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It may not seem like it, but 2007 is just around the
corner! We are looking forward to taking a giant step
forward next year with a variety of new offerings for
our athletes and friends.
First up will be our Time Trial Camp in February
(dates TBD). This camp will take place in San Diego,
CA and will include a full session for each rider in the
Low Speed Wind Tunnel! That's right, get your time
trial position dialed to perfection with an hour of wind
tunnel time. You'll get feedback on a variety of
postions and equipment choices that will help you
maximize your speed. In addition we'll have a rental
condo complete with top-notch meals and hopefully
a suprise guest or two. Keep checking the website
for details and sign up information. This camp is
expected to be limited to 6 riders.
Mini Camps - next year we are offering a great
opportunity for you and a small group of friends or
teammates to enjoy 2.5 days of cycling focused fun.
Our mini camps include performance testing, team
and individual planning sessions, and several high
quality training rides. Locations and dates are flexible
but most will likely be held here in Nor Cal to help
keep attendance costs down
Masters World Championships - Each August in St
Tirol, Austria the UCI holds an officially sanctioned
World Championships for athletes over 30 years of
age. In 2007 we are planning to take 10 participants
for 10 - 14 days of fun racing and fun on the
continent. Itinerary includes 2 - 4 races, including
the World Road Race and Time Trial championships.
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The twisting roots of Mt Snow are notorious for their
ability to discourage, dissuade and destroy riders
who feel themselves up to the task. Proof of that
came this past June when our own Brent Carkeet
made the long trek to Mt Snow to see how he
stacked up against the best from the east coast.
The short answer is that they were fast, the course
was hard and Brent C got an eye opener of what
east coast technical riding means.
Fast forward six weeks to the NORBA National
Championships event in Sonoma and you can see
that good riders put bad results behind them, focus
on the training, and reap the rewards for their hard
work. In the Expert 25-29 National Championship
Cross Country Brent rallied to a tremendous THIRD
place finish! Tremendous effort....to stay focused on
the long term goal (nationals) and do the work
necessary to hit his top mark for the season,
awesome! That's why Brent Carkeet is our athlete of
the month for July!
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You've done the time. You put in all the miles,
intervals, and recovery to fully prepare for your top
events of the season. Now they are just a couple of
weeks away and it's time to refine those last few
workouts so you arrive at the event rested, ready,
and eager! Peaking is the process of allowing your
body to adequately recover from previous weeks of
training while still retaining the top end capacity that
will allow you to race at your best.
According to those who have done the research the
process of peaking involves a substantial reduction in
total training volume in the days before your event.
Interestingly it has been shown that while the total
volume of training should be cut by approximately
50%, the total volume of intensity (usually defined as
Zone 4/Threshold and above) should remain the same
or only slightly lower. In real world terms that means
getting rid of the longer endurance type workouts,
extended warm up/cool down periods, and, with due
consideration, the recovery time between intervals.
As an example let's look at peaking for an important
criterium. Your last long hard workout should be 7 -
10 days beforehand (depending on how hard you
trained the previous 3-4 weeks, harder training =
more recovery). In the last week you should try to
get at least two days of high intensity, short
duration intervals with a day or two rest between.
For example if your race is anticipated to be 60 - 90
minutes long you need only do workouts in that time
frame, but they must be of high quality. Since
criteriums have lots of accelerations and short hard
efforts have your training mimic this for the entire
race duration. On days that aren't intense do a
simple recovery ride to keep the legs open and
supple. Often these workouts can be found on a local
group ride like the Noon ride or the Morning ride. You
should schedule your Rest day to be two days before
the event and have the day before workout be
moderately difficult with several minutes of hard
efforts and a couple of jumps otherwise you may find
that you feel a bit flat on the big day. It is important
to practice this peaking routine to find what works
for you. Don't wait til the day before to try
something new..figure it out ahead of time so you
won't have any additional psychological stress in the
lead up to your main event! Good Luck...
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In May we created an online survey to get an idea of
who you are, what you like and don't like, what we
can do to better serve you. We had a return rate of
approximately 20% (22 respondents on a list of about
110). Thanks to all who took the time to give us your
feedback. Below is a short summary of the survey:
Of the respondents 27% were existing clients, 41%
were members of a Sterling coached team, 31% were
friends of SSG, and 18% were former clients.
Everyone agreed that having a coach is beneficial
(100%) but only 67% of you actually had a coach
presently (58% have had a coach in the past). 26%
thought they would get a coach this year while a
further 30% thought coaching was too expensive
(hey, check out our Pre-Built training plans - 12
weeks for $60!) Email is the most popular form of
communication (86%) followed by in person (73%)
and phone (64%).
The last section of the survey had to do with our
coaching programs and services. 50% ranked our
accessablity as Very good or good. 2 riders (10%)
ranked our accessability as poor - my apologies for a
missed opportunity! 68% ranked our coaching as
Very Good or Good, with, presumably, the same 2
ranking us as poor. The quality of our bike fits,
training clinics/camps, and group rides consistently
scored over 40% in the Very Good/Good category. Of
most interest to me was the scores for Not
Applicable (N/A) with scores of 43% for group rides,
38% for bike fits, and a whopping 70% for camps and
clinics. Clearly we need to do more to get you all into
one of our rides, camps, or clinics! This is especially
true since 64% of you were interested/very
interested in these events, and 61% were
interested/very interested in our Performance
Testing. Keep checking the website for updated Pre
Built training programs too. 65% of you expressed an
interest in these cost-effective offerings so we're
working diligently to get new ones loaded.
Happily 57% think the price point for services is
Good/Very Good while 44% ranked it as neutral or
N/A (no negatives, yay!). if you'd like to review the
entire results of the survey please visit our website
or send me an email and I'll send you the PDF.
Thanks again for your participation
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If you are not currently on a coaching program now is a good time to start (or restart)! We offer a variety of coaching options for athletes at every level. From the ease and simplicity of our pre built training plans to the private training sessions of our Gold and Sterling programs, each one is created with athletes in mind. In addition, If you are a member of one of our sponsored teams you'll enjoy a substantial discount as well. So do something productive for your cycling...Sign up for a Sterling Sports Group Program Today!
Sincerely,
Matt McNamara
Sterling Sports Group
email:
info@sterlingwins.com
phone:
408.891.3462
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