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Featured Athletes
Twitchin’ in the Right Zones!
by CycleOps Power Master Trainer, Charles "Joey" Adams
Are you a slow twitcher, a fast twitcher or do you just twitch when you get on your bike? It comes down to the specificity of how you train and knowing your power zones. Cycling is primarily an aerobic sport. The longer you use and develop your aerobic engine the stronger you will ride, unless you are trying to become a track sprinter. As you take a close look at the physiology of muscle fiber types you discover the keys to zone training and your power zones. In a very simplistic sense the Fast Twitch IIb fibers are your sprint fibers (the Phosphogen or PCr system below), the Fast Twitch IIa fibers are your Anaerobic Glycolysis fibers, and the Slow Twitch fibers are the Aerobic fibers. You can see in the graph below how these fibers might play out in the land of track and field (source ACSM).
Meet Team EvoTri
Team Evotri was founded on the principal of everyday athletes challenging themselves and others to live a healthy and active lifestyle through endurance sports. With the opportunity to train and race with the same equipment and coaching of the pros, they will dedicate themselves to maximizing their potential, to sharing what they learn from their experiences, and to making a positive contribution to the endurance sport community.
Meet the Team
Stu/"Simply Stu" is an avid triathlete who loves to talk about triathlons and sport in general. His goal in life is simple: be a good father, husband, and loyal friend. Stu is married with two children. He has done countless triathlons and 10 marathons for Team In Training in support of his daughter who had Leukemia at 10-months-old.
Among his accolades, Stu is also the personality behind the Simply Stu Triathlon Podcast, which has consistently ranked in the top 100 sports podcasts on iTunes. The show has been featured on iTunes and has been ranked #2 of amateur sports podcasts. He is the team manager for Evotri. Visit Stu's web site.
Real Power Data: Martijn Maaskant's Paris Roubaix
Young Slipstream rider Martijn Maaskant recently took an impressive 4th place at 2008 Paris Roubaix. His racing steed was equipped with Zipp 303 wheels and a PowerTap. CycleOps Power takes a closer look at the difficult race through Maaskant's power file.
Team Slipstream's Paris Roubaix - Behind the Scenes
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Slipstream head mechanic Kevin Grove.
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Sitting in the Slipstream Team hotel the night before Paris Roubaix, CycleOps Power Director of Marketing David Cathcart caught up with Slipstream's Head Wrench Kevin Grove. Kevin reported that the team was feeling pretty good given the combination of the youth and form of Martijn Maaskant, 14th at Flanders, and the health and experience of Magnus Backstedt, 2001 winner. However, as it goes in cycling, there are ups and downs, and no one predicted the unfortunate mechanical that took Maggy out of the race at 165 KM. But the team's inkling about young Martijn Maaskant held true as the rider stepped up to fill his team leader's shoes with a remarkable 4th place finish.
Altitude and Sea Level Trainer Workouts – How do They Compare?
By Kristin Hilger
As athletes, many of us are aware of the various ideas involving altitude training, “live high, train low,” “live low, train high,” acclimatization, measuring performance predictors and actual performances at different elevations. All of these variations and concepts have support from various athletes, scientists and coaches, but not all of the data is consistent and not everyone agrees on the best approach. There is wide individual variability among athletes and their responses to altitude and acclimatization, benefits of altitude training on sea level performance, and ideal timing of performance in relation to the other factors. In my case, I’ve been able to observe improvements in my training rather immediately this year after descending from my home in Boulder, Colorado (elevation is 5430 ft) and driving to California for some work, housesitting, and warm weather training (elevation is approximately 260 ft where I’m staying). I anticipated seeing a nice boost in my power output and work levels and a decrease in heart rate based on racing experiences at sea level in the past. But, I’d never really collected my own data and reviewed it to verify the circumstances for myself. For the first time I’ve been able to collect data at sea level over the last month using my PowerTap, and I can now draw some comparisons.
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