormone that is released mostly at night in the dark. Taking melatonin at bedtime can improve sleep in jet-lagged individuals. Whether it can help make up for the performance deficits associated with jet lag is unknown. Stimulants, such as caffeine can make one feel more awake, but again, a cup of coffee probably isn’t enough to overcome the hormonal effect of trying to race in the middle of the night. There are other stimulants, such as Provigil and Nuvigil which are now being marketed for jet lag symptoms. Their stimulant effect, however, has placed them on the banned substance list, and over the past several years a number of athletes have been busted for Provigil use.

Bottom line, then, is that travel can have huge negative influences on performance capability. Especially when travelling across multiple time zones, athletes need to recognize that it probably will take 5 or more days of adjustment until they can perform at their best. (It also never hurts to have a Sherpa to carry your bike everywhere.) Looking forward to seeing how an un-jetlagged Page does at Worlds…

Regardless of whether you are ready or not, the Washington State road racing season is rapidly approaching (about two months away!). At this point, you’re probably well underway with your training for the 2010 season. Putting in the miles and the intervals now are important to your success this upcoming season, but besides the physical aspects of cycling, mental preparation is equally important. Have you spent any time thinking about the mental side of the sport and the training you could be doing now to help set you up for your best season yet? It’s easy to neglect, but spending some time thinking about preparing your mind can make the difference between cracking under pressure and having a great season.

For many people, early season races come with big expectations. During all these cold, wet winter months of training, you have probably been getting really excited to race and anxious to see where your hard work has gotten you. With all that build up, it’s easy to show up to the race and be completely nervous about what the outcome will be. All those nerves, and the expectation you have placed on yourself to perform is a huge waste of energy, and can negatively impact your performance. Putting so much focus into a result you want to get can be a frustrating and disappointing habit. On the results end of things, there are WAY more losers in cycling than winners. Some people rarely win. Does that make them a bad cyclist? Not by any means. Part of what is so exciting about bike racing is that there are many things that have to come together to have a great race, and many outside influences that can impact your result. Focus your energy on having the best race possible and those results will come.

Last year at the first of the Mason Lake races, I was pretty pumped to get some early season results. I was riding well throughout the race, and was in several moves. None of those moves stuck, but with a couple miles to go, I knew it was going to come down to a sprint (even better for me!) so I started to get pretty excited about how I could win the race. Well, that excitement led to me starting my sprint way, way too early when someone else went and finished with being passed by a couple girls. I was focusing so much on winning and worrying about someone else, that I didn’t really think about how I could do best. The next week, I was much more relaxed, and instead of worrying about when someone else would make a move in the last couple of miles of the race, I was planning when I would make MY move to start the sprint. Unfortunately, I flatted with less than 1K to go and wasn’t able to contest the sprint. Lame, but the fact that the rest of the race had gone well for me up to that point, and that I had been setting myself up to do well helped alleviate some of my frustration. I had controlled as much as I could about my race, and that is much better than hanging on and worrying about things that you can’t control, or basing your race off of someone else.

A few things to get you thinking:

1. Confidence. If you aren’t confident in yourself, it is really hard to do well. Sometimes you have to convince yourself that you’re confident, and that in turn helps you to perform better and develop that confidence for the future. On the other hand, overconfidence is super lame, and can be detrimental too, so walk that fine line.
2. Set goals. Make sure to be specific, set a timeline, and have some way to measure your success. Realistic expectations are important (otherwise, you’re setting yourself up for failure) but don’t be too conservative.
3. You get more of what you think about. While doing intervals, if you’re constantly thinking about how hard it is, you’re probably just going to be hanging on to the end. If you think about how strong they are making you, you’re more likely to attack the interval. Which is going to be a higher quality effort?
4. Take control. Focus on things you can control in your preparation and racing. ( Have you been good about taking care of yourself off the bike?!). Don’t spend an entire race sitting in and waiting for someone else to do something, take control of your own race!
5. Figure out what is the best level of nerves for your success. If you’ve ever taken a psychology class, you’ve probably seen the standard curve showing the relationship between arousal (stress) and performance. For most people, a certain level of stress helps them perform better. From experience, I know that if I’m not nervous at all, that I probably won’t do well, because it usually means that I’m not invested in the race- but when I get too nervous or start to put a lot of pressure on myself, things go to hell. It helps me to avoid thinking about the race until close to the start time; otherwise I have too much time to get worked up. TH says he does best when he is mad, and Richter says he does better if he is relatively calm. Figure out where you need to be, and how you can help yourself reach that perfect level. For some people, being quiet and listening to music can help them keep nerves from getting in the way, but for others being distracted by conversation helps.
6. Rituals can be calming, but be careful that you don’t become too attached to that certain pre-race meal or a pair of lucky socks. Flexibility when things happen that make it so you can’t follow your normal routine can make your experience go much more smoothly and set you up for a better race.

