December 4-

Whole Foods.

A weekly shopping spree at Whole Foods!!   Mmmmmm.  Athletes need good, whole, nutrition.

Athletes' Performance.
A week (or 52) of training/evaluation/guidance at Athletes' Performance.  These guys help me create a super strong, powerful, functional body that is capable of doing anything i ask of it, all season long!!  AND/OR Core Performance Endurance book and recently available DVD featuring Mark Verstegen and myself!  If I can't make it to the facility, i'm utilizing the book, DVD and online workouts/videos to keep me rollin'!
 

Specialized S-Works Epic.
My first mountain bike!  It's about time.  XTERRA is calling my name, and there's no other dual suspension MTB to have!

 
CycleOps Wireless PowerTap.
What gets measured gets improved.  I want more power AND to know when I've got the power!
 
Honorable mention:

TRX

Kinesys Sunscreen.   TP Quadballer .

Everything Garmin.

We do our best to be fair and objective when we write a review or recommend a product, but when it comes to Garmin and their goodies, it’s hard not to get giddy!

Let’s start with The Forerunner 305 . 

After putting the Forerunner 305 through it’s paces, which includes the GPS to monitor your speed, distance and other cool stuff.  The 305 also has a heart rate monitor, cadience sensor and as an added benefit, you can plan, analyze and store data from your workouts using free Garmin Training Center® software, which lets you analyze data with interactive graphs that chart your pace, time, distance and heart rate. Overlay your run on a map so you can pinpoint specific areas and see how elevation and other factors affect your performance. Or, upload your workout data to MotionBased.com, Garmin's web-based application that provides in-depth analysis of your workouts, online mapping and route sharing that will take your training to the next level.

If you are into feedback and monitoring your workouts, the Forerunner 305 is a great gift for you.

Don’t just stop with your training, because the Garmin Street Pilot GPS for you car is the gadget guy/gals gadget. You can use the blue tooth function to talk on the phone, load up MP3’s to listen to music, avoid traffic, get the weather forecast, get movie times, find cheap gas and did we mention you can use it as a GPS for directions.

It may not make you faster, but it will make getting to your rides, runs and races a lot more fun.

Great Workouts, Great Lessons, Great Book! 

I have been holding onto The Overachiever’s Diary for a few months now, planning on writing a long, detailed review about this new book by Army coach Louis Tharp, but instead I have decided to follow Tharp’s example, and keep it simple.

This is a great book. 

Tharp is a student and friend of swimming guru Terry Laughlin (Total Immersion) like the TI series, Tharp has managed to make the most nerve wrecking part of our sport humane, easy to understand and fun.

The title is a little is little deceiving, it’s not the diary of Tharp, but the training diary and notes that he made for his athletes while they were training.  Reading The Overachiever’s Diary made me wish that Tharp was my coach, besides providing you with great swim workouts, his explanations as to why you are doing these workouts, what to think while doing these workouts and various other facts are priceless.

If you don’t come from a swimming background and are like a majority of the swimmers in the sport, you have questions.  Questions about drills, equipment, terminology and more.  Tharpe does a great job of answering any possible question you may have and does it in a way that is easy to understand and follow.

The workouts are great, the lessons motivating, the book is worth the time.  You can click on the cover art or the name of the book to find out how to get your own copy.

Here is an excerpt from The Overachievers Diary for you to enjoy.

You would think that shop owners have access to any product they want, but even they have holiday wish lists.

We asked the experts from around the country to share what they want with you.  Every picture and product name has a link back to the web site where you can learn more about these goodies and possibly get somehting for someone special.

Here's today's list from the owner of SBR in New York, Christophe Vandaele.

After taken a two year break of long course triathlon I’m looking forward again to racing long.

Here are my wish list products.
 
Vasa Ergo Swim Trainer: The best way to go under an hour on the 2.4m swim

Great Gift-November 29, 2007

Sometimes you look for an answer, but you don’t really find it.

Sometimes the answer you get was not what you were hoping for.

Sometimes you find an answer you were not looking for. People often call that a surprise. Recently I found a very nice surprise.

As a licensed coach with USA Cycling and Carmichael Training Systems my job is to give athletes good training advice. As a licensed USA Cycling mechanic I am expected to give people good mechanical advice. As an athlete myself, I am always looking into anything that will help me. Finally, as a bike shop owner customers expect me to give them good product advice. All this means doing a lot of homework.

I continue to study in all these areas and more so I can do those jobs well. However, even when looking for answers, I still run into the occasional surprise. The latest surprise came when I was asked to test and review the new Neo Pro crank set and bottom bracket from the folks at Full Speed Ahead.  

I was eager to take on the task, there has been a lot of buzz about the Neo Pro since Fabian Cancellara won the World Time Trial Championshpis riding on the Neo Pro, but as a shop owner I know that “buzz” and fact can be two separate things.  I was about to find out.

This is what they say about the Neo Pro on the Full Speed Ahead web site:

As the year comes to a close we wanted to wish everyone around the world the happiest of holidays and a great new year!

We are winding down our lists and taking a break until the first of the year, but when we come back, we will reveal our Athlete of the Year and our Product of the Year.

You're going to want to know about both, so don't go to far.

It has been a great year, Thank You, Gracias, Merci, Danka, you get the idea.

If you still need a gift idea, scroll down, we have hundreds to choose from, recommended by your favorite, pros, coaches and friends.

Coaching athletes if nothing else has left me certain of one fact; It is MUCH easier to convince an athlete to ride for 3 hours on their wind trainer in basement without music, OR a TV to watch then it is to get them to take a day off. It is my assumption that 99% of triathletes are a “bit” obsessive compulsive about our sport. This means if we are not training, we are going crazy. Honestly, most of us,  including your coaches’ feel your pain.
    

Sometimes it’s helpful for me to consider time off as a form of training. It might seem like a stretch, but it’s true. Scheduled rest is part of your Annual Training Plan (ATP). It is there for a specific reason, to help you elevate your fitness for the up coming year. Most of you have heard from your coach, or fellow athletes that if you do not allow for rest, you will never get faster. This is true on a physical, as well as mental level.

Anyone that has ever done a hard workout, a 5k, a hard weight lifting session, or a triathlon for example feels less in shape when they are finished with that event then the moment before they started. I have never had an athlete after a track workout that felt they were running faster after the workout, then before they started. It is not until you allow your body to recover that you feel the benefits of that workout. The same is true for your annual training. You have got to allow time for physical recovery from the previous season before you can start to build up for the next season. This may even require that you get a little out of shape before you start to achieve better fitness.

Novebmer 26, 2007 

Today I decided that I haven't been doing enough with the forgotten strokes of fly, back and breast.  So, I designed this workout and I really beat myself up.  I had no idea how out of shape I had become since not swimming with a masters team for so long.  Anyway, long story short, here is a workout that incorporates all 4 strokes.  For the fly, you can substitute free.  I could only make it about 3/4 of the way down the pool and then I would switch to free.  I really feel that practicing all 4 strokes really enhances the free stroke for triathlon and is great for swim cross training.
 
BEGINNER:
200 warm up
150 kick
100 pull
50 easy
2 x 50 fly (15-30 seconds rest between each depending on what swim shape you are in!)
2 x 50 back (15-30 sec rest btwn each)
2 x 50 breast (15-30 sec rest btwn each)
2 x 50 free (15-30 sec rest btwn each)
100 cool down
Total:  1000 yards