My favorite Yogi Berra quote sums up the importance of mental training in sport “Baseball is ninety percent mental and the other half is physical.” Think about it.

Cadence; the measure or beat of movement. Cadence is usually referred to as a balanced, rhythmic flow. But what about the cadence a quarterback shouts-out to his offense? Does it sound balanced or rhythmic? It may sound random and without pattern to the defense. But to the quarterback’s offense it sounds perfectly sound and predictable. Cadence in the bike world refers to the number of crankset (or pedal) revolutions per minute.
I hear the question, “what should my cadence be?” a lot. If I give you a solid number, I probably know you pretty well. Because an ideal cadence for a workout can vary from rider to rider. It even varies within the rider. For example, rider X may be most affective rolling in the peloton at a higher cadence than most, say 100. But when climbing, rider X may be best at a little lower cadence than his/her counterparts, say 60. And another rider may be the opposite. Remember Lance Armstrong spinning a light gear up the French Alps, while Jan Ulrich grinned-out an enormous gear with, for the most part, the same result? Two different riders with different takes on cadence.
The cadence metric is an average of what goes on within a single pedal stroke. So, what goes on in a single pedal stroke? A lot. It is anything but average. When you talk about average cadence for a ride it’s like talking about how your year was. A pedal stroke is like a day and a series of days make up a year (average cadence.) Some studies talk about how a rider does not pull up at all on the backside of the pedal stroke. They say it is your opposite pedal pushing down that pushes up the “weak” side. If that is true riding Powercranks would be impossible. But what is happening, for sure, is uneven pressure within the pedal stroke. The actual speed of the pedal stroke changes throughout the orbit. So that brings-in another factor, momentum. And, yet another factor, the resistance of your “weak” leg. Yes, getting out of the way of yourself is a factor. These are just a few factors going on, and it’s happening in milliseconds. What happens when you move on the saddle, stand, sprint? One thing that happens is a change in your cadence. What about cadence on a fixed-gear? Big-time change.
I’m working on a comprehensive report on cadence, so stay tuned for an in-depth report on all of the things I touched on. But until then, go outside of your comfort zone and try some different cadence drills…do some big-gear action and some serious extended spinning.

-Rocket

Last week I took what has become my annual trip to Tucson, Az. to ride in the 109 mile El Tour de Tucson. If you don’t know, El tour attracts close to 8,000 riders every year, riders of all abilities, who flock to the mild/warm temps of Tucson each year to try and best their time from the year or years past or more simply, just finish the ride. It’s not a race, though the event does attract a lot of top end riders who are just getting their engines warmed up again after a long road season. But I would say that for many, El Tour is very much a race. At the end of the day, when you have thousands of people trying to get from point A to point B in the fastest time possible, it’s racing. There is no prize money at stake, only pride and goal for many of the experienced riders is to finish the 109 mile trek in under 5 hours. If you make it in under 5, you are considered “Platinum” and that will allow you to start near the front of the group the next year, just behind the VIP’s – which can really make a difference if you are trying to get out of town in the front group. This was my 5th El tour and by FAR the most fulfilling. This post may get longwinded but the fact of the matter is that there were many levels to this years’ adventure and all of them went into making the trip into a lifelong memory.

Quick TH El tour history: I did my first El tour in 1992, the first year I traveled to Tucson to train during the Winter months. I was living in a studio apartment near campus with 2 of my teammates at the time from Iowa City. Our rent was 500.00 a month and I remember not really being able to afford even my share and having to be very creative when it came to being able to eat. I road El tour on a local team- Health Horizons I think it was. I did the event again a few years later and then I quit the sport for few years. I never “won” but I did finish 7th? Once.

For the past three years, a good friend, DB, has been renting the house at the Tucson Inn for the weekend of El tour and has invited me to come down and be a part of his riding tribe. Who could say no to warm weather riding when the weather in Seattle has turned to Winter weather? Another gent, Chuck D, has also been a part of this tribe for the past three years but has been coming down to do El tour for five, maybe six years. He and DB, have been close friends for more than 20 years. My role during the riding portion of the weekend has been and was again this year “wing man to Chuck D”, a role I totally embrace and one that I take very seriously and it’s what this entry is about.

This year we had 5 in the house. I shared a bedroom with Richter and M. Sayers. DR and I showed up first and claimed the beds, Sayers was stuck on a roll-a-way! Both Richter and Mike are close friends and make the weekend that much more fun and have been with the tribe for 2 or the last 3 trips down (we already have the house reserved for 2010). DR and I work together, race together and plot to take over the cycling industry together and Mike and I were teammates years ago and have continued on as friends after the fact. It’s always nice to be able to meet up with him in Tucson, he used to live there and it’s actually where I got to know him. Mike has a really exciting year coming up in 2010 as an assistant DS for the new and improved BMC racing team- but that is another story altogether. The three of us had a great time sharing a room, it was ALMOST like being back on the road racing…… but not really. D Potts was in the living room on the couch and DB and Chuck D shared the other room. The house makes the trip really relaxing as we aren’t crammed into hotel rooms. There’s plenty of room to build and store bikes outside in the big spread of a yard. There’s plenty of living space and a pool and a swanky bar just across the road. PRO. We arrived on Thursday late day and departed on Sunday mid- afternoon. The ride started at 7 am on Saturday and the entire Tribe made it in under 5 hours. Sayers was 3rd overall and Richter was close behind.

Those are the basics, one level of the weekend. The next level is all about my 109 mile day with Chuck D.

Chuck D is 60. He’s NOT an old guy but certainly his age does not qualify him as a “young guy”. He’s been racing his bike for close to 10 years now but has been an athlete his entire life, hence his looking NOT 60. Hopefully I am not offending any of the “older” guys reading this….. Chuck D does not come to Tucson year after year to win El tour, he comes down to best his best time. His bonus goal this year as we discussed on the flight down was not only to come in under 5 (we JUST missed it last year due to a mechanical) but to be top 3 in his age category: riders over 60, he just made it in to the top 5 last year. The key to a fast time at El tour is to get oneself into a group that moves along smoothly and of course quickly. There are 8000 riders, 700 or so of who are pretty fast and ending up in a group from 25-100 that books it along at 22-35 mph depending on the terrain helps to insure a time under 5 hours. Jumping form group to group is the way to go if you can make that happen but you might also get caught out in no man’s land and end up losing big time- that happened to us last year due to that mechanical. We had a great start this year.

Chuck Dee has been preparing specifically for this event for the past 4 months and showed up in his best form he’s ahd since I have knows him. He’s a somewhat nervous gent due to his close attention to details but that is part of what makes him Chuck D. He has triplet sons who all started college this year so he’s been pre-occupied to say the least for the last month or so. I knew this ahead of time which made scheduling training rides that much easier. In the last month I sprinkled in a few long days and plenty of shorter intense rides to have him ready for the start of the big ride – which is very chaotic and very critical to getting established in a group. He followed the training protocols to a T. We did 4 hard training rides where I put Chuck Dee into the box early and forced him to ride himself sideways- as there are times in El tour where that is the reality when you are going for a PR, and I believe that those sessions really paid off during the last 10 miles of this years’ event. Chuck D got into the box with 10 miles to go and the wheels started coming off the bus. What I would call “one mans journey to the deepest and darkest corners of his on personal pain cave” ended up not only being that man’s best time ever at El Tour, but also a confirmation of spirit, a game changer on a spiritual level if I may say so- and I just did.

I met up with Chick Dee about 20 secs after the start gun went off and from there he glued himself to my rear wheel as we made our way towards the front group of about 300-500 (a lot of people). At one point we were literally 5 riders back from the front but I thought it would be wise to save as much ammo for later in the ride as there were plenty of fast younger guys (and CERTAINLY older guys too) stomping on the front. After the first wash things were looking good as we settled into a solid group of about 50 riders. Chuck D was in a good rhythm and I kept on his to keep drinking and to keep moving towards the front of the group as riders were coming un glued as the miles ticked off. We had a few close calls where gaps in the group started opening up and we were not on the right side of the opening. Some “strong encouragement” on my part was put into play and we clawed back in but for the most part is was smooth going. I almost took myself out a few times as I had to go the bathroom badly on three different occasions. I used my “off the bike” skills to my advantage but ended up having to chase back onto the group, a few times way harder than I would have liked. Details. My engine is down a few cylinders since my first El tour ride.

Things went pear shaped with 10 miles to go. I had gone to the front of our group to encourage riders to ride steady instead of taking short hard pulls and blowing themselves up. I ended up staying for about 10 minutes, trying to establish the “steady” and realized that it was not going to happen and that just riding it in would be good enough- we were on course for a sub 4:40 ride, over 24 mins faster than the year before and that would certainly be enough to get Chuck D to one of the top spots in his age group. But I had left Chuck D to fend for himself when I rolled to the front and when I went back he was no longer in the group. Red Flag. My bad.

I slowed up and watched the group disappear up the road and about 20-30 seconds later, Chuck D rolled up on me. I saw him coming up and he was not moving as fast as he was earlier in the day and I will admit to looking down at my watch and thinking that we might not make it in under 5 hours – 10 miles can be a looooong way when the lights have started flickering. When we connected I urged him to drink and reminded him off those rides we did back in Seattle where he suffered as much as he said he ever had a on a bike and we forged on. Those last few miles seemed like an eternity. We were rolling as fast as Chuck D could go and we will still making good time. I kept thinking that another group would roll up on us and carry us to the line but that group never came. With a mile to go, Chuck D was starting to look like a man that might not be able to ride for another mile but I continued to cheer for him and reminded him of how close we were and that he had in fact bested his best time by a LONG way. His head started drifting to one side and he mentioned that he might pass out – we were within 250 meters of the line and I was hoping that he would NOT pass out. We crossed the line, he stopped, hunched over his bike and did not move for a few minutes- he assured me that he was “alright”. Amazing. We did it!

When the times came out over the internet later that evening we learned that not only had Chuck D ridden the best time he ever had, but also that he had placed 2nd in his age group behind cycling legend, John Howard. John Howard, aside from winning many national road championships, also won that first Iron Man Triathlon in Kona and set a land speed record on a bicycle. Bottom line, besting John Howard would be a tall order for any man over 30! BUT, having a goal is important and by nights end I believe that Chuck D had his sights set on John for 2010- a few cocktails will do that. We should probably start preparing now.

Being a part of Chuck D’s triumph was a big high for me. Not just because he rode his best time but because he was able to dig as deep as I have ever seen a bike rider dig to complete a ride and knowing that I had a part in that experience was incredibly satisfying for me. I’m already planning for 2010.

Best,
TH

There are a number of ways to judge the intensity of a ride, with heart rate, power, and perceived exertion being the most common. Unfortunately, a lot of riders learn to ride and race using wattage as their main metric, and never learn how to tell how they feel by perceived exertion.

Power meters are great. They give riders all kinds of useful data about training and racing, and help their coach design training to prepare the rider for actual race conditions. Power meters are especially useful for measuring work done and setting intensity goals to hit during mid to short duration interval sessions. I thoroughly believe that when used properly, wattage can be a great tool.

A strength of measuring wattage is that a watt is a set intensity all the time, every day. What must be understood is that consistent wattage reading doesn’t necessarily mean that a certain wattage always gives the same training stimulus. Consider this – on a normal day, a rider may be able to ride a steady 250 watts fairly comfortably, burning mostly fat, and this may be considered a mid-Z2 endurance ride. On another day, after a strenuous training session, maintaining 250 watts may be uncomfortable, heart rate is elevated, the rider uses far more carbohydrate to produce the wattage, and the intensity is quite difficult near the end of the ride. It’s clear that the 250 watts is causing a far different training stimulus than on the day prior. Does this mean that the 250 watt ride is still training the basic endurance systems, or is it a higher intensity tempo ride? This is a limiter of using only wattage.

The rider using wattage with heart rate would see that their heart rate is elevated for 250 watts, recognize they are riding at too high of an intensity for an endurance ride, and adjust their effort accordingly to reach the desired training stimulus. They will continue the ride at a lower wattage, but will be at the correct physiological training stimulus – the main goal of the ride in the first place!

We tend to emphasize power meters because they are new and interesting, but it’s important not to forget about the basics of heart rate and perceived exertion. Heart rate being one indicator of physiological function, and perceived exertion is to sum up how the body is feeling at a given moment. If the battery on your PowerTap is out, you should still be able to get out for a quality ride!

Consider top level professionals at the 2009 Time Trial World Championships. Three of the top ten riders had a power meter on their bikes. If there were ever a situation to use a power meter for pacing, it would be in a time trial. If it were truly the most important metric, then it would be on every bike in the field and riders would check the numbers repeatedly throughout the race. These riders are great not because they know their wattage, but because they are excellent at pacing themselves based on perceived exertion.

Remember – power meters are a great tool, but don’t live and die by the numbers. If you haven’t in a while, try a few rides without the power meter and get a feel for your body, the most important part of all.

Flash

From the desk of Dr. Aaron Levin, HSP medical consultant:

No, DHEA won’t give you a buzz. But there has been lots of talk about DHEA as a performance enhancing drug lately, so I thought I’d break it down from a medical/sports perspective.

The National Library of Medicine and the NIH describe DHEA as a hormone made naturally in the adrenal gland. It serves as a precursor to male and female sex hormones (androgens and estrogens). That means that DHEA gets modified in the body to form testosterone, among other things. A fair number of studies have been done looking at DHEA’s utility for a variety of medical conditions. So far, it has been shown to be useful for the treatment of adrenal insufficiency, depression (Tyler Hamilton?), induction of labor, and systemic lupus erythematosus. Mind you, DHEA isn’t the first or best treatment option for those conditions. It’s just that there is reasonable evidence that it works to some degree. Interestingly, when it comes to enhancing muscle strength, the NIH gives DHEA a “D” grade, stating, “…there is fair scientific evidence against this use. Many study results in this area conflict but overall the current available evidence in this area is negative. Further research is needed before firm conclusions can be drawn.”

So why would any athlete take DHEA? That’s a tough question. One reason might be for its ultimate conversion in the body to testosterone, and for the performance gains that extra testosterone might yield. There are a few problems with that logic, however. First, DHEA in doses commonly found in over-the-counter supplements does not increase testosterone that much. And the testosterone that is formed, is quickly broken down into a different hormone which promotes prostate growth. Instead of DHEA leading to the increased lean body muscle mass and improved recovery linked to testosterone, it may just lead to an increased risk for prostate hypertrophy, or even prostate cancer. In, 2004, a randomized, double blind study out of UCLA looked at medium and high doses of DHEA in men aged 18-44. They found no increase in circulating testosterone. Instead, they found that taking DHEA increased the circulating blood level of DHEA and ADG—a growth factor for the prostate—but not testosterone. In another study from UC San Diego, researchers found that DHEA can raise testosterone levels, but only in women! In this study a group of men and women got DHEA supplements daily for six months. Testosterone levels doubled for women, but were unchanged in men.

So to ask the question more specifically, why would any male athlete take DHEA? Based on the science, there is certainly no good reason to think that it enhances performance in any significant manner. It may even be harmful. One clue to why someone might take DHEA, (or claim to have taken DHEA,) however, comes not from a scientific journal, but from the LA Times Sports Page. Manny Ramirez, the Dodger’s slugger from Washington Heights, NY (once on a ride I saw 5 dudes carrying baseball bats there, but no one had a mitt or a ball…but I digress) claimed to have taken DHEA when he got busted for doping. He explained that the DHEA he took innocently in a supplement caused him to have an elevated testosterone level, and thus explained his positive test. WADA called that bluff. One, DHEA won’t elevate testosterone to a level which will cause a positive testosterone test. Two, special carbon isotope drug tests can quantify the amount of natural DHEA and testosterone compared to synthetic DHEA or testosterone. And Manny was taking synthetic testosterone. Manny’s not the only one with the DHEA supplement excuse. Rashard Lewis, former Sonic, now playing for Orlando tested positive for elevated testosterone and also blamed a nutritional smoothie supplement he was taking to combat fatigue. Uh huh.

Bottom line. If you are tired, sleep. Don’t take DHEA. And the benefits of testosterone doping, (no matter how you justify it,) can also be achieved with solid training and coaching.

I like training. I’m good at it. I like the structure and the challenges of each workout and I’m really good at following through on whatever workout I have prescribed. Something I am not good at is looking after all the details that help make that training successful. I’m sure you’ve heard by now the saying “training makes you worse, recovery makes you better.” Well, one of my biggest goals for this coming year is to pay more attention to the details of recovery.

In cycling, races come down to photo finishes, and on the track in particular, races are won and lost by thousandths of a second. Thousandths of a second! That is such a small margin of error, why wouldn’t you pay equally as much attention to all aspects of your training and recovery? This hit especially close to home for me this year at track nationals when 4/100s of a second kept me out of the sprint tournament, maybe I should have closed my mouth?!

This year, I want to give myself every advantage possible, and make the most out of my training by putting more focus into the details.

Details I’m working on:

1. Sleep. For me, having a regular sleep schedule is key. My body gets out of wack if I go to bed at different times every night. So, goal 1, bedtime at 7pm every night. Well, maybe not quite that early…
2. Protein. This is a HUGE one for me, as I definitely do not get enough protein in my diet. This leads to my muscles being really sore after hard training, and makes it more difficult to recover for the next workout. Current research suggests that athletes get between 1.5-2.0 grams of protein for every kilogram of body weight. For me, that means I need to add a protein powder supplement to my diet (in the form of a delicious smoothie!). Hammer makes two great protein powders- Soy or Whey– both with their own benefits (soy has proven to benefit the cardiovascular system and whey is rapidly absorbed and helps rebuild lean muscle). Check out this article to learn a bit more.

3. Post ride recovery. I’m sure you’ve heard the value of getting food into your system soon after a hard workout or race. You have about a 20 minute window to help get your recovery jumpstarted in the right direction. For some people, a solid meal that soon after a hard effort can be hard to stomach- my favorite is Subtle Strawberry Recoverite. Something I neglect is getting real food in my system shortly after that. It can be the difference between feeling good and feeling terrible- so I’m going to work on getting a good solid meal in after hard efforts.
4. Bike maintenance. I am notoriously pretty bad about this. I totally forget to pay any attention to my bike until something is wrong. That is pretty dumb, and I’m working on doing things like checking the condition of my chain (much less expensive to replace a worn out chain than the whole drive train!), checking my tires for wear (before flatting 5 times in a row!). Changing your bar tape before it looks ragged and dirty is a good plan too.
5. Wearing my compression tights. I’ll admit, I was a little skeptical about them when everyone first started wearing them- but when I slid into my first pair, I was sold. They just make your legs feel so good! HSP carries two brands, 2XU and Skins – and I have one pair of each. If you are traveling or on your feet all day, they make your legs feel much fresher. Since we keep the gym cold for people working out, they also add an extra layer of warmth for me when I’m sitting behind the desk. If you’re not ready to take the plunge for full tights- check out the socks!
6. Taking care of my health. If your body is run down, you’re more likely to pick up a cold that can leave you feeling run down. Usually, once a year I get some kind of strep throat or cold that leaves me down for the count. This year, I really don’t want that to happen. I’m popping the C’s (Vitamin C, that is) and taking a multi-vitamin every day, and making sure to stay well hydrated. I’m also taking a fish oil capsule as a means to help reduce inflammation. The Carlson Norwegian Salmon Oil that we carry is great because it only has Omega 3. Our bodies need both Omega 3 and 6 and a lot of fish oil capsules have both in them, which isn’t bad, but Omega 6 is more commonly found in your daily diet and has actually been shown to make it more difficult to absorb the Omega 3. Without the Omega 6, it is easier to absorb the benefits of Omega 3 (including: prolonged endurance, anti-inflammatory properties and cardiovascular benefits).
7. Stretching. I’m lazy about stretching. When I’m in the gym, I’m usually pretty good about stretching or using theTrigger Point tools to help loosen me up- but after rides, I slack. I know for a fact that it makes a difference in how my body feels, and I am going to work to make sure it is a part of my daily routine. The Trigger Point tools are awesome, because how often do you have someone willing to give you a massage after every workout? This way you can do it yourself.

There are many other details you can pay attention to, and each detail is important. The off-season is the perfect time to improve upon good habits and make even better ones. What details do you overlook